St. Louis Post-Dispatch
September 23, 1917

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iL _ . 4 “VOL. 70. NO. 34. 8 1 . Be ost 2 13 . A + — eee ER ST. LOUIS, SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 23, vit. ST SPAT * 11 abe — ——— —— — — —— — EE — — —— — j Z= SO ͤvn!n NR RI EM Oat * * Missouri and Other Na ational Army “Recruits at Camp Funston to Be Taught Football, Wrestling, Give Them Agility and Aggres- siveness Against Time They Will Meet Germans in Close Conflict. By Clair Kenamore, A Staff Correspondent of. the Post-Dispatch. CAMP FUNSTON, Sept. 22.—The avowed and very laudable intention of Major-General Leonard Wood is to make the 89th Division, which in- cludes Missouri’s men, the best in the national army. mander in the United States, as he watches his drafted men detrain, is making similar vows and laying plans to that end. Each General has, presumably, laid out a course of action guiding him along those lines where the regulations laid down in Washington allow lati- tude. All the camps are under rules of considerable similarity, for the training must be uniform, but each commander is allowed leeway as to meth- ods. Considerable comment already has been made on the order that officers should carry canes or riding crops, and the statement that enlisted men would be e to carry swagger sticks. These minor points are lndicditve of the Gen- eral's trend. To excel, his division must be distinctive, and when he gets through with it, it will be distinctive. Gen. Wood gave the manhood of the Middle West in general a considerable study, after he was shifted.to this post from the Atlantic coast. He was already familiar with the records of the men from that section in the Civil. War. After consideration, he decided upon a plan whereby he hopes to make it the star of the country’s forces. His Plan in Outline. This plan is, broadly, as follows: The trench warfare upon the western front, in which our men are expected to engage, has become a contest of men in physical combat under the arcs of the big shells. The soidier of ancient Greece was only a trained athlete with discipline. Circling time has brought about a similar condition in war. According to the best advices of our allies, and the best experiehces of the teachers of the new army, the fighting now and the trend of the fight- ing to come, is the fighting of close combat, after the big guns have done their best or worst, de- pending on whose guns. he conclusion has been arrived at that gas and liquid fire, shrapnel and barbed wire_and all the other new deviltries are but makeshifts. No inhumanity can be devised against which an equally successful defense cannot be prepared. Therefore, warfare resolves itself, into its orig- inal constituents, which is man against man. This is not here announced as a fact. It is the announcement that this is the theory upon which the training of our men is based. -Gen. Wood.therefore has determined that the division which he will lead to war, shall be a division of athletes. He will train every man in athletics and develop to the fullest the powers of every man in all physical development. In defense of this plan, it is pointed out that the elaborate training of fencing with the bay- onet, which all soldiers have been taught for years, has been found in the close trench fighting of today to be useless. There are three major movements, according to observers from France, and they correspond to the three main movements of boxing. the lunge of attack, the guard of de- fense, and the down stroke of finis. This is de- livered with the butt of the rifle. The officers in charge of athletics have been appointed from top to bottom. Lieut. Paul With- ington is Divisional Athletic Officer. Under him are brigade, regimental, battalion, company and platoon and squad athletic officers. Company, platoon and squad officers may be Chosen from the ranks, and there is no rule against the “enlisted men“ as. they are still called, directing the athletics of a still larger body if particularly well qualified men should ap- New Weapon Suggested. Some of the men recently returned from France say that the officers of the French army are con- sidering the substitution of a sharp sword or long knife for the rifle and bayonet for use by men in the charge. Report is that a large number of bpollus. especially those who have been over the before,~return with the bayonet only. Once in the enemy trench, the French soldier is likely to detach his bayonet and throw the rifle away. In the close work of u trench, there is little use =~ for a long shooting piece like a rifle, but there 0 much need of the bayonet in hand to hand ‘fighting. But a better weapon could be devised dor hand fighting than the bayonet, which is prt- . . for use as the end of a spear or 80 thoroughly has the command at Camp Fun- 5 8 on become con vinted of the prime importance 0 gets oer pe dea e etiions, plan : Boxing and Other Games to Doubtless every other division com- : = How Maj.