Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-05-22

main thoroughfare with the Seventeenth
infantry band playing Dixie" as ii must
have played it a year ago when those
same men waded across the Rio Grande
and into Mexico.
In SQUADS of fives they rolled past,
a wave of olive and drab and light
campaign hats and lean, brown gun bar
rels, the sunshine nicking the metal fin
fishing here and there into CLEAN OF
light The gun barrels shifted up and
down with the even regularity of a
pendulum, and the feet of the march
ing men must have fallen with the
same steady beat. though few could see
them for the people packed on either
side.
THE REGULARS.
These were the regulars, and like
regulars they marched. These were the
men who followed Pershing on parch-
ed and fruitless chase after Mexican
bandit. These were the men who will
follow Pershing again with the first
American division to France, to the
trenches, to the hell of no mans land.
That thought must have struck home
TO every man and woman present. they
were marching now, but whittier would
fate lead them soon, and when would
they march home again?
With a blare of trumpets and the
long roll of the drums the Red Mems
drum and bugle corps hove into sight,
leading the 1000 men from the ofricerS
training camp at Fort Mcpherson.
THE SOUTHS VERY OWN.
TIE drum majors stick was whirl
OF light, and the men with the Dig
drums swung their arms like black
smiths at an anvil.
I'm ahead was Colonel Robert ].
~ hal nd i'm M m
the men OF three states, jerked into
camp a week ago from desks and Of
fices, and marching now as though they
were seasoned veterans of three cam
paigns.
They were in the same dull olive
drab as the others, with the same brown
gun barrels and the same olive drab
uniforms. their only distinguishing
mark the red, white and blue cords
around their hats.
But many a man and woman who
watched them felt his heart stand still
and his eyes wet with salt when the
men from the training camp marched
past.
HEARTS ARE TOUCHED.
1t was glorious, that spectacle, but
It was heart-tearing. If they had been
soldiers from far away, if they had
profession, if they had been parading
at any other time. for any other rea-
SON. IL would have been different.
Yes, nobody would have felt the way
they did IL these men had been anything
but what they were-the brave sons
of Georgia, of Alabama and Florida,
who had been the first to spring to the
colors when America called them and
who will be the first to stand up in
trench in a foreign land.
Hardly had they passed, the 1000
from the fort when there came another
detachment OF the home boys-the ma
tional guardsmen. so soon to be draft
ed into the federal service.
The Georgia field hospital first, with
Major Holton leading the, color bearer
with his maroon banner, the ranks OF
men with their tightly-folded stretch
ers, the wagons with their brown can
vas tops. Then the Fifth Georgia in
fantry, that part of them which is
not on guard at bridges and trestles
thRuuRhout the state. Major Leahy
rode at the head of them. in the main,
recruits enlisted by the Fifth within
the past few weeks and since then
drilled at the Lakewood camp.
TO THE TUNE OF DIXIE"
The machine gun company Of the
m.
and then truck after truck, each mount
ed with the wicked little hornets which
look so small and ineffective, yet which
wreak such havoc when they turn loose
and spit. ...-.
The headquarters company OF the
Fifth followed. then Troop l., the GOV
ERRORS Horse Guards, with Captain
Rudisail leading the troopers. and the
color bearer lowering his red and white
guidon before the reviewing stand. Last
of the division fached Battery b, the
Atlanta artillery, mustered out or the
service, but still as fine Unit of ar
tillery as you could find this side OF
the water.
"Dixie" crashed on the ears of the
crowd as the Georgia Military academy
cadets approached. Not a finer show
ing was made by any troops In the pa
rade than by these boys marching be-
hind their commander, Colonel J. {.
woodward. All in cadet gray they were,
with white trousers and black shakos
bobbing with black plumes.
They had their own band, and stlll
another band came after them, the fam
Gus Greencoats of Yaarab temple OF the
Mystic Shrine The Million Dollar
bows were playing 1.-The Stars and
Stripes Forever" as they never played
IT before. and Drum Major Bill Stod-
dard whipped his stick through the
air as he never whipped it before.
A fitting herald they were to the d.
vision that brought a roar of delight
and enthusiasm from the crowd-the
student body of Georgia Tech, paying
honor to the man who was the father
of their intercollegiate athletics and
the first "ramblin' wreck that ever
crossed an Athens goal line.
LOOK OUT, HIND ENBERG!
1t was the two signs borne by the
Techites that caused the crowd to open
their throats. They were a fair feet
wide, with letters on them foot high,
and YOU could read them block away.
This was one of the signs:
"WOOD OF TECH"
Americas Greatest Soldier"
And this was the other sign:
WOODS GOT THE BALL;
LOOK OUT, HINDENBERG!'
When a fat man near the reviewing
stand saw that second sign, he opened
his mouth so wide you could have driV-
en- a jitney bus through IT. First ne
laughed and then he yelled And
thousand others chmed in with him.
down TO General Wood himself, who
raised his hand to his hat and saluted
Georgia Tech. his own alma mater.
The signs. too wide to go through the
lane. were turned parallel to the re-
viewing stand as they were borne past