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-ND THIS PAPER HOME ONE CENT POSTAGE Bl TRENCEKCAMP "’’V WITH THE CO ’ OPERATION OF UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE ®IFW// ‘ THE AUGUSTA herald «p national war work council \C fKc WW ZZ AUGUSTA. GA. of THE Y ‘ M ' c ' A OF THE u S- 1 OBIT I*l ~., --rv; - . ...~? VOL. 1. 857 HANCOCK ALIENS MADE CITIZENS IN ONE DAY; WORLD’S RECORD BROKEN Never Before in History Have So Many Men .Taken Oath of Citizenship in One Day. Judge Emory Speer and Court At tendants Complete Work Thursday and Return to Ma con Friday. Twenty Nations Represented Among Appli cants for Citizenship, Two of Them Being Germans o ° Following is the oath of citizen ship each applicant must take: You and each of you do declare on oath that you absolutely and en tirely renounce and abjure all allegi ance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereign ty and particularly to (name of ruler of their country) of which you have heretofore been a subject, that you will support and defend the constitu tion ana laws of the United States of America against all enemies foreign and domestic and you will bear true faith and allegiance, to the same, so help you God. A o ite —— <’ " Eight hundred and fifty-seven aliens, members of the United States army at Camp Hancock, were Thursday made Citi, zens of this country. Never before in the history of the United States, or for that matter in the world, have so many aliens taken the oath of citizenship in one day. Court was held at Y. M. C. A. Building 77, Judge Emory Speer, who returned to his home at Macon Friday morning, pre siding. Twenty nations are represented among the 850 men who have just become citizens of this country. Court clerks worked until late in the night preparing the necessary papers .and Friday morn ing certificates of citizenship were dis tributed to the men by their command ing officers. The deputy clerk of court, C. J,. Skin ner, Jr., stated Friday that the court felt much indebted to Captain-Curtis H. Page, intelligance officer at Camp Hancock, who made all necessary arrangements for bringing the men into court and assort ing them according to their units. Cap tain Page speaks seven languages. In calling the names of men of various nationalities, using the proper accent, the men were seen to straighten their shoul ders in a military way, flush with pride, and step forward to take the oath. It was one of the most impressive occasions of which Augusta has ever b<*«i the scene. . The work of securing the applications for citizenship was handled by Louis Weinburger. assistant chief naturaliza tion examiner, who came here from Washington several days ago to handle this work. He was assisted by Herbert E. Gyles and Wm. H. Smoak of Aikati, and S. McG. Simkins of Edgefield. These three gentlemen are prominent attorneys of these places. They volunteered their services to the government. Ten or more clerks from the office of Captain Page also assisted in the Work. Major Cooper, deputy United States Marshal, and L. M. Edwin, clerk of court were here for the naturalization. These court officials also retured to Macon Fri day. The building in which court was held was filled four times by the candidates for citizenship. Judge Speer made a few ap propriate remarks to each group of men. He told them that he hoped they would make as good soldiers as Uncle Sam him self, ad in expressing the great deeds of valor that have been performed by the leaders of their country, he told them that he expected them to emulate these deeds. The following nations were represented among the candidates: Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Denmark. France, Germany, Great Brit ain and her jwssessions, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Persia. Rumania, Russia. Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Switzerland, Bel gium. Great Britain led the list in number of applicants; Russia was second. Italy, third and Greece, fourth. Two of the ap plicants were Ger’mans and one applicant a Persian. EXPLOsTdN CAUSEO F DAMAGE Paris, June 4. —Much damage was done by a violent explosion yesterday in a plant in which war materials were being manufactured at Braussens in southern France, near Arles, a Havas dispatch from Marseilles reports. The number of persons killed or injured Is large. TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE JUNE BTH On the afternoon of Saturday, June 8, 1918, the wonderful spectacle of a total solar eclipse will ba visible, weather permitting, over a track ex tending from the Pacific (Washington) to the Atlantic (Florida). This track of the moon's si adow is 70 miles wide at the western coast, narrowing to 30 miles in Florida. Far about an hour the moon will gradually encroach upon the sun’s disk, the daylight will fade, then the nar rowing crescent of thesun will sudden ly disappear, and around the jet-black ball of the moon, hanging in the north western sky among the brighter stars, will be seen the pearly radiance of the mysterious solar corona. The remar kable spectacle may be enjoyed for 