-Gen. Wood Visualizes Division He Will Lead in France CAMP FUNSTON, Sept. 22. Na wide green house, surréwsded by ] screened-in- verandas, Major<General Leonard Wood sits and gases over the expanse of Ogden Flats upon which is spread Camp Funston, with the nucleus of the army division he is to lead in France. The General can visualize this division as it will be when it has been trained. When a party of his men on leave passes down a street of a French town or eity next spring any other Americas seeing them can say: “Some of our fellows. Yes, Wood's men. See the jaunty air? The swagger sticks? The truculent swing of the walk? Fes, Wood’s men.” Or if a party of officers passes by, the onlooker will not be in doubt for a mo- ment. “Officers of the Eighty-ninth,“ the on- looker will say. “You can always tell them. Note the chin straps down, the gen- eral air of neatness, and the movement of the athletes.” And when the day comes, doubtless along the Rhine somewhere, when the games are played for the baseball and football cham- pionships of the army, those unfortunate enough to have missed those struggles will ask: “Who won?” and the answer will be: “Teams from the Bighty-ninth took both events. Mighty tough fellows. Shame can’t beat em.“ And more important still; when the high command casts about for a brigade or two for a desperate adventure, a perilous at- tack or the holding of the line in a hard pressed sector, where the strain will be long and the fighting hard, the high com- mand will canvass his supplies ated say: “Here is a place where we must give the best we have. This task is for the strong- est in nerve and muscle and endurance. I will give them Wood's men. Send these orders to the Eighty-ninth Division.” | many diversions of the day’s work. The drill will be broken into for a game of leap frog, and as far as possible, all recreational diversions will be on an athletic nature. The officers agree that the first task is to get the drafted men fit physically, and the work to this end will be intensive. There will be many a sore muscled man in camp two weeks from now, to the end that two months from now there may be many more hard muscled, toughened soldiers. The men here will be kept constantly at the job. It is the consensus of opinion among the officers that there should be no more rest than is necessary to restore tired men and soothe sore muscles. From a quarter to six in the morning until 9:45 in the evening there will be something going on. The food will be abudant and whole- some, the’ blankets warm, the clothing stout and the quarters clean, light and pleasant. The men who will enjoy these things will be called upon to do very very hard work, harder work doubtless than many of them ever have done in their lives. They must fit themselves in the quickest possible time so that individually they may be the master of a German soldier in hand to hand combat. The work will be in drill- ing, training, marching and countermarching that that the men will learn the bases of soldiery, and will acquire the most essential discipline. The play will be work camouflaged. It will be the rough games of boyhood made over, “Crack the whip,” “Foot and a half,“ and their kind. Scheme Founded on Games. Lieut. Withington, who is outlining the ath- letic campaign, intends to interest the men pri- marily in games. lie founds his scheme on games. Athletic games of all kinds will be used, but mostly those of physical conflict which re- quire agility and . aggressiveness. Football, wrestling. boxing will be leading sports. Jump- ing and hurdling also will be taken wp, but | suspect football will be the prime favorite. There are to be 250 companies here, and the Lieu- tenant expects to have five football teams from efth company. This should give some idea of what. a. sporting metropolis Camp Funston about to become. There is one line of marked difference from the college sports. At Funston the men will be taught all the dirty fighting there is to know. The