Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1916-08-18
500 BADGERS GET
!. INCREASE IN PAY
BECOME HIGH PRIVATES IN WIS
coNsIN BRIGADE UNDER
NEW ORDER.
LEON SPRINGS PLEAsES MEN
Would Prefer Longer Stay at Rifle
Range Before Returning to Fort
Sam Houston-Tscenery Like
That of Home State.

Leon Springs Texas. - BY an order
now effective, about 600 men in the
Wisconsin brigade have been made
high privates with an increase of SO a
month in pay. Through army reor-
ganization each company will have
three more sergeants and four addi-
tionaI corporals, which means about
1000 promotions in the Badger con-
tingent.
The scenic beauty of Leon Springs
has caused many of the brigade camp
ed here for two weeks of rifle prac-
tice to prefer a longer sojourn before
returning to Fort Sam Houston. Elk
cept for the absence of titled land right
and left of the roads, the scenery is
very much the same as that in Wis
consin.
There are wooded hills and valleys
for miles and miles. Many of the hills
rise 300 to 500 feet above the nearby
valleys. From them the guardsmen
have been getting some of the finest
views they have had in years. Hills
from one of the hills on this 10000
acre government military tract.
Except for the abundance of lime
stone rocks this place would be sec
ond paradise. There isn't much cac-
tus here, and palms of several kinds
are here in abundance. The camp al
ready has been so thoroughly planted
with palms, transferred from all parts
of the reservation, that it resembles
roof garden more than military
grounds twenty-four miles from civili-
cation.
GrumbIe at Students Release.
Another order received at camp is
that all guardsmen who are students
may return to school Sept. /. This
order has caused some grumbling
among the older men, who are of the
opinion that the students could more
easily afford to lose little time at
study than the older men could away
from business. 1t is estimated that
about 100 students in the Wisconsin
brigade will take advantage of the new
order and return home. Some militia
men are complaining of the inactivity
of the war department at Washington.
Many have filed applications for dis
charge.
Foresee Long Border Stay.
No one has any idea how long the
troops will stay and the only informa
ton vouchsafed is the regimental bull
letin giving orders for the next day.
If extensive preparations are any
Indication it would seem that the men
are due for an indefinite stay. The
large contracts for supplies, the cree
ton of permanent mess kitchens and
the hundreds of other preparations
cause the belief that it will be late in
the fall before the men are sent north
ward-even if negotiations with Mexi-
&C result successfully.
Members of the medical reserve
corps, civilian doctors who have quail
fed for the army service have been
recently ordered to the border. In
Wisconsin tAese men were ordered to
Camp Duglas to assist in the eXamina-
ton of the men for federal service and
after this was completed they were or
dered home. Recently new orders
were issued and they are now at the
border. Lieut. W. G. Merrill, Grand
Rapids, who was at Camp Douglas,
has arrived at San Antonio and is as
signed to the base hospital.
These preparations may simply be
a measure of preparedness. They may
mean that the government is equip
ping the national guard and training
it for service in the field as a first line
organization.
The members of the Wisconsin brig
ade. who complained of the heat in
Camp Wilson, have real cause for
kicking now. At the Springs, the
tents have been pitched on surface
of rock, which sends up heat waves
all day and night, too. With the mer-
curry near the 100 mark and straw
sacks for beds, some of the boys are
getting little Sleep these nights.
Making Wlerd Collection.
Lieut.. Carl Brosius of Company F,
First infantry is making a collection
of the wild things around Leon
Springs. He has large ant eater, or
armadilla, scorpion and baby tar
antula, and five-foot adder. He killed
the snake and is drying it's skin.
The tarantula and scorpion furnish
ed amusement for number of officers
and men when they put UP fight to
the death in bottle in which they
had been placed. The scorpion finally
~~~O~~~~
Lives in Wausau 81 Years.
Wausau-With sixty-seven years to
his credit, David P. Bentley, who is IS
years old, holds the longest residence
in the city of Wausau. He came to this
place in 1849,, when there were less
than 100 people in the settlement here.