Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-06-11

have been captured at one time or an
other. These wagons are nothing
more than square wooden boxes
mounted on a wheeler. from which
telephone wire can be paid out. They
have, however been found to make
excellent machine gun Ammunition
wagons and are turned to their new
use by the simple expedient OF being
htted with pigeon hole compartments.
In con junction with the machine
shop there is shoe shop and q
leather shop, whore broken saddles
are mended. and where the straps for
artillery wagons, rifles and KNAPP
sacks are put into order once more.
II is the exception rather than the
rule that any piece of apparatus used
at the front is damaged so badly that
Il cannot be mended here or that IL
has to be sent back to Germany.
In point of interest to the casual
visitor, the prize of the division head
quarters is the "Sammclstelle" or coll
lection polnt--the junk pile contain
ing the sweepings of the battle field
would be a better name--where every
conceivable object from bits Of rub
Der to broken bayonets and cartridge
shells is collected and sorted out.
The knapsack of every wounded
soldier first or last finds its way to
his big building and there Is subject
ed to the scrutiny of Junk experts.
The cartridges that remain are laid
to one side, TO be reapportioned to
some other fighter. The drinking
TASKS or bottles are similarly weeded
out, and the clothes that still are III
to wear are placed in piles according
TO their character.
The hayonets go to one depart
ment where they are care fully clean
ed and put in shape for use again.
The rifles-they include not only
German but French, English. eBlgian
and Russian guns-are thoroughly
overhauled and oiled and come out
looking like new. Every piece of
equipment that still has value is ren-
ovated.
After every battle in which the Ger
mans have been victorious the field
Is literally secured, and all the junk
is transported to headquarters.
Scores OF ripped and torn auto tires
are collected and sent to an estab-
lishment where the rubber can be
utilized in the making of new tubes.
A big laundry establishment with
capacity of over 100000 garments in
less than a month cleans old clothes
after they have been repaired and
puts them into shape for further use
by new soldiers or by old troops
whose supply has been exhausted.
A spur of the railroad track runs
directly to the end of the "Sammel-
STEELE" and carts away to Germany
huge quantities of scrap that has
every appearance of being worthless
but which later is to appear in new
ly manufactured form. Not one thing
with any possible value is wasted.
The division headquarters very
has not only the hospital ia
cillties that are common to most Ger
man cities but also a medicament
headquarters. In a wholesale drug es-
adjustment of almost staggering size
there are stored some 1000, 900 marks
worth of medicine and medical in
struments for use in the field hos
pitfalls.
Volunteer and professional nurses
prepare some $4,000 yards of band
ages a day, which are shipped off to
the front in compact packages. The
establishment maintains Is mounted
plants that are shifted from
point to point along the front and
prepare daily some 10000 liters of
water for the soldiers.
There are also movable Roentgen
Ray machines which can be taken to
the front for use in desperate cases.
Toxins and serums in little globules
are on hand in great quantities, and
the equipment of the plant is so com
plete that there are even cases of
snow goggles for the use of the sol
diers on sunny days in winter
AS an adjunct to the wholesale
drug establishment there is soap
factory with weekly capacity of
SO goo Kilograms a week-so large
that not only are four armies sup
piled but the civil populations of the
city as well. There is dsinfecting
establishment where both soldiers
and their clothes are purified. and
where the long Red Cross hospital
trains after use are switched in and
steriized and fumigated.