cun- ning ways to kill a man, the quick strokes with knee or elbow, any way that a German can be put off the fighting list will be taught at this evs & 8 — — —— . — — a ea ee ea faining at Camp Funston Is Based on Athletics Gen. Wood Adheres to Theory Wa e ta d to Its Original Constituents of Man- to-Man Combat ¢ All the Dirty“ Ways of Fight ing That the Great War Has Brought Forth, All the Cunning Methods of Killing and Maim- ing the Enemy Will Be Drilled Into the Men Long Hours Daily. Till They’re Ready for Trenches. and it will continue to 11:45. later, they again respond to the noon mess call, which is dinner in the army. At 1 p. m. the afternoon period of instruction begins and it lasts until 4:30. At 5:15 is assem- bly, when they line up for the ceremony of re- treat, which comes five minutes later. After the colors have come down for the night, they go to supper, after which their time is their own until 9:15, when tattoo is sounded like a warning cur- few. At 9:30 the call to quarters, when every man goes to his own cot. At 9:45 comes taps and all lights out. A wise and kindly provision is that the men from each section are to be kept together. Thus the boys from Jones County will train, work, eat, sleep and play with the boys from home. Every one will have a friend near at hand; and this is expected to be a great remedy for home- sickness and the other mental ills to which the transplanted youth is prey. 1 Impressions Given by 8000 Men as They Gather at the Camp NTO the nation’s crucible here, there poured | Thursday 8000 units of humanity, a part of the raw material from which an army is to be molded. They came from Missouri, Kansas, Colorado; New Mexico, Nebraska, South Dakota and Arizona. They came into the camp 8000 different men, drawn from all the white races of the world. It can truly be said that the only common characteristic was that they were between the ages of 21 and 31. It is a wonderful thing to stand all day long in a certain spot and have 8000 men pass by 80 that they are less than two feet away. After a while the widely diverse impressions that one gains from each individual face begin to merge and only the mass impression remains. Here was an army, brought from their far homes to a tremendous town of raw boards, a town tossed together in a few weeks, where they will be taught a new system of life, new ambitions and a new mission. It was the end of a long struggle in Congress and in newspapers, for and against conscription. — — — — * — — — — * * — — — — — — ——— —— * — These were the first fruits, chosen from among 4 their fellows to fit themselves for the war for | How would they take it? Who Who the worst? civilization. would put on the best face? Pictureful. New Mexico Party. The most pictureful and almospheric train load came from New Mexico. There were many Mex- icans, and invariably they looked bright and hopeful, their faces lit with pleasant anticipa- tion. With the party was an American youth with a poet’s face and great dark eyes like a girl’s. He carried carefully a violin in a worn leather case. As all these men were soon to lay aside all their individual possessions to don Fifteen minutes | tn a cenit Beside That Grave Had Worn and Cried * * * Out My Pain to the Little One.“ J Had to Be Strong at That Hour, Not to Cry Out, but to Lead the Way Into Exile * * From One, One Only, Did J Take Leave So Recently Closed I Tore From Me the I Mipped Into the Sanctuary an . MSA IE A . Se NOR Cs ARs er tobe RIM ETC mn ve N rh a@ * S ead OK . 5 Mask That All Day. 15 bs a RIVEN into eile with her many sudjects. D who had to retreat before the Hun just oul of their peaceful homes in the debacle of war, Queen Marie of Rumania has turned to the pen. and with it is picturing the-horrors that have en- gulfed the pretty little Balkan kingdom. Queen Marie was married to King Ferdinand in 1893, and was jhen the Princess Marie of Edin- burgh, the daughter of Alfred I, Duke of Saze Coburg and Gotha, Prince of Great Britain and Ireland. Noted for her beauty. idolized by her people, she has devoted herself to Red Cross work and the care of her stricken people ever since the entry of Rumania into the war. In devoting her pen to the cause of her adopted country, Queen Marie has followed the cxrample of her husband's aunt, the late Queen Elizabeth (Carmen Sylva), whose charming books of poetry and prose deal aimost entirely with the customs and folklore of Rumania. In this article Queen Marie gives a graphic picture of war-torn