The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1917-10-08
CAMOUFLEURS FOR
AMERICAS ARMIES
COMPANY OF ARTISTS ALREADY
is WORKING HARD AT THE
ART or coNcEALMENT.
MANY MEN OF NOTE ENLISTED
They Are Proving Themselves Very
Clever in Learning and Devising
Methods of Disgusting objects So
Enemy Cannot Recognize Them.
BY EDWARD 8. CLARK.

NoSiilStoh. Every udy fecfullS are
coming in for the battalion of Ameri-
can artists, enlisted or commissioned
as a part of the United States engi-
neers for the purpose of using brush,
color, and every ingenious artistic de-
sign to fool the German enemy on the
lines in France.
The work which these soldier artists
dc Is called by the French camouflage.
which is an old slang word of the
French stage intended to be descrip~
tive of the makeup of the actors. In
Its military sense the term refers to
the work of SO %conceallng or Disgusting
an object that the enemy cannot
recognize Ii for what Ii Is.
The endeavor of the artist runs along
lines Ike these: The enemy discov-
ers when too late that a peaceful rock
Is a death dealing gun; a hedge not
grown by nature but constructed by
the artists, conceals n regiment; a
shaTp-shooter. after the artist gets
through with his uniform, coloring II
here and there, melts so into the back
ground that the enemy cannot see him;
that which appears to be a mound of
earth really may be a row of helmets
with a rileman behind each-and 81
the work of the camoufieurs runs.
A company of artists now commits
stoned or enlisted as Company A..
Twenty-Fifth United States engineers.
Is encamped in the city of Washing
ton rnaIlV- ratharfnu 80 article
sculptors, architects. civil engineers
and others who have won fame with
brush and chisel. and many of them
men who nave earned large fortunes.
are now drilling and experimenting
In this camp ut the capital. They must
be soldiers as well as artists. for no
n who goes upon n foreign battle
! field in the uniform of the United
States Is permitted to be there until
he has learned how to take care of
himself.
Some OF Our c~amoufleurs.
This company of artists which Is to
90 abroad to fool the Germans by
making things seem what they are
not IL commanded by Captain Nixon
Miller. who for more than seven years
was a member of the Pennsylvania
National Guard. and who was employ
ed rs a civil engineer In the Panama
Canal construction.
A first lieutenant of the company is
Homer Saint-Gaudens, a son of the
man generally acknowledged to be the
greatest American sculptor. Lieu
tenant Saint-Gaudens is a stage di-
rector of note. II was he who pro-
duced the wonderful effects and illu-
sions in peter Pan" and other plays
which held the eye as well as the
mind. The second lieutenant is VIII
fred s. Conrow. the landscape painter.
The company contains many men of
the highest standing I'm their profess
sion. Fry Is a pupil of MacMonnies,
dorado Taft and other distinguished
sculptors, and like two others of the
company. Faulkner and Harry Thrash
err. has taken the Prix de Rome.
Among the comrades are Suffer. Tube
sing. Denver and Nell, the painters.
Twigg Smith. who has been painting
exquisite scenes of the Hawaiian Is
lands, has come back and enlisted.
Sanger. Hoyt. Foster and Comstock
are enlisted among the architects.
Pershing Wants Them.
All are young men but they come
from the best offices II the United
States and many already have made
names for themselves. Leslie Thrash
er, who draws frontispieees for the
Saturday Evening Post, is a soldier
camoufieur. Men of this stamp are
appearing at the camp every day, and
e%nlistments are coming In so fast that
Major Tracy has had his hands full
dealing with them. The spirit of the
command Is an inspiration to the lay.
man.
While the achievements of the
French I'm camouflage are well known
and the American organization is In
It's infancy, il has been worth much
to the men TO know that General Per
shing really is eager for their services
The art Of concealment has o tc
fear from the cameras of the enemy
IoT iHdnN an obJtel Which, ppsdiS iu
nocent to the eye Is remorselessly ex
posed by the lens and the plates
Knowing this, the men are conducting
a series of experiments in celebration
which are carefully being tested our
photographically.
An artificial green which would de
ceive naturalists at a few hundred
yards. might show black under tn,
merciless gaze of the camera, and thu
artists already have mastered a secre
of fooling the lens. They have invent
ed a grass which can be turned u II
quantities by a machine and which Il
used as a covering. and they hav,
learned so to color Ii that 1t will def,
detection. The artists have starred
trench work and already have discov
cred a method whereby a rifemaf
equipped with proper helmet car be 5.
..,.o.Ial that N xrhnJa raofp.npt ,.fnh