El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-01-09

~ EGIMENTAL parade was held
* Thursday by the Doth infantry
for the first time since the reg
iment came to help patrol Ell Paso's
border and prevent gun running Mex
leans from carrying munitions across
to the rebels in Juarez The parade
was conducted at the HEADQUARTERS
camp with all the ceremony and pre-
clslon 81 movement that characterizes
such atiairs. Tt was reviewed by Col
Fred Perkins and his staff The Third
battalion came over from its camp to
parade with the others. The regiment
made a splendid showing.
With the Officers and men all com
fOrtably Quartered and the mess and
kitchen houses built, Col Perkins set
the infantrymen at work to construct
drill and parade ground out of the
five acres or so of tin cans, debris,
ash dumps. baling wire. tumble
weeds, cactus and sand, that
formed the "stomping ground" for the
hogs and chickens of the Mexicans
who live in the district surrounding
the headquarters camp.
A Transformation in p Hours
Wednesday morning Mexican pigs
were roofing among the tin cans and
the ashes were being used for dust
baths by the Mexican chickens in the
area south of the camp That was
before Col Perkins gave the get
busy" order. Twenty four hours later,
on Thursday morning, five acre drill
ground had replaced the former dump
ing ground, its surface was leveled
with scrapers and hardened by Sprlnk-
ling and\ rolling until it presented !
hard adobe surface. Upon this over ]
night drill ground the entire regiment |
held its first parade since leaving Fort I
Douglas, Utah, almost two months /
Upon a part Of the parade ground /
basketball court VIII be constructed /
for the infantry teams, and other 4
athletic courts viii be arranged.
Parade Every Thursday.
Full regimental parade viii be held 4
upon this drill ground every Thurs I
day morning at 1890 o'clock This is 1
a public ceremony that Ell PasOans I
may be interested to observe. Guests /
are always welcome at the army camp. /
With the new drill ground, the camp 1
presents a splendid appearance, the |
company streets and rows Of tents, /
are set on automatically accurate /
lines, and the precision of arrange
ment Immaculate neatness, and gen
eral appearance of the camp is excep-
tonally fine.
The ground of the camp site is
sprinkled and rolled daily and has a
splendid surface, but unfortunately
for the soldiers, the ground Of the ad-
Joining city streets and Mexican homes
has neither seen nor felt hose or
roller for many moons, consequently
the officers and men have to wear
sand goggles when the wind blows
and have to breathe and swallow lib
eral clouds Of filth from their unhy-
gienic neighbor
Grand Mount at I p. II.
The new drill ground viii also be
daily used for guard mounting which /
occurs at I o'clock every afternoon.
This ceremony is a very interesting
one and is usually watched by big
Of the men in camp The
band and the guard pass in review
before the officer of the day, and the
1lrsU serEeants from each company /
place their detachment of men and
turn them over to the battalion ser
geant major. The guard is then in
spected, the band passes in review and
led by the trump eters, the guard
off to its stations Three
u non commissioned officers
and 48 prlVates are the average num-
Der OF men on guard daily, supplied Z
by the first and second battaliOns at I
the headquarters camp. The third Z
battalion has guard mount for about
30 men a day at its camp near the
gas tanks.
Streets Have Names.
Another improvement being put in /
effect in headquarters camp by Col. !
Perkins, orders, is the placing Of /
streets, signs, and also /
name plate outside of each officers
ent
For the additional comfort Of the
men, wooden door frames and doors
nave been put in all Of the tents / /
This not only keeps out the sand. but Z ]
makes the tents more comfortable in
old weather
IeTican Prisoners Get Good @ChOvv.s
The Mexican prisoners camp has
leen moved to the north end of the
amp This gives the prisoners more
privacy The Mexicans are probably
better food than they have
.ver faced three times a day in their G
ives before. 1t is not only provided / {
or them by Uncle Sam, but one of the / /
rood cooks Of the regiment has been e
etailed to prepare the food for the /
prisoners. and consequently they are ( Z
aving the best in the chow" line ! I
lieut.. A E. Amends and Lieut. F. r :
'almer are detailed in charge of the :
risOners and the guard /
A special court was held to dispose / \
f several cases in the regiment t
thursday afternoon at headquarters / Il
amp. Capt r. W. Mearns was pre-
iding officer of the court Second j
lieut.. c. p. Hall was judge advocate | o
nd the members of the court were C
apt. j. l. Dewitt, First Lieut. H. NJ
Jelly, Second Lieut. J. A. Early and G
ecOnd Lieut. D. F. Mcdonald
Regiment Gets New Pack.
Entirely new equipment is being I C
5sued to the regiment. Among the in 7
oVa1ons Is the new style pack This =