122 seconds at the western coast, and for half that time in Florida. Then the crescent of the sun will appear on the other (western) side cf the moon, and after another, li ur the full disk of the Shn will shine as usual. This event happens at any one place, on the average, only three times in a thousand years. The gaseous envelope of the sun can be advantageously studied by astrono mers during tne brief interval of total eclipse, and it is then only that the corona, can be observed. It. is estimated that there are only about 90 minutes in a century for the investigation of this interesting but still perplexing outer appendange of the sun. Its shape is not constant, but varies with the eleven-year cycle of the sun's activity in producing sun-s"ots. Sun-spots are now about at their maximum, and ac cordingly we may expect a corona with streamers distributed in al’ direc tions around the sun, but not so widely extended east and west as in 1900. The streamers issuing from near the sun’s poles suggest somewhat certain ap pearances of the aurora borealis. —Ed- win B. Frost, in Popular Mechanics’ Magazine. SOLDIER CLUB POPULAR New Mail Box Installed. Rest Room for Soldiers’ Wives and Mothers Being Equipped. En tirely Free to Soldiers. With the placing of the mail box for the special use of the Soldiers’ Club at C 29 Broad street, the last little detail has been added for the comfort and co iveni ence of the men who are now wearing the uniform of Uncle Sam. The club rooms have become very popular and the im mense amount of mail sent out from that point necessitated an additional mail box. A rest room has lately been fitted up on the second floor where soldiers may take their wives and mothers. Further improvements are contemplated for the rest room, including the acquisition of a piano and phonograph which will make of it a most convenient place for mothers or wives who may be visiting their sons or husbands. This is the only room in the club, however, where women are allowed to enter, except upon special oc casions. Attention of the new men entering camp is called to the excellent features provided free of cost by the Commission, on Training Camp Activities and War Camp Community Service. This club house provides every facility for clean amusement. The first floor offers the use of a piano and reading room. Also or. the first floor some excellent shower baths have been installed which are proving most naturally very popular. On the second floor two billiard tables and four poo) tables are at the disposal of the soldiers. The third floor provides an im mense lounging room and reading and writing room. A canteen is also main tained. The club is conveniently located and the soldiers have all its features free of cost. Mr. J. L. Collins is the manager of the club. In the building offices are main tained by Mr. F. H. Wood, executive sec retary of the War Camp Community Ser vice, assisted by Mr. J. H. Haley. JUNE 5, 1918. NEARLY 7,000 MEN ARRIVED IN CAMP DURING PAST WEEK; TOTAL OF 20,000 HERE Improvements Being Made at Hancock Will Give This Camp a Machine Gun Range Second to None in Entire Country. Pennsylvania Avenue Practically Filled With New Men. Plans Being Made For Building to Be Known As “The Mill,’’ Where Drafted Man Will Go In As Civilian and Come Out As a Soldier. (By W. M. Owens, Staff Correspondent of the Augusta Herald.) Arrivals of machine gun recruits at Camp Hancock during the past week has swelled the total of drafted men now stationed here to 12,000. With 8,000 ord nance men in camp here, Hancock today has a total population of 20,000 men. The total a week ago was only 13,000, the week’s arrivals being 7,000 men. Every train is bringing officers and men to the machine gun training center here. Few ordnance men are arriving, and it is thought that the movement to Hancock of men in this service has about been completed. Pennsylvania Avenue, the former quar ters of the Pennsylvania Infantry and Machine Gun Battalions, is now about filled. This means that at an early date the entire' artillery quarters are to be occupied by machine gun men. Only the three battalions of machine gunners sent here from Camp Jackson are now in that section of the camp. It was stated officially yesterday that three battalions of machine gun men would be sent here from Camp Wheeler, where the Dixie Division is stationed. There are about 300 Augusta men in these units. Just when the transfer is to be made is not made public, as the arrival of the men here will not be announced until the movement is complete. The Yankee boys are finding Dixie a hot. place just at this time, but the men who have been here a week says that they are already becoming acclimatized and are not finding the drills too arduous.lt is possible that as the weather becomes hotter that the camp authorities will les- MACHINE GUN MEN LEARN ING TO RUN CORRECTLY Instruction in Athletics to Be Given Every Morning in the Ranks. During the drill period each mdrning the boys in the machine gun ’companies on Pennsylvania avenue are to be given in struction in running, athletics, and a va