The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-06-15
WORK AND FUN ATSTATE CAMP
TINE ALL roo SHORT, MENt or
THE SEVENTH THINK.
Band Played "Annie Laurie" Whcn the
~. Hghianders Marched Behind the
- COiOnei's Back First Straighta"S
Bright Day Brings Many Fisitors.

bTIkHL Duy nThbSS Nu's
PEEKsK1LL. JUNE 1.-THE band played
Annie Laurie in The Seventh heeitheh'
camp las, evening. That was AFTER the
ball was over, after the work was done
The band had Just finished hs regular
evening concert in front of Col. Appleton's
tent. The foul weather had fed gone,
apparently, on long vacation, ana inc
moon rode full and bright over the camp
ground. Visitors who had held aloof
because of the steady drenchingS OF tho
early mart of the week, were out IN CON
siderable numbers. They came in carriages
and in automobiles and they came by ferry
and on foot, and among them were many
women.
Just after the star Sptngled Banner
had closed the concert and as the audshce
of visitors was preparing to dispense d
stir down the company street was hoticea'
Some kind Of a formation was on to''
Appleton does not see these things no
does not know about them, 'NctP' ny
vague rurnor and be never pays any a''eh
ton to mere r,lnors. He was in ms tent
hard at work studying TACTICS ana u,s
crssing the relative merits OF ne oid-laen
toned as compared with the ROD paFohe''
Lieut.. Col. Kip was porting over recen'
article on the Japanese infantry oa't''
formation Major j Wesley Meyers VINO
ia of a pious and serious turn was u'S-
cussing with Chaplain McCord 'he ehec'
Of a corned beef and fish fAlI olet OH 'io
spiritual welfare Of the men. beins 'ne
commissarv officer of the regiment as
we'll as a moral philosopher. MAJOR MEYERS
makes it point to regulate tne 'i'o''
fodder as nearly as possible on CASTRO
I ..l.,t n or I.N
was shut ND in his tent with a close ac-
o,aintance who has been with him pretty
constantly for the past two days
rrr,hnr If other officers were over at the
Young Mems Christian Association Head
quarters.
So it was only the visitors and the en-
listed men who found out why the band
nlayed Annie Laurie and why there was
so much cheering and merri'nent up ana
down the company street The forma-
ton was Of Killed High!anders. with bare
legs and hayonet claymores, lin cups
fastened at rakish angles on top OF their
heads gave them a iaunty, dashinE ar
and wisps of be d stufting straw hung in
front of their kits They We're types OF
Rob Roy Macgregors Clansmen.
Bv Col. Appleton's orders, the band,
AFTER every t'ii-tlt, 't'ih''' w 49,
the company street PLAYING lively air.
II sends the men TO bed in cheerful hiiinor'
the Colonel argues, and keeps them from
poring too much over their military test
hooks. So when the band swung into
the comyanv street lat evening and saw
what was lining up in their wake they struck
I'D Annie Laurie and up and down the street
marched oashng HighIanders scoring a
Women stood IN
CARR ages and automobiles clapping their
hands and wav;as handkerchicfs while
a roar Of cheers and shouts OF laughter
went all along down the line of march.
1t wouldn't have done of course, but
some were almost sorry Col Appleton did
not at least get glimpse Of the fun. II
was thought II might even have cheer cd
up Major Meyers and have won him from
his tendency to settled melancholy. But
discipline is discipline
just how the men of the Seventh find
the vitality for the nightly fun they are
getting out of camp life is one of the mys-
teries to thos' who are keeping tabs on
the daily routine Of their doings here. 1t
is pretty much a steady grind of good,
stiff soldier work from reveille to dnass
parade, and added to this there has been
the heavy tent housekeeping work, for
which The wet and mud and sloU of the first
three days of camp life are responsible.
This is the first strai GETAWAY bright day
there has been since the regiment got here,
and even the sunlight itself brought its
own work. Tents were stripped down to
bare poles, and the sun was put TO work
eXterninating the damp and cleanliness
that had accumulated during the deluge,
But the change has brought brightness
and cheeriness to the camp life which not
even the ultra Mark Tapleyism of the
Seventh Regiment could quito bring out
In the conditions which ruled earlier in
the week, There ia Just one small cloud
of gloom over the camp. That is the shadow
of the coming event Of quitting the game
and going back to town,
@We are Just getting settled down into
the work and into the camp life, said one
of the men Of Company f to-day, "and
night there is where we have to begin TO
think of going home"
IT'S the same story with the officers.
Tn" camp work only comes once IN TWO
years and only a week of II at that. IT Is
during the last three days Of the week that
practically all the best Of the work of in
str1lction and training is done The gen
eral sentiment among the officers l. that
those three days ought to be strung out
until they are at least ten. Furthermore,
the opinion is equally general that the turn
In camp ought to come every twelve months
ms ead Of every two years
All this applies more than ever now that
the new regulations have made OF the
National Guard service matter more
serious than it ever was before. Having
back of these new regulations the strong
personality of Gen. Roe, there is no reason
the officers here are saying why the Ma
tional Guard Of the State OF New York
should not keep on setting the pace for the
entire army reserve of the country. With
such regiments the Seventh, with its
splendid esprit du corps from Col. Appleton
who has stamped his own high soldierly
Ideals so strongly on his command-all the
way down, New York's National Guard is
already the model for other States to pat
tern after, 1t ia the intention of Gen. Roe
that it always shall be, and Furthermore
that the model shall be. steadily improved
upon.
That there always will be a gap between
State soldiers and soldiers of the Regular
army in the matter of thoroughness of train
ing is inevitable but Gen. Roe's enthusi-
Hstic application of the new regulations
1t Ia felt by all the officers here in camp
is rapidly narrowing that gap down. That
is why there is SO much regret that the
camp instruction under Gen. Roes eye has
to come at such long intervals and has to be
cut short even when it does come Just at
the lime it is beginning to do the most
good
This same sentiment prevails among the
enlisted men as well as among the officers
The men of the Seventh have taken heartily
to the new regulations as to camp life in its
greater resemblance to real soldering in
the. field. The plain army food-bought
with an allowance Of 3S cents a day a man