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All my preconceptions went by the
board when I settled down tor a while
with my old regiment, the Thirteenth
Pennsylvania Infantry, at Camp Han
cock, Augusta, Georgia. I had known
the Thirteenth intimately, from ten
years of service as chaplain. When I
laid down my commission* about four
years ago, it was a typical National
Guard regiment, well officered, proud
of its traditions, but always somewhat
ragged about the edges. Our annual
encampments were jolly affairs,
streaked with conviviality - (not to any
excess, as National Guard units then
went), and the serious side of soldier
ing was difficult to sustain. The com
missioned officers were wholesome fel
lows, but civil occupations for fifty
weeks of the year precluded the pos
sibility of focusing much attention up
on their men. '
It so happened that I was with the
regiment on October 17 of this year,
when the higher command’ moved
about seventeen hundred men with
their subalterns over to another regi
ment. The transfer was a heartbreak
ing affair—a mutilation which left the
remaining officers stunned. One ma
jor confessed that he had to go to his
quarters and blubber. I met the cap
tain of the machine gun company and
asked him to take me through his com
many street, as such a regimental unit
had been unknown in my day. At first
he demurred, then reconsidered. “I
might as well go down there now; I’ve
got to do it some time.” The mess hall
was there and the equipment tents and
the storehouse. Beyond those four
tents stood in the street. Then tears
came into captain’s eyes and a lump
in his throat. ‘‘Only twelve men left
out of the company!” he gulped. ‘‘God!
isn’t it awful, after the work I’ve put
into those men for fifteen months!”
Such iS the new spirit of the army.
The officers are brooding over their
Page 10
CAMP HANCOCK
As Seen By Joseph H. Odell, Special Cor
respondent of The Outlook.
Printed by Permission of The Outlook.
MOTHERS, SISTERS. SWEETHEARTS
GOL© EDGES- FITS THE
POCKET
'■ ;■ ' ' /
-
RICHL YBOUND QUICKEST WA Y
IN TEXTILE TO LEARN
LEATHER FRENCH
SPACES UNDATED
You may. start this diary any day—it
never can become out-of-date. Other diar
ies are useless after date specified.
TRENCH AND CAMP
men like a hen over her fluffy chicks.
They know each man intimately, his
eccentricities and idiosyncrasies; they
guard him against his weaknesses and
encourage his virtues; they are as so
licitous about a blister on his foot or a
cavity in a tooth as they used to be
about the rating of the spring inspec
tion of the entire company in tlfe days
of old. The commissioned officers and
even the battalion commander eat from
the same mess as their men. All are
bound together by vital ties, genuinely
human affinities, and the result is a
miracle in morale. That is the great
outstanding future of new armies; if
you have hay any experience in military
life, you feel it the moment you enter
the training camp.
While writing about the old Thir
teenth regiment I may as well make
another startling statement. Although
at war strength, there has not been a
new case of venereal disease discovered
in the six weeks they have been at
Camp Hancock. The statement seems
incredible, so I went to the divisional
surgeon, Colonel W. E. Keller, and ver
ified it with my own eyes on the daily
health reports at headquarters. Such
a thing is almost beyond belief. The
Judge Advocate also told me that in
six weeks there had been only four
cases of “drunk and disorderly” in the
entire division of 27,000 men. Naturally
I wanted to know what lay behind this
almost immaculate condition.
The little city of Augusta is’ only four
miles from the camp, and I determined
to make an investigation. A newspaper
man, writing for a syndicate of papers
in a northern city, helped me consid--
erably. “This is a Sunday school out
fit with a vengance,” he said. “Where
can you get a drink? Why, old man,
you will have to go back home for it!
I’ve been here six weeks,, and I don’t
know where you could get a ‘pony’ to
/5 C One Coupon
. SECURES THE BOOK
save your life. There was a man here
last week who had a bottle in his room,
but he's gone now'. They tell me that
if you make friends with exactly the
right native, and he’s dead sure you're
not a plain-clothes man, he might get
a bottle of rye for you; but it would
cost from six to ten bucks and be dam
ned poor stuff at that! And wo
men? Why, there isn’t a house in town,
and I doubt whether there is a profes
sional in the region. The local author
ities have co-operated with the Fos
dick Commission and cleaned the place
up as I never saw a place cleaned up
before. I don’t mean there’s absolutely
nothing going on. of course. Soldiers
sometimes find what they are looking
for, but it is clandestine and occasional.