riety of athletic and gymnastic games. Tuesday morning the instruction was (be gun with the Army Physical Training of ficer, Captain Ashmore, in charge, as sisted by the Y. M. C. A. physical di rectors, numbering five. Each physical director was given the system to be used with the boys and then was put in charge of a company of 220 with which to work. Each company was then instructed in the proper firm for sprint running, this being followed with relays and different types of races. Keen competition soon developed between the squads and some real lively races resulted. The running an dother games which are to fillow will no doubt be of great value in making the men light on their feet as well as strong and agile. - During this same period of time, one half an hour, four other companies of the same group were taken to Hut 232 and in structed in marching songs. These men were lead by Mr. Clark, the "Y”, music director. He feels that in a few morn ings of this type of singing they will be much better fitted to sing when in the march by themselves or between drill pe riods. • These two kinds of exercise go hand in hand in developing a man’s lung capacity and his physical ability as a soldier. The importance of this fact is coming to be more fully appreciated by athletic, phy sical and military training officials, uni versally. Consequently it is being'more popularly used by these men in their courses of instruction each day. Informal recreation such as boxing, wrestling, baseball and volleyball, after working hours also plays a large part in a soldier’s life and will materialy help in his development and give necessary re laxation. GOTHAM TO BE IN DARK TONIGHT o o New York.—New ifork will be in I ‘ the dark tonight for fear of air. | I plane raids or bombardment. This ! order was issued today by Police I Commissioner Enright. sen the hours of drill. The hours mav be so arranged that the men will be put on the drill grounds for a longer period early in the morning and will drill later in the evenings, thus giving them several hours of rest during the middle of the day. Col. Hugh S. Gallagher, depot quarter master for the southeastern department, ‘with headquarters in Atlanta, returned to his station today after an official visit to Camp Hancock. He was here to inspect the manner in which supplies are handled and to offer suggestions for any improve ments necessary. - , Improving Rifle Range. Only small arms are being used on the rifle range at this time, and even this practice is held only at intervals. The range is being extended and considerably improved. It is stated that Hancock will nave a machine gun raneg second to none in the entire country when all im provements have been completed. The extensions under way will permit the fir ing of small guns at a range of one thou sand inches and the 700-yard hciivy guns. . >la,IS a building to be known as The Recruiting Mill" are now being made. This building will probably be ■ located along Pennsylvania avenue. When 1 completed the building will be so ar- I ranged that a drafted man. who has just arrived in camp, may enter one door wearing a straw hat and tan shoes and make his exit from another a few hours later in complete uniform. Before leav ing "the Mill” the, rookie will be given a physical examination, his hair cut, he will be inoculated, put in uniform, and last be given instructions just where to re port for duty. 1 So SOLDIERS PRAY AT HANCOCK National Memorial Day Ob served in Most Impressive Manner by Soldiers. Ten thousand Camp Hancock soldiers, many of whom wore civilian clothing, assembled in the dry reservoir near the camp entrance on Memorial Day and stood with bared heads while prayer was offered in accordance with the pres ident's proclamation calling upon Amer ica to pray on National Memorial Day. On a stand which faced the soldiers Colonel Oliver Edwards, camp command- ‘ er, and a number of prominent Augusta citizens were seated. Among the Au gustans on the stand were: Mayor James R. Littleton, Sheriff J. T. Plunkett, H. R. Fund, chairman of the County Board of Commissioners; F. L. Marshall, presi dent of the Board of Commerce: H. A. Wheeling, secretary of that board; John Phinizy. president of the Rotary Club: Wm. H. Barrett. A. H. Brenner and Capt. J. Rice Smith. Hundreds of of people from Augusta, including wives and relatives cf the sol diers, witnessed the ceremony which was most impressive. JNO. MASEFIELD DECLARES WINNING OF WAR DE PENDS ON U. S. The presen . : of the eminent English scholar and . uthor, John Masefield, at Y M. C. A. 77 on Saturday even ing a large and enthusiastic audi.nce of soldier admirers of his great works. For almost an hour he held the close attention of the men while be told of conditions in ngland and France and discussed the effect of American par ticipation in the war. He emphasized p. rticularly the fact tl at upon our ar mies depends the great offensive which will win the war after the French and British forces have withstood the force of the present German offensive. r-™ — I oo n v CL X * lx T m II i ; I i < i S£33 I No. 35