Evening star., 1913-11-23

the exciting indoor base ball
games that are fought out on
the indoor base ball diamond in the
drill hall of the armory of the Naval
Battalion of the National Guard of the
District of Columbia. Two full teams,
with sufficient number of substitutes.
have been formed. and these teams
have been practicing for days. pre-
pairing to get into battle practice with
any indoor base ball team of the city
which is willing to meet them, broad
side on.
While the men expect to get great
amount of pleasure out of their base
ball playing they must also work at
their military duties and earn their
places on the team.
Ensign Frank w. Sigourney is in
charge Of the indoor base ball work
The only men who will be allowed to
regular in their attendance. Failure
OF a member of the team to attend drill
on any night will bar him from enjoy
ing turn at the bat or even in the
field the following Thursday. and If
he misses too many drills he will be
barred completely.
Commander Joseph a. Dempf declares
that he intends to encourage all kinds
of healthy sports during the winter,
both indoor and outdoor He hopes to
build up the battalion with men who
will work to get their pleasure. Dur
ing the drill nights the early part of
the evening will be given over to hard
drills and exercises and then the men
will be released in plenty of time to
get in a good game of indoor base ball.
In preparing for a large number of
games during the winter the large
windows in the drill hall will be
screened to protect them.
Court-martial proceedings were held at
the Naval Battalion armory last Monday
night The papers were made out last
week and were served by Chief Master
alarms Connors. and the men appeared
for trial Monday. Ensign Frank Sigour-
ney. sitting as summary court officer.
made ii plain to all of the five men
who appeared for trial that Commander
Dempf had determined to prevent the
lax attendance at the drills of the bat
talon. While the men are tried on
specified case of absenteeism. their gen.
eral record Is taken into consideration
In passing sentence While Ensign
Sigourney declared that he was not In
clined to be too severe on men who
do not attend because they work at night
or because they are detained at home
for any one of a number of reasons, he
declared that the men must get into
communication with their divisional Of
hcers by telephone or otherwise and be
properly excused.
In this connection Ensign Sigourney
made a recommendation to Commander
Dempf that he order all of the divisional
officers to keep a strict record of all men
who were excused and to report each
case in writing to the executive officer
for notation in the roll book. Com
mander Dempf declared that he would
see that this is done.
The men were brought before the
court on a charge of absence from drill
OF war and neglect of duty, to the
prejudice and good order and military
discipline. In violation of the sixty
second article of war. Specifically the
charges were that the defendants mot
being prevented by sickness or other
necessity. did fail to repair at the fixed
time to the place of drill appointed by
his commanding officer and did fail
TO obtain leave of absence from the
drill appointed by his commanding off,
Ger. as required by existing orders"
Ensign Sigourney. with the aid of
corps OF yeomen, Will be at the armory
today to make out number of
additional cases for trial before a
summary court. The divisional off,
GERS will be called upon to appear as
witnesses against the men who are to
for court-martial puts into concrete
form Commander Dempfs announced
plan of enforcing attendance at drills.
So rapid is the work now progressing
on the L. 5. S. Sylvia, the naval yacht
assigned to the naval militia of the
District, that it IS expected that with
in the next three weeks she will be
making her maiden voyage in her i'm