Las Vegas optic., 1914-08-18

Yesterday General Martin took a
newspaper man into the lower regions
and they gave the war equipment the
once over"
Taking the collection as it came. the
first exhibit was a room containing
$4,000 worth of olive-drab overcoats,
all securely packed IN boxes each the
size of small trunk Then a room
filled with damaged clothing and
quipment-haversacl and things,
which are soon to be destroyed by or
der of the government, after each arti-
Gle has been checked. The checking
system is so exact that no one could
remove an old shoe from that base
ment and get away with it. Another
room contains enough harness, pack
ed in cases, to pull all the wagons and
field pieces-providing of course, that
each harness had a horse or a mule
inside it, (The horses and mules are
not packed in the boxes with the har-
ness) All kinds of spare parts and
repair materials for all kinds of army
fixtures are to be found in another
department, and still another contains
raft of camp equipment such as COL
lapsible stoves, kettles and pans
anything else that belongs in a camp
litchent
Next door are all the tools for clear
ing a forest, building houses or dig
ging hole in the ground, building a
railroad or tearing it up by the roots.
Hard by the outfit for stringing sew
eral miles of field telegraph and tele-
phone line, and the instruments to use
at either end of said line. And one
thing that impresses the visitor was
the familiarity shown by the COM
mander of the Kansas army for every
minor unit that makes up the acres of
assorted stuff under the state house.
He would thrust an arm into some
dark recess and produce a sample of
some recently adopted improvement.
An aluminium caseknife, weighing
about as much as lead pencil, came
from one box, and the new aluminium
cup that takes the place of the old
rolled tin "growler," from another.
He knows the place for everything, /!
and keeps it there.
Over in the south end of the cellar |
is a fleet of the military substitute for
the ancient prairie schooner. These |
wagons are equipped to the last de-
tail. A full set of nosebags for horses.
tools for digging and hosting out of
ruts, repairs for broken parts-every-
thing complete with each soldier
buggy.
One small room contains 80 caliber
cartridges. A hundred and seventy
thousand jackrabbits or other unde-
sirables could be slain with this col
lection, if every bullet were properly
placed.
A department in the basement is
given over to the repair of sick and
shooting irons. A young sol
der with mechanical genius puts in
part of his time repairing guns sent
in by guardsmen from all over the
state. Several boxes of new gun bar
rels, extra stocks, springs, sights and
other parts are at hand, and after he
has prescribed for service Spring
field the gun goes back home feeling
as good as new.
Swords have gone out of style in
the artillery branch of the service.
No longer is the jingle of a yard of
sabre added to the jingle of chain
harness as the field guns wheel into
action. The man with the red string
around his hat carries no war tools
but an automatic pistol, highly poi
sonous piece of machinery that starts
shooting at the slightest provocation,
and has to be stopped, sometimes,
with a monkey wrench. Another
good idea, when the automatic goes
on tear, is to throw it away and hide
behind a reinforced concrete building
until it runs down.
And. the sabre being discarded. Gen |