Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1916-12-29
ENGLAND WORKS ON
FIGHTING MEN FOR
THE NEW TRAINING

testing address on THE Making and
Remaking of a Fighting Man" deliv-
cred at the annual meeting of the Ma
tional College Athletic Association
here today, R. TAFT Mckenzie, profess
! sor of Physical Education at the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania and late Ma
jor r. A. NJ c., England, said, in
4 part:
Il You do not need a watch to tell
when it is 8 O'Clock at the Headquar-
ters Gymnasium at Aldershot. For Is
minutes or more groups of men in
black trousers and jerseys, or officers
in tennis kit, have been accommodating,
and at 9:08 o'clock precisely shrill
whistle petrifies them In the position
of attention. There is dead silence
and the sharp command Fall in is
succeeded by a scramble out of which
emerge 20 classes of officers and men,
| each in proportion of about 4 to !,
neatly arranged on the floor. each
with staff instructor in charge. At
the command staff fall in each in
structor doubles to where the Serg-
cant Major stands and there they
stand at attention to receive the days
orders. These given, they make a
right turn, rise on the toes and scurry
off to their respective classes. An
other silence, and the sharp command
Carry on is followed by babel of
orders as the various groups march
cut of the four doors to selected
places in the twenty-acre grounds that
surround the gymnasium. For the
next hour-and-a-half each class is
put through the table of exercises for
the day; each exercise detailed, re-
peated and corrected until officer and
men have the proper speed and ac-
curacy for which they strive.
Details of Work Done.
AT 1920 the whistle breaks the
classes up into groups for brief
wait After Is minutes the same pro-
ceeding is gone through again, but
this time the men are paired off; No.
l teaching the last hours work to No.
2 and back again from to /, under
the fire of the Instructors criticism.
Again a short rest and the bayonets
are fixed, and the position of ON
guard point and parry are ex-
planned, shown and demonstrated.
1915 the classes heassemble, and now
they are marched out, combined into
one mass drill of exercises selected
from the eight tables of the British
gymnastic law. After this display the
mass breaks up into its component
classes, and the detailing of exercises,
bayonet fighting and gymnastic games
fills the time until o'clock, when
the days work is over. Every month
a new class replaces those who have
gone before into the great training
camps.
i When the war broke out in August
1914 the staff of gymnastic instruc-
tors. up to the inspector himself, dis
solved overnight and rejoined their
regiments, and for ten days this de-
partment had no head, The new ~
spector was confronted by az argent
demand for instructors win none 10
send, but he at once ree@Iisted men
who had gone into civil life teachers
in board and private schools) in fact
anyone who had training, and he re-
constructed his staff from these vet
Grams. Soon, however, their num-
bers were augmented in another
way, Familiar faces reappeared linen
from the trenches) one with a bullet.
through his shoulder blade, another
with part of his foot gone from shrap-
rel. They were not fit for active ser
vice. but their experience as teachers
was invaluable.
New Armies Represent Every Glass.
THE new armies have tapped every
stratum Of English society; the ILL
discipline lordling, whose whim was
his only law; the STRIPPING just from
school and colleges; lawyers, doctors,
merchants. clerks (soft from seden-
tary life;) ironworkers, navies, lab
orers (slow of action and speech -all
lad to be welded into homogeneous
body, quick and alert of action. sure
of eye and hand, and above all capable
of endurance; able to march and take
care of themselves; ready to obliterate
themselves before a hostile aeroplane
by day or a star-shell at night; able
to dig like badgers even after har1
days march; steady with the rife;
duick uOwerfl1I and relentless with