The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1917-06-06

Special to The Daily Item.
omcsrs' Training camp. Fou
os,sthorps. Ga. Juno s.-rhis has
btsn the hardest week the candidates
for conamlssions in the of,cers' re-
serve corps have had yet. This Is said
sven whom the fact is taken into con-
sidsrstion that wednesday
\ uoo Day--was observed as a holi-
~ and besides attending memorial
eervieeA there was nothing else in the
Wy q duty to bo performed. This In
d'catss "a measure what wis done
On othsv days Of the week. and
mat the rain fell on three mornings
ana stopped drill for while, but
whom the companies went out, they
more than made up for lost time.
Today is saturday-another week
has rolled around and. while 1t has
been only three weeks since we ar
rived here on Monday morning. II
ssems ~ II u has been AZ many years
that we have been here. What we
have here is very Inherent from what
any Of M. except few who went to
plAttsburs. have ever had before.
The work In tho camp--that cf
training men TO become army officers,
= In the opinion OF the wviter. pro.
eesdtng with wonderful rapidly. OF
esesse there are few dullards In
every company who handicap the 9TH
80 60 very great extent and pre-
vent their proceeding with the rapid
~ they would otherwise attain. but
ths rate 10 fast enough az Il n and
~ duIl ones win be weeded out as
the work proceeds. The wedding out
precsss has been going on all the |
time. but win be more rapid here
of1er NJ ff- e .s.l, M
The drill the past week has been
from TO II. 80 a. m. ard from f.ao TO |
y ~ When after bayonet exercise. /
ering sxsrcises, close order driil and |
attended order. ending with a charge
q halt = mile over rough field 10 ovo-. /
: fellow fssls Ike rest and 10 quite
ready Tor dinner tir' nyS q al
Friday 10 march day" This week /
The alike wss for txo hours with fun /
packa After our return Mt s.3O, wc
went out for harA drill until the
rain put an end to Il at i1.sO. In the
afternoon the drill was doubly strcn-
uous. IN mono OF the companies had |
shown up IN the competitive drill OF
the morning, az the company COM
msEdsrs wanted them to. saturday is |
an easy day. inspection and drill to
~ and a holiday from then on to 10
p. m. Sunday night uniess the poor
unfortunate has gotten In bad and has
TO DO extra duty on Saturday after
neon.
Tho work In our camp has all
been practically completed. Some sew
er lines have yet 10 be completed. In
diestng the bitches much blasting has
to 'be done. At first the men found
these sudden explosions very discon-
ccrsfns. but now they do not mind
them at all. Good training for the
future battle front. The work on the
army cantonment about half a mile
away from here is proceeding with ex-
tracrdinary rapidity. II already has
almost ~ many buildings as our camp.
Thirty thousand men-three divisions
-sre to be housed there when secur-
Cd by the conscription measures.
Probably the officers will come here
from other officers training camps
AMI the officers appointed from this
camp will be sent TO other parts of
the country. That seems to be the
system tho army has decided on for
training men.
"Wednesday. Decoration Day. was
observed. Brief. but appropriate ad-
dresses were made by cha plains of the
regular army. II was an imposing
sisht TO see the two regiments of reg
ulsrs. Infantry. one Of cavalry. and
our regiment OF candidate officers
drawn up In a square about the speak.
ers stand. The regulars have excel
lent bands for each regiment. We
had to use their bands.
Wednesday night the Y. NJ. C. A..
n big roomy one-story shack. the only
painted building In tho camp. was
dedicated and given over to Col. slo-
cum. our commanding officer. for the
men In camp. Several short talks