New-York tribune., 1916-07-24
Wood Visits McAdoos.

Wood VISITS McAdOos-
General Leonard Wood visited the
McAdoos at the hotel this afternoon,
but the Secretary did not go to camp
Headquarters. He will start by motor
tomorrow for Albany. Colonel Roose-
Welt did not make the expected visit to-
day, but il is thought he will be here
later.
Saving daylight will be put into ef-
feet with increased vigor tomorrow
when rcveille for the 9Th Regiment,
business men, will be at AIS, an hour
and a half earlier than for the others
They have been getting out at 4:45, but
il was found that even this did not
give enough daylight for them to get
through their shooting in the pre-
scribed time. and the time for getting
them out was advanced half an hour
more.
Learning Slang and Songs.
There are two phases of military
training the rockies are getting in
army life here that are not IN the regu-
lations. One is a mastery OF soldier
slang, the other head full Of army
songs. Army songs are not always ele-
CANT, and rely more than q little on
swear words TO exc out their metre,
but they have the virtue of an easy
swing. Nor is army slang always
soothing 70 the ear of the purist, but
it has the quality of vigor.
The favorite song the citizen soldiers
have picked up from the regulars is
sung to the tune Of "The Jolly Sopho-
more" as they 60 hiking over the coun-
try roads, provided the sun is not too
hot or the dust has not parched tnelr
throats so much that Lieutenant At
kins's harmonica musicians are al
lowed to do all the tune making;
The infantry. the infantry. with dust behind their
TIE infantry. the infantry na, iaps up all the
Oh the artillery ard the cavalry and The soldarned
They co1idn, best tie infan,r ln a hundred thou
sand yesH
Another tune is to the music OF
"John Browns Body" and goes:
The "a Battalion jumped nsht over the lst Bat
To ed battalion jumped light Ovsr the l., Bat
The "a RAJ Rsttaiioa Jumped hight over The ist Bat
talion's back.
and so on ad inhnitum. being brought
to an end with They were only play
ing leap-frog," repeated as often as the
/ company Dfedth ana LHlVsts Hoiu "u''
Regulars pick One Up.
Here is one song. TO reverse things.
that the regulars have picked up from
the rockies II is the product Of June
student:
Oh, there vas dosgoue rookie marching i1 the
posn come heiiuya rain and r,isted up his gun.
he worked all da' "i'h ras ami ol cleaning IT,
And down, come another rain and nstod 10 some
more
/. And another verse is:
on there vas boom,l' rookie went out to haze a
seq h.. I'm soin' 20 have glass n beer ! think
lie started forth 90 onler &c. thinking ~ it, charms
And along come an OFFICER and made bin order
Army slang. in which the rockies are
becoming proficient with the aid Of the
regular army sergeants Quartered with
each company. has a word for every
need For instance, II is only the green
est tyro who will call the bugler by
that name. In the vernacular of the
army he is the "windiammer.'
About half OF the men of the 9Th
Regiment, senior division. are "sand
rats" these days. A sand rat" only
means that a man is sent into the bull
let-proof ssndpits under the targets TO
mark the hits Of his comrades.
"Busted" Means Reduced.
The highly inelegant sounding word
bust" has very definite meaning in
the army. 1t means TO reduce in rank
and is applied TO a "non-com." who is
set down to the rank Of private.
There are number Of slang words
in use in ordinary life that have a spe-
cial Specification in the life of the
: khaki clad. "Bunkie" means ones tent
mate. whether in the eight-man squad
tents or the two-man pup tents the
latter being little hutch-like shelter
tents carried on the march. each occu-
pant carrying a half in his infantry
pack
As in college life. so in the army
bone" means to study, for the army
too, has lessons. such as manual Of
arms, tactics, signalling and a hundred
other kinds. "Sinker." which has a
familiar sound TO the civilian ear, IN
the ranks means a dumpling in the
stew or sometimes a biscuit.
skinner a Blanket.
There src plenty Of other terms for
which the most vivid imagination could
not conjure up a meaning. skinner"
means a worn army blanket, come
and get it" is the call for mess; dough
10y" means an infantryman the army
world over; baby horder" is the term
you hear about barracks, meaning
nurse maid for an officers child:
crawl" means 10 admonish. and gold
fish" is army for canned salmon. a
form OF "chow" frequently found as
the piece de resistance OF an army
meal.
There is one dstinctively soldier
phrase which philologists have traced
10 the Philippines "jawbone" II
is a most serviceable word. for il is
both a noun and verb. As noun IL is