Trench and camp. (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, March 06, 1918, Image 4

Trench and camp., March 06, 1918, Page Page 4, Image 4

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Newspaper Page TextPage 4 J ( jlm \ V’’‘ I ‘ v CTT 1 V vP Yu im I I'E TRENCH AND CAMP CAMP HANCOCK, Augusta, Ga. editionTii,ooo. GEO. B. LANDIS, Editor. Publshed with the co-operaton of THE HERALD PUBLISHING CO, Augusta, Ga. ISSUED LiVERY~WEDNESDAY. Vol. I—March 6, 1918.—N0. 22- Entered at the Post Office. Augusta, Ga., as mail matter of the second class, February 13 th, 1918. SUBSCRIPTION RATES. Trench and Camp will be mailed to any address in the United States at the following rates: Three months .. .. .. ....25c Six monthss° c * NOTICE. This edition of Trench and Camp is limited to 11,000 copies. An effort will be made to place one or more copies in every tent. If parties are desirous of other copies, application should be made to the nearest Y. M. C. A. building, where they wilt be gladly furnished as long as they last. As the edition is limited to 11,000 copies, please do not throw your copy away, when you are through with it. Pass it on to some other fellow. News items, personals, programs, meetings, announcements, eto from all the units in the camp will be welcomed by Trench and Camp and printed as far as space per mits. These communications can be left with secretaries at any of the Y. M. C. A. buildings and will be turned over to the editors. All copy should be turned in as early as possible. No copy can be hand led later than Monday noon, pre ceding date of issue. Trench and Camp will be issued every Wed nesday by CAMP HANCOCK ARMY Y. M. C. A. From the Office of The Augusta Herald “WRITE, WITH A SMILE” Buddy, did you ever meet up with any of the complications that came up back home from the way you worded your letters? If you haven’t, it’s a safe bet that you will some of these days, unless you stop and think a little bit about. Just how it sounds to the folks back here who are reading your letter. This week one boy’s father telegraphed to Camp Hancock to know if his son’s injuries would be fatal just because some neighbor’s son had exaggerated in his story of some happening in camp wiiich had been really trivial, and the boy whose folks were frantic, was as healthy and well as any soldier in the camp. Last week there was the same sort of a scare over a boy who went to the hospital with the mumps and whose folks back home, thought he was seriously ill and keeiJing some thing from them. You don’t need to tell the folks every little unpleasant thing that happens in your company street in order to fill up a letter. You can find enough that’s in teresting and pleasant and enjoyable if you try to without ‘‘belly-aching” all your little worries and cares through the mail to the people who are worry ing enough about you, anyway. You may think it sounds insignificant, but if you will stop and put yourself in your mother’s place a little, you will understand how she begins to worry when you say you have a bad cold and she begins to think thta you are down with the fever or pneumonia or some thin gos the sort and are trying to keep I it from her and all that. Don’t tell her that “Buck and Bob” had a fight the other night when they just had a little scrap that was all over in no time and stayed just as good friends as ever. The folks back there reading that letter would begin to think that Buck and Bob had had a bloody battle and that there was bad feeling in the company and some one would say, “Well, Jim wouldn’t let anyone pick on Bob,” and somebody else would say, “Well, Frank would side with Buck any time.” You know how it is, and how everbody back there wants to read your letters and the first thing you know, everybody back there is talking about what a mean dispositioned buch of trouble finders there are in the company, and how they don’t get along at all, and it comes around to Buck’s mother and to Bob’s mother and they get as wor ried and troubled as can be, and then you .'iAve to start in trying to make explanations. You’ve got your worries. We all have. Everybody has. But keep ’em to your self when it comes to those letters home. Your mother and your father are thinking of you every minute and hoping you’re all right and worrying for fear you’re not without your mak ing it any worse for them by telling them little troubles for them to think into big ones. Get busy and tell ’em how much you’re enjoying life. It won’t hurt you if you do have to stretch the truth once in a while and tell them that you are having the best meals that you ever hope to have and the weather is warm and you have more blankets than you need and all that. That won’t do you a bit of harm, but It can’t help you in the least to fill up a letter, telling all about the stomach-ache you had last night that kept you awake, or about the cold wind that got next to your skin when you TRENCH AND CAMP kicked your blanket off on the floor and the cold you caught as a result. Don’t help to make ’em worry about you or about the other fellow, either. Just help them to think that every thing Is just a little better than you really think it is. SELF CONTROL AND GOD CONTROL. Camp Hancock is one of the freest, if not the freest from venereal disease of any camp in the country, and this means that in no army in the world has there been fewer cases of venereal dasease per thousand men enrolled. It also seems evident that the manhood of Camp Hancock if freer from such contamination than the manhood of our cities. But while this is true of the 28th di vision as a whole, there are even here a few men suffering physical pain and mental anguish because of a misstep or because of Intentional wrong doing. It Is true that temptation has been removed by the City of Augusta to the exent that it has abolished the segre gated district. It is true that the war department has not only made stringent regulations within a five mile zone, but the military authorities throughout the military police and the Fosdick Commission through secret service men have been active in car rying out the policy of the war de partment. Some men have relied on the effic acy of the prophylactic treatment, not realizing that this treatment, however