Ru- mania. + spoken—an hour of darkness and sorrow that I could share with no one, an hour when I had to carry my head very high, so that none should see the tears in my eyes, an hour when naught else remained to me but to look be- yond the things of this earth toward shadowy futures that belong only to God. I had to be strong at that hour, not to cry out, not to complain, but to lead the way into exile very simply, very quietly, so as to avoid all panic, so that no one should be afraid. * * Others depended upon me, all eyes were turned toward me to see how I would bear that which was un- bearable, so I was silent; at that hour silence alone could help. Months have passed since then, three long months— months that could be years so full are they of anguish and pain and grief. Months that I have lived close to the heart of my people, months when I have heard their cries, and hoped their hopes and feared their fears. Months in which I have struggled with them and wept with them, doing all that was in my power to ease their burden and to dry their tears. — * „ — — — By THE QUEEN OF RUMANIA. HERE is an hour of which I have never But if there are hours when silence alone can render bearable the duty one has to perform, there are others when one has a ‘voice and to cry out one's longing and one’s re- } | gret. 1 a | Months of Weeping It is months since Bucharest was taken from us, since the enemy struck at the heart of our land! And today I want all those who love and all those who weep and all those who regret to turn their faces with mine toward that far-off distance and to remember that which we have * „ “ + * * lost. * It is to me as though I must climb some very their country’s honorable service, it was not dif- ficult to visualize this man’s pain if he had to give up his violin. In the contingents from all sections there ap- peared to have been different opinions as to the best clothing to wear to the camp. Some wore useless castoffs, some shivered in Palm Beach, while others wore their best. silk shirts and silk | sox and brave raiment over them. They came like bridegrooms, fittingly clad. | Another member of the New Mexico delegation | was one of these. In private life he was a rider of the range, and he wore into Camp Funston a purple shirt of rare charm. His hat was a tower- ing beaver of a fawn tint and must have cost, $25, while his yellow, elaborately stitched boots | with high heels and dangling straps probably | cost as much more. He probably deposited his saddle in the bank before he started. This man wore a quaint expression of apology at having | troubled so many people to come out to meet | = him. He seemed to have the same confidence in | ‘smoke rising from that town which once was our high mountain; up, up till I reach its summit, so that from there I might perceive at least the loved and cherished center and that now lies chained and silent ‘neath the enemy’s relentless sway. Yes, indeed, heart of our land! Pulsing center that held us together, fed our energies and filled us with pride—who of us will ever forget those lost days of anguish, when hope became always less, when from all sides the voice of the cannon | ealiéd out its fearful message, called out its warn- ing, telling us that danger was coming ever near- that soon it would be “—_ and exile and * * er- sorrow and darkness. Difficult it is to speak of one’s own sorrow when the suffering of all was so great, yet if today I speak of mine, it is because l know that it is my | country’ s sorrow, that a thousand thousand voices are echo to mine when I talk of that for which we as the Belgians and Servians were forced } right to lift up one's embrace. J = | „ | [eis — on — 2 RAR OTROS e AE . 4 . g 5 e * . Kg x 3 ; lt oe 4 5 Se ? n i i re ead The Queen of Rumania and the Castile in are mourning: of that which lies beyond the line of fire, that like a wound upon a mother’s breast cuts our dear country in two! It is I, your Queen, who am speaking to you, and I wish my voice to reach every heart, to penetrate into every home, to go toward the- most miserable, to search out the hero on his bed of snow, I want ye all to know that I have wept with you, that there is none of your griefs that I have not shared, none of your despairs that I have not understood, none of your sacrifices that I have not appreciat- ed; but this message would I bring to you: Hearts are bound more closely together in days of sorrow than in days of joy, in days ow war than in days of peace. * * * The