There is no commercialized vice.” Fur
ther inquiry about town, interrogations
of hack-drivers and likely loafers, and
a more careful questioning of the mil
iitary police confirmed the .correspond
ent’s statement. I doubt whether any
city near a large military establishment
was ever as clean as Augusta. I found
similar conditions in Spartanburg, S.
C., but that is a much smaller place.
I am now convinced that something
more than the climate determined the
choice of those southern states as the
sites for the majority of our camps
and cantonments. Where liquor is ab
solutely banished from a region, the
moral problems of the military com
manders are reduced almost to the
minimum. And I write the following
deliberately about Camp Hancock:
That I would rather intrust the moral
character of my boy to that camp than
to any college or university I know.
This does not cast any unusually dark
shadow upon the educational institu
tions of the country but they have nev
er possessed the absolute power to con
trol their environment that is now held
by the War Department. And it does
not mean that Camp Hancock is con
spicuously better than the other south
ern camps. It simply means that I had
unusual facilities for discovering ev
erything I wanted to know in and
about Camp Hancock, through person
al connections all the way down from
the divisional headquarters to the en
listed men in the company street. .
Soldiers are supposed to be inveter
ate and irredeemable grumblers. But
if you want to see a group of men
without grouchiness go to Camp Han
cock. Quite naturally, the men of the
National Guard camps are more cheer-
ful than drafted men; they enlisted
from inclination or patriotism, after
counting the cost But the cheerful
ness is not all native; it is largely the
consequence of satisfactory conditions.
A sandy soil gives clean, dry streets'
and roads; even the enlisted men have
electric lights in their tents; the post
exchange sells them all the little lux
uries of life at a reasonable price; the
food is good and plentiful, as I found
by messing with the privates; play is
liberally interspersed with w'ork; the
officers show a spirit of comradery;
health is far above normal; and the
great adventure looms up as a real ex
perience of the soul.
The last item above I use after care
ful reflection. When the majority of
the Guard enlisted, they
knew the issues. But no chances are
taken. In one of the vast Chautauqua
tents of the Young Men’s Christian
Association I sat on the back row and
listened to a lecture by Frank Dixon,
of New York, on “The Causes of the
War.” Three thousand men in khaki
also listened and applauded. The
speaker told about little Belgium, the
men of Louvain and Antwerp, and how
they fought and died for the sanctity
of international law; he pictured the
raped women and the orphaned chil
dren and the desolated homes; he de
scribed the ruined churches and demol
ished universities and razed libraries;
he stated the law of vicarous suffering
—how those splendid heroes had borne
all and given all to save us from the
barbarities of a false principle of self
expression known as Kultur; he
sketched how England had obeyed the
rule of honor when self-interest told
her to stand aside; he lamented our
early dimness of vision concerning the
issues involved, and our slow enlight
enment and ultimate awakening; and
he finished by proving that everything
worth living for, worth fighting for,
W’orth dying for, was at stake. In con
clusion he told the men that their cour
age, their devotion, their discipline,
their toll of casualties, were necessary,
in the last ditch, to save civilization
and Christianity from falling forever
under the blighting curse of a triumph
antly brutal paganism. When the men
left the tent, their shoulders were
squarer and their jaws firmer and
their eyes brighter—they were crusa
ders, and the pride of their consecra
tion was clear.
(Concluded next week).
Every soldier and sailor will
feel obliged to learn French.
Everybody connected with the
war shoulitreci. 4 events as they
occur. This needs is best fulfilled
by the handsome
Soldiers-Sailors Diary
and
English-French Dictionary
Now being distributed exclus
ively by the
The Augusta
Herald
Self - Pronouncing by
Sound-Spelling Method
Unique, being the first com
bination of Diary and Eng
lish-French Dictionary.
Authoritative, complete, com
pact, handsome and durable.
Newspapers of the United
States and Canada conduct
ing this distribution desire
that all shall obtain this book;
but prompt action is neces
sary because the campaign
must end at an early date;
therefore clip coupon and get
copy promptly.
Necessary at Home
And at the Front
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MAILORDERS
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this paper on page a. 3
Dec. 5, 1917.