The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-08-11
BUSINESS men ARE
LEARNING TO SOLDIER
Thousand Of Them Are Having the
Time OF Their Lives In Learn
ing Military Drill.
EVEN RICHMOND REPRESENTED
Mayor OF New York Is High Private In
Rear Rank--Now Know Difference
Between Springfield and Machine
Gun.

Plattsburg, n. Y. Aug. 1o.--From
all along the Atlantic seaboard and
from as far indoors as Iowa and Kan
sas. professional and business men
1907 by shutdown tonight.
had come to the business-like military
camp on the outskirts OF
Plattsburg.
The mayor of New York had along
about daybreak become Private ). r.
Mitchell, Private Bob Bacon is the
same gentleman who not so long ago
was Robert Bacon, United States am
bassador to France.
And very long before sunset their
hands were blistered, all these one
time celebrities who for four weeks
to come will at their own expense eat
the camp chow, and like 1t: hustle
baggage. erect tents, clean rifles, make
their own beds, and hike and drill,
and hike and drill. and drill, drill.
Cotilion leaders. IL there be such
things as cotillons now. All-American
football stars, young men with more
millions than military knowledge, TWO
sons and a son-in-law Of an ex-presi-
dent of the United States: the collector
of the port OF New York. an ex-poiice
of New York, social
leaders from apartments in the Hotel
Biltmore, New York. where daily
engaged section OF the regu-
lar army in the person of Corporal
Malachi Tigue. from Governors
Island. taught Joe the manual of arms
with a Biltmore broomhandie as sole
L. rnf ~ %
among the New York con-
tingent. Theodore, Jr.. and Archie pot
tered around all forenoon. Phillip
Roosevelt, six feet four. and still
growing, and the Hon. Dick Little, OF
Chicago, also six four and growing.
are chartered in the same tent. With
them Is Teddy, Jr.'s brother-in-law,
DR.. Richard Derby.
New York. Boston. Philadelphia,
Pittsburg. Chicago. Baltimore. Rich
mond, and other cities are represent
ed. Magazine editors, an ex-lieutenant
governor of the State, former charge
d affaires, an ex-governor of Porto
Rico, and other celebrities are on
hand.
Governor Visits Camp.
The ranking general of the United
States army was about camp all day
and will sleep In a tent on the field
tonight just as II he was merely
mayor of New York. The day had
hardly got under way. the rain had.
however. when the governor of the
State himself was on the ground.
while seventeen gums roared salute.
and infantry. engineers, and cavalry
of the regulars, their band banging
ahead of them over the wet grass.
were reviewed by Governor Whitman
and General Leonard Wood, with
state Superintendent Of Prisons Riley
the immediate background.
However biistered the hands Of the
private mayors and lieutenant gov
srnors and ambassadors might be,
they seemed to have forgotten their
pains and aches In the almost small
boyish JOY they got out Of their first
wet day of soldering. And. although
they bore their new found military
importance meekly, any man of them
could have permitted his Khaki cover
ed chest to swell n bit and be excused
for so doing had he heard the very
fine things the regular army officer
proxies, here to teach them. were say
ing tonight.
Learned Lot In Day.
Men VINO at DAWN KNEW only tttaS q
Springfield was some sort OF gun. by
mid afternoon were lining the COM
pany streets drilling, perhaps not win
regular army precision. but in fash
ion that gave their teachers Joy.
They've learned today" said Cap
tain Gordon Johnston, U. $. A. adj
jutant OF the camp. what the usual
recruits take two or three days to
To Judge by the forty-five-centi-
metre snores that rolled from end to
end OF the company streets tonight.
/ ne sheer faaigUreY coupled wfsss the,
fact that the sleeping tents, cots and
had been brought here from
ali had combined 70
send the amateur soldiers to the
Never. Never Land for the count.
In fact up to this late hour of writ
Ing there is only one drawback that
threatens to grow serious-none OF
the war correspondents have yet beer
able to find a Germsn spy lurking
around the camp. The search for one
will be taken up hopefully again to.
however.