valuable, not only to the individual but to the innocent comrades, is not a sure preventative of venereal infec tion. The division surgeon in a mem orandum has called attention to this fact., and Dr. Hall of Chicago now calls attention to the necessity of early treatment to be certain of immunity. It is not only that the personal com fort of thp man is interfered with for a considerable length of time, but these terrible blood diseases are easily pass ed from generation to generation. The terible plague of the middle age and of other countries prove their viru lence. There is a ray of hope in the statements of medical men of promi nence that these blood diseases can be eradicated from the system, but only after a year or two of treatment, and then only with the faithful co-opera tion of the patient. The suffering of the individual no matter how severe this may be is comparatively unimpor tant when the social effects are con sidered. Whether in professional life, in the industries, or in war. The ef ficiency of the individual is greatly lowered, destroyed. Contamination of others by indirect means is likely to occur leading to a more widespread in efficiency. Furthermore, by direct means an innriocent wife is contaminated and made to suffer through succeeding years. Children are born "weak, or blind, or imbecile, and it is found to be literally true that ‘the sins of the fathers are visited upon their chil dren unto the third and fourth gen eration.” There would be little use in calling attention to these consideration un less some methods of relief could be proposed. The only sure preventative is of course for everyone to refrain from illicit relations. To resist these fierce temptations requires a power outside ourselves making for right eousness. To work hard when we work, play hard when we play, think pure thoughts, read good books, and asso ciate only with chaste companions, are a llhelps toward this higher life, but most will find it absolutely ne cessary to rely upon a Higher Power and frequently to call upon Him for help. “Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin, Each victory will help you some other to win. Fight manfully onward, dark passions subdue, Look ever to Jesus, He will carry you through, , Ask the Saviour to help you, comfgort strength and keep you, He is willing to aid you. He will carry you through.” BUILDING AMERICA’S SOLDIERCITIES The enormous task successfully accom plished by the United States government in erecting thirty-two soldier cities for the new National Army and for the mob ilization of the National Guard troops, is picturesquely set forth by William Joseph Showalter in a communication to the Na tional Geographic Society, a part of which was issued today as the following war geographic bulletin: “There is no record of what Uncle Sam said to the builder of his soldier cities, but the facts in the case would have war ranted his giving these instructions: “ ‘I have placed in the treasury of the United States, subject to your order, a sum of money which is equal to all the gold produced by all the mines of the world during the past year. With this money I want to house my armies while I get them into shape. In the first place, I want you to build 16 great mili tary cities In as many sections of the country. These 16 cities must be cap able of housing a population equal to the combined population of Arizona and New Mexico. There must also be stable room to care for as many horses as there are in the state of Oregon. " ‘Furthermore, you must establish hos pitals to take care of as many sick and wounded people as are to be found in all the hospitals west of the Mississippi river in normal times. " ‘Nor is that all. You are to provide all of the mess halls and other general buildings for all of the 16 National Guard mobilization camps. And while you are doing that you will not forget your reg ular work of expanding and keeping in repair the housing facilities of the Regu lar Army posts. " ‘Nor will you overlook the fact that as soon as all that work is under way you will be expected to undertake the con struction of the two big concentration camps from which the American army will embark for France and through which its supplies will reach the front. " ‘Yes, I know it is a large order —in fact, a tremendous proposition—but these are tremendous times, and I’ll have to ask you to execute it within four months. Os course, I realize that you will, in its execution, spend the money three times as fast as the world mines its gold, but at the same time I expect you to render an account which will show that every penn- has borne an honest burden.’ A Notable Achievement tn the History of Building. “Such was the order. It has been exe cuted as the American army always has executed its orders— to the letter! “The story of the 16 National Army cantonments surpasses anything else In the history of building. Such, indeed, has been the transformation .wrought at these cantonments that the world might well have believed it ail magic had it not heard the rhythmic blows of 25,000 ham mers driving home 1,200 miles of nails a day; had it not seen e »ough lumber go from the country’s mills to these camps to make a boardwalk four feet wide —run- ners and all—from Palm Beach to Bagdad via Bering ’ Strait and the Arctic Circle; had it not witnessed the movement to their sites of enough material and sup plies to load a string of cars reaching from Portland, Maine; to Portland, Ore gon, via Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Min neapolis and Spokane. “Consider a weekly pay-roll twice as large as the monthly pay-roll at Panama when the canal work was at high tide, and paid off in two hours, where three days were required to pay off the big ditch force. Reflect upon the fact that the expenditure for the 16 cantonments for the month of Augusta was $52,000,000 — nearly nine tons of gold, or more than was paid out in a whole year on the Panama canal, until now the world’s greatest un dertaking! "With the sites selected and 160 of the biggest sawmills in the United States turning logs into planks, joists, rafters and studding at an incredible speed, the cities themselves were ready to begin ris ing from the ground. "The railroads of