Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1917-05-30
WITH Great AMERICAN
FLEET IN WORLDS WAR.
By Carl D. Groat.

[
With the American Great Fleet, May
2S.-The modern jack tar plays as hard
and as wholesomely as he works. Out
with the great fleet, you see HMM
thousand lots--getting joy out of NOV
les, vaudeville (home talent) baseball
boxing, cards, Photographs, fishing now
and then, band concerts, and good read
ing.
On the theory that too much work
"makes Jack dull boy" commanders
of the great fleet see to it that their
program is varied, that there is NO
overburdening labor except in the EN-
ergencies, and that there is clean,
healthful amusement
Movies and vaudeville perhaps furn-
ish him his chief amusement aboard
ship, while baseball ashore proves be-
yond question that it is the great ma
tional sport.
Saturday afternoon and Sunday are
days of rest with the great fleet, unless
conditions require otherwise. Only the
essential labors are performed. Such
ships as con do so, permit part of
their men to go ashore on leave and see
to it that on one of the two days a good
ly portion shall have a chance at base
ball.
If YOU want to see wild fans-and
enough good players for several major
leagues-iust take a look at the sailor
men ashore for baseball.
The movie bugs are just as enthusias-
tic, but perhaps not quite as numer-
Gus. Look out over the fleet on play
nights, and you see dancing flickers
a gainst the night-the movies-playing
to hundreds aboard ship. Each craft ex-
changes it's films, and there is wide
variety. Melodrama thrills them, but
romance seems to appeal to men whose
lives and works are based on one of
the greatest of romances-that of the
sea. The movies take the lads back to
other days and to strange worlds and
situations. But as for going home, they
don't want that The only place they
want to go is out on the naval firing
lines.
One film showed farm scene-fath-
er and son doing their blowing.
"By gosh, that looks like home, " l
heard a sailor lad remark, "but believe
me, this is the life. No blowing for
me-" "Nope,'' his partner replied.
f'This suits me from the waterline
up"
When it comes to vaudeville, you can
get some real talent in the fleet. Male
quartets, dancers, humorists, acrobats--
the whole list can be found in abund-
anee aboard an ydreadnought, and the
show they produce compares favorably
with any dollar show in any town in the
land.
Boxing always draws a big crowd,
and the go is guaranteed to be bell
ringer every time.
Below decks. some Of the men tuck
themselves away in corners and play
cards, or gather in knots to listen to a
photograph Still others get lot of
fun out of the reading rooms.
There is an amusement fund aboard
each ship, so there are fresh records
for the phonograph and new films as
soon as they can be obtained. Incl
dentally, some patriot could do a fine
service by arranging for the fleet to get
up-to. date films before they have gone
the rounds of the nickelodeons and are
worn down.
Mail time aboard the fleet is happy
occasion. The sailormen can receive
all the mail they want, but their own
communications are limited by the CEN
sor.
The despatch boat bears a precious
load out from an American port, along
with supplies of fresh meat and veget-
ables. Stopping at each of the bat
tleship string, the despatch boat leaves
its sacks of letters, papers and maga-
zines, and the scramble little later
on ship shows what precious thing a
is A cheerful letter from home
is about as good tonic as a green man
or seasoned one can have on ship.
An officer told me that it's about
the worst thing that can happen 30 a
boy to have the folks back home getting
mournful about him, and what might
happen to him. He doesn't want or
need sympathy, and if letter sounds
like fuReral, it will have the wrong
effest, whereas cheerful note about
what sister Mary or dad or mother or
else is doing will add to the
personal comfort of the man and to the
of the whole organization.
---S-S