New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-23

| Fat feet and my cars don't work I'm
n sucker for this army stuff, like a
| FOX"
! Somehow or other, as did lot Of
/ others who talked in the same strain,
he had passed the local board cXamina-
| tion without calling attention TO the
/ aatnCSS Of his feet, the sickness inside
[ Of him or his trouble IN hearing. And
/ SO. like lot Of others, he bridled at
! the thought that the final medical au-
/ thoritics here IN Camp Upton should
reject him as a mlsht. His had been
/ only case of conversational malin-
CerinC Having come thus far he was
bound TO so through.
81 guess said the ex-GophCr, "thcy
won't be letting me slip away
Guess not" agreed Private Jones.
Now, If you men want some more
/ TIPS
For another ten or fifteen minutes
! they stood on the corner where their
paths had crossed Tho men in mutt.
/ from the same board and tram neigh
bors, had held together lnstnctlyoly
among so many strangers. After the
march from the siding TO the barracks
and the dinner they found waiting Tor
them there, piping hot they had
strollcd away together.
He Was Their First Veteran
All about them were civilians such
as themselves and busy officers. Pri-
waite Jones, hiking blithely out of the
North, was the first common soldier
that had appeared in their unit, and
in response TO his CHEEKY How DO
YOU like it?" they had annexed him.
That there were hundreds of seasoned
regulars in camp, detailed there to
drill them and give professional base
to the National Army, all three knew.
Naturally they had been reading what
ever the newspapers had to print about
the camp and life within It.
Beyond introducing himself by name
Private Jones had said nothing tending
10 disclose his personal past and prl-
yate affairs. There was too much
moro generally interesting to newcom-
or TO talk about. And he was help
full soul, who manifcstly knew the
ropes.
Presently. as the lecture on rudI-
mertarv tactics approached point
where Private Jones was becoming
each moment more profound and his
audience more betogged, bugle sang
out. A dozen others. or maybe nun
dred. took up the call.
That's me-" said Private Jones
briefly. II got to be going. It's YOU
TOO, You've got to be in barracks for
retreat rollcall So long, :,
A light Of desperate purpose hareo
ND in the mild eyes Of the clerk who
was all for short-story plots CLEANED
" ~, have been wotnded"-- he
began. ...
ME-" laughed Private Jones. some
body's been kidding you.
surely the scar on your
con nv nose? Wounded? That's
funny one! Say. you men don't want
TO forget what / told you about racing.
Don't YOU ever let yourselves be caught
in ranks without having it in the 'front.'
of YOUR head which is your left hand
and which your right. It's queer, but
You'll see half the men turning 10 tne
left when the sergeant sings out 'klgh'
face,'"
How He Got His Scar
Then away went Private Z. B. Jones
At a dog trot, in the direction from
which the bugles had sounded.
IN bet" said the literary cIerH'
when the subject OF his remark was
ont of esrshot; "IN still bet that
there's a story behind that scar
There was, as matter OF lac''
story. r.o.
had been an habitual wearer OF spec.
tacles. Their bow, in the course oil
wears, had made a pronounced lmpreS-
sion; and that impression had oeen
SINK in. one day. when book that feli
fr1n, ire Ton of a filing cabinet wrecked
the spectacles and drove a SPLINTER ol
glass into the ridge
The filing cabinet was in an office IN
which the martial Mr.. Jones mad been
employed as bookkecper. His period
Of emplovment there had not ended
until a couple Of weeks prior TO ms
meeting with the rockies who wanted
advice. Private Jones, in short, was a
rookie himself.
Rookie for All That
Rookie he was, that is, by every rule
of tho service. The real regulars OF
the nth Division might regard him as
begiuncr. a bright pupil, yet never
theless Of the kindergarten class IN
tho school Of the soldier To their
ewes il might be plain that his olive
drab was painfully new; that ms cam
paign hat wasn't dlmpied IN just the
proper manner; that the squareness OF
his shoulders was the result OIL CON
scious effort rather than OIL haoit' thaC
his giant, fighting STRIDES were
VOL over the prescribed thirty inches.
But with others less experienced,
Private +. 3. Jones passed very weI
for veteran.
And there were close to two thou
sand men like him in camp when the
men OF the second increment arrived
men who though but Hedging soldiers
themselves looked and acted and talked
enough like the real thing to pass LOT
IL with those who knew only civilians
In accepting them as mentors the
newcomers were not going Tar wrong
All sorts of vcissitudes and lessons
had been crowded into the ten days
bv which the first increment beat the
second 10 camp. Those first ten days
were the big ten days IN the draft
transition. In that time the men had
adjusted themselves TO the new llie
and their thoughts to the new laea'
The civilian past--the Office, the FAC
tory. the store. the subway, the movie,
the hall room and the flats very lar
away now. The composite state OF
mind had become a soldier state OF
mind. not the state of mind OF the
guardsman or the volunteer, but OF
the regular.
Just Like Million Others
In the original package, l.. b: Jones
had been as out and out a civilian as
Won could have picked out Of the mael-
strom at the west end of brooklyn
Bridge between and OF any alter
noon. He arrived IN camp wearing
81 Oh.
pepper and salt suit pointed snoes,
his spectacles and bookKeeper 5