the country, already sore pressed for rolling stock, already taxed to what seemed well-nigh the limit of war-time demands on peace-time fa cilities, set aside 30,000’ cars for canton ment material transportation, and vast quantities of lumber were moving east, west, north, and south to the camp sites. In a sjngle day there was unloaded at Des Moines 1,890,000 board feet of lumber, the equivalent of 300 miles of 12-inch boards. "One day a one-story office building, some trenching machines, some teams and trucks, and a chaos of materials, and in 48 hours a respectable village. In two weeks the village had grown to a town, and in two months the town had become a city.” SANITARY REGULATIONS OF U. S. ARMY 12. Personal Cleanliness— Every member of the command will bathe at least twice weekly. Army Regulations (par. 286) require that the men shall wash their hands before each meal and immediately after vis iting the latrines. Teeth will be cleansed with a brush at least once a day. Underwear should be frequently changed. Bedding and clothing will be sunned and tent walls raised daily, weather permitting. Barracks w and tents will be adequately ventilated. Tents will be furled or struck fre quently, so that the sites may be thor oughly sunned. 13. Venereal Diseases— The cause of these diseases is a matter of common knowledge. They are entirely preventable, and the gov ernment punishes those who expose themselves and contract venereal dis ease by prompt stoppage of pay and restriction of privileges while under treatment. It is enjoined upon all officers serv ing with troops to do their utmost +o encourage healthful exercises and physical recreation, and to supply op portunities for cleanly social and in teresting mental occupations for the men under their command; to take advantage of favorable opportunities to point out, particularly to the young er men, the inevitable misery and dis aster which follow upon intejnper anee and moral uncleanliness, and that venereal disease, which is almost sure to follow licentious living, is never a trivial affair. Although the chief obligation and responsibility for SOLDIERS’ MAIL SUBSCRIPTION BLANK ’ Tl-”’ Enclosed please find....for months subscription to Trench and Camp. The mailing address is as follows; Name ... Street and No« Town or City State *•••«»•« Name of soldier submitting this subscription is: Company and Regiment .. Place change or stamps with this blank in envelope and seal. Ad dress: Trench & Camp, Y. M. C. A. Headquarters, Camp Hancock, and deliver to the desk in any recreational center. Mail Rates to Soldiers—3 months, 25c; 6 months, 60c; 1 year, SI.OO. the instruction of soldiers in these matters rests upon company officers, the medical officers should co-operate bv occasional lectures or other instruc tion upon the subject of sexual phys iology and hygiene, and the dangers of venereal infection. Commanding officers will require that men who expose themselves to the danger of contracting venereal disease shall at once, upon their return to camp or garrison, report to the hos pital or dispensary for the application of such cleansing and prophylactic treatment as may be prescribed by the surgeon general. Any soldier who fails to comply with sueh instructions, if found to be suffering from a venereal affection, shall be brought to trial by court-martial for neglect of duty. Cases of these diseases will be promptly subjected to treatment, but not necessarily excused from duty un less, in the opinion of the surgeon, it is deemed desirable. They will be made of record in the medical reports in any case. A list of those diseased but doing duty will be kept both by the company or detachment comman der and the surgeon, and the infected men will be required to report to a medical officer for systematic treat ment until cured. While in the infec tious stages the men should be con fined strictly to the limits of the post. When a venereal case, whether or not on sick report, is transferred to an other command, the surgeon will send a transfer slip giving a brief history of the case. THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET How How dear to my heart are the scenes es my childhood, When winter is here and the coal bin is low! In dreams I go back to the deep-tangled wildwood That gave us the backlog we burned long ago. The jolly old blacklog, the mug if hot cider — Os comforts like tnese did our grand father tell, When grandmother sat with her candle beside her In the little old cabin that stood near the well— That little red cabin. That wood-heated cabin, That old-fashioned cabin which stood near the well. When summer is hot on the wheat and the poppies, And bumblebees buzz in the gayflowered balm. How far from our mind then the plumb ■* er’s big shop is! Our modern conveniences work like a charm. But oh, when the mercury drops like a rocket And water-pipes burst, then I’m longing to sell And go back to the house with its moss covered bucket, Its winter-proof bucket that hung in the well—• That moss-covered bucket, That ice-spangled bucket. That bucket which never froze down in the well. Then turn, O my heart, to the scenes of my childhood. The coal is quite gone, and the fire Is dead; Both meatless and wheatless, we long for the wildwood That yielded our measure of bacon and bread; No meters to pay and no plumber's bill soaring, No sneezing, no freezing, no funeral knell, But a jolly old backlong a-sizzling and roaring And a never-leak bucket to hang in the well —• The old oaken bucket, The iron-bond bucket. Hurrah for the bucket that hangs in the well! USELESS EFFORT' An adjutant commanding in France ordered a soldier from the wagon train to grease the wheels of his wagon. At tlve end of three minutes the adjutant passed by and found the soldier sitting down and philosophically smoking his pipe. "My oh!” and is it greased already.” "Yes, indeed, my adjutant.” "What! Already in three minutes? you have greased all four wheels?” “The four sure not, that is not neces sary.” "Why not?” "Why, I have greased the two front wheels. The two behind must necessarily follow.” GETTING A-CROSS. Bragging young recruit; "I am going across to get a Victoria Cross.” Wise Companion: "You may be thank rul if you even get a-cross.” March 6.