National Sorrow | I cannot know for which special sorrow each man is mourning—I know not what house, what spot, what face he sees in his dreams; I know not to what hope he clings, to what joy he desires to go back; there is a national sorrow and there is a personal sorrow; that last one, each man car- ries alone in his heart. Bucharest! Thy name conjures up without end in the minds of those who have been obliged to surrender thee to the hated foe, We remember thee with all thy faces, in sunshine, in rain and in snow, we remember thee busy vet smiling, within thy streets all seemed happy. It is to us, now that we are torn from thee, as though we had known naught but joy within thy pictures What is thy face of today, oh! Bucharest? Hast thou veiled theyself in mourning because so many of thy children have fled? Or dost thou wear smile of false acquiescence, so as not to draw down upon thy trembling inhabitants the wrath of those who -now call themselves masters and who perchance keep thee !n better order than thine own children ever did? Have thy proudest buildings been desecrated with flags that are not dyed in the three holy colors before whieh each Rumanian uncovers his head? Have the blinds of thy windows heen drawn down so that those who have remained should not see men in pointed helmets marching to and fro before the house of thy King? Are the hos- pitals we prepared so tenderly for our wounded filled with foreigners who speak not our lan- guage, that mock at our sorrow, rejoicing over the misery they bave strewn over our land? O. Bucharest, I left thee without a word of fare well, | who so often have been acclaimed in thy streets! It was told that 1 must steal away from thee in silence, show no sorrow, say no good-by, betraving no emotion, so as to awaken no panic ii the Hearts of those who were to stay Like a traitor did I feel, like a coward, to leave thee thus to thy fate! To go away, to know naught of thy sorrow, to leave thee unprotected to those who soon would suck thy heart's blood! And Cotroceni! House that I love, house that little by little | have modeled to my taste, house that knows the voices of my children, in whose garden their baby feet have toddled about. Cotro- cent! I left thee, taking no leave of those who were ameter — ee Bucharest Which She Left to the to remain to protect thee, casting hardly -a upon the rooms that once had been my pride I had the courage to smile into the face of the old family servants, who looked at me antiousiyy as though divining that my silence hid some 80 9 truth. += Yes, I left thee—and from one, one only, , take leave! But that one was so small oo silent that never will he relate what his moch said to him in that hour before her flight. It was evening—the shadows were already st ing into the church, and with them 4 into the sanctuary, where a heap of white flowers spread a mystic light. And there beside that graye: so recently closed I tore from me the mask thmg all day I had worn, and cried out my pain to tie little one, lying beneath the stones see Give Flowers to M 1 confessed to him that I was in 2 knowing when I would come back. I asked ‘itt 1 to forgive me for forsaking him, to forgive Wf moth@r for taking the five others with her, while she left him lonely, he who was smallest ot 1 lit Left him to the mercy of those who sot take possession of the places we had loved! =~ 1 As I wept in solitary despair, it seemed to m 2 that I heard the tread of the approach and shudderingly I realized that it was the: of our soldiers that were forming a — around our threatened home! I thought of | 3 those who still Must fall before the en | reach this sacred door! And with anguish I? alized that I would no more be there to poe their wounds, to console their defeat. Perhaps it was so that some vital part being should remain in our capital even retreat, that I was destined to leave my there beneath the cold slabs of the church. Did perchance God tear him from us as a sign — all this sorrow, all this sacrifice, is but a 127 horror, that because Mircea lies there awaiting mp return, that surely, surely I must come Back? — When he died, the popular belief was that thé 6 ‘ . 5 . : Sars * Ni . bd W a — at 8 8 n n Tad W 1 a 1 * * 2 7 PRI ee eee eee eee eee eee Tae eee eee AE ENN RP SUE RAEN PE RCD, SRN EIEIO ECC SET Rr ag acy MORPIES SLR eta tote + elegy ——— . * — * 2 ¢ t * * va : * * u 1 ow 3 a « ODD EN MEE OE MEIN TED PAIR INO Con PO RRM er A PK tian ede 2 2 1 N 0 6 heavens had claimed from me a sacrifice, that God had taken my child from me that in Bis pete fect innocence he should plead for the ne he was destined to quit #0 soon! So let it be! For I believe in the day of returm, I believe in the hour of victory, I believe that blood of our heroes has not been shed in Vain One day thy arms will be opened wide to us, O, mother-town! Flags will fly from thy v dows, thy streets will be strewn with branches and those who return to thy embrace will nog know if their hearts are breaking with orrow with joy! It lies in God's hands if I, your Queen, | share that solemn bour with you. But this one boon do I ask of my ft ha if my feet should not enter the dear — wit! you,’ carry all the flowers that would haw | me to the church where my little one lues, them there to his grave, heap them in above him, fill the whole church with fhe that he who so long was lonely should in your songs of praise! —_. thm, 1 5 W 2 ay “i 8 — . —- nnn ̃ SO ee eee . Se — 5 + at which it was fond of tn about posts. The ) Als eppare! that a richly gowned woman has, and 1 carefully unwound him each time, even if } attention it drew. Gazing upon him it was pleas- : 7 } Hun, who knows no rules but to win, and ta | whom sportsmanship is unknown. It is not con- sidered wise to waste decency on the German sol- dier. ) The men of the national army will live by the clock, and the hours will be struck by bugle calls. he appeared pleasanily to be satisfied with the. ant to know that his clothes would be franked | back to the ranch to wait his return from redder | fields and rougher ranges. The New Mexicans looked in fine physical trim. Those not dark of skin racially were tanned brown or burned red by the ardent sun, | and they looked solid and ready. The Missourians from the remote regions of the Ozarks were of exceptional interest to me. | They will arise at 5:45 R. m. every day, and (and while they were a good, clean looking bunch. line up before the barracks at 6. At 6:15 they will have breakfast, ‘and at 6:45 the sick cal vin sound, when all who need the attentions of the doctors will repott. At 7:15 tne proper day's we of drilling or other instruction will begin * rangey as they should have been. to pass through that day, County was the only one who brought his dog along. they were not as tall and Ot all the 8000 a man from Shannon lang and sine ny. It was a hound fon the end of a rope, bi * under his arm. clothes which had small pearl buttons upon them it did halt the line. With a Western Kansas contingent came an- other musician, a young man seemingly from a emall town. He carried an uncovered mandolin lle wore a green hat and green wherever pear: buttons could reasonably be put —on cuffs, pocket flaps, lapels and elsewhere. in his {ie was a small gold vanity pin which ‘looked exactly as if a fluffy haired 16-year-old girl in a white dress had pinned it there the night before he started away for the wars, He was a pert, handsome boy, with a wave in his hair. who looked like he played the mandolin in the barber shop, and as if he Would make a good soldier. © Although I searched diligently with an open mind, I was unable to find in the St. Louis con- we ee — tingent but one man who seemed uplifted by - love of county, the afflatus of patriotism. From the country sections there came many of them. They were young, they were proud of their manhood, they were bent on striking a biow for their country and their flag, and their high re solve showed in their faces. Feelings Probably the Same. I am convinced that this difference was not so much in the feeling of the lade from the country and the town, as it is due to their methods of revealing and concealing their emo- tions. The city youth masks feelings which re tlect in the country boys’ face. And besides this, manners and customs differ. On the slopes of the Rocky Mountains or on the New Mexican deserts or in the Ozark Mountains, a yous mat might with all prop 25 3 1 * * ess * * 4 2 9 A * 7 - lay down his life beneath the starry be a man were to make a similar ten friend at the corner of Sith and ¢ friend would think he had been dri One man sticks in my mind * ve others of the 8000. He came an somewhere on a farm. His clothing wi 4 quality and long service, but he had ornaments stuck on the 2 wore a celluloid cotter at See? upon which was painted u vivid Amért anf In his hands he carried a 12-foot p pol 05 <r wi was u flag of. about 4 by 6 feet, | gift of homefolks. He — big. ¢ man of 30, and as be mabe Hong 1 8 = 2 *