The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-04
Blue and Gray DiUision at
 Camp Mcclellan Learning
 HouU t0 Go "OUer the Top"
Every Regiment Is Now Praccng in Trenches in Front of Which Is ''No Mans Land''-Throwing Hand Grenades Is Another Method of Warfare Being Taught
 by Men Who Have "Been Over There''
By II. H. IxROH

stones, picked up from the fields about them. Here and there a group is seen tossing them from one to another; an- other group may be seen hurling them as one would a baseball into the line 1 that theoretically marks the enemy 1 trench. They are learning to handle l the grenades safely and to threw them l accurately. Others are engaged in the more scientific work of actual grenade throwing, testing their prowess at dropping them at given points,
 These grenadiers must go over the top. too, and take their chances in the death zones of ''No Mans Land" and thev are being taught the modern game rom the trenched areas also It is hard TOT them now because 1t is new. They aren't used to hiking and running over fields that are strewn with stones and boulders Neither are they accus- toned yet to the art of dropping prone to the ground at tho command of their officers, no matter where they may ~~ or what lies beneath them, There are sore bones and muscles that groan beneath the hardening process, but they are getting along famously and 1T progress in instrWtion counts any ; thing toward locating the bunch" to f'rance the old Blue and Gray should take their little boating party across the Atlantic before many moons have rolled their way across the Alabama heavens.
 BAYONET GAME
 The bayonet game Is 8 hard one It is the work of tho infantryman that calls TOT every muscle to be in play and every eye to be alert Life depends upon agility and cunning and fearlessness and daring and the army Is made up of fife Brig. Gen. Bird ". Spencer of New Jer- sey, who is the father of rifle practice In this country, has sign hanging up down at the state ranges at Sea Girt and the sign says: "To fire Is every thing; the rest Is, nothing" And go it is with the hayonet fighting. The thrust must Dc true. It must be parried and waited for until the proper oppor- tunity comes and then 1t must be driv- en home with telling effect. And 80 the boys here are learning and 50 they will know when they get their chances over there.
 The division is taking up the question or the dispatch of harmful information to the people back home through the medium of the mems letters. Tn a com municatlon to General Rafferty the war department has authorized him to exer- else whatever powers are necessary to carry home to the men in the various organizations of the division the evil ef- fects Of innocently written but very col orfully worded letters
 It is the peculiar function, It seems, Of man In the ranks to make himself a hero-to write home of the thrilling ad- ventures through which he daily passes and Of hair-raising escapes and terriry- Ing trials and tribulations. These let ters all serve to endear the boy to the heart Of the mother and possibly to com fort them with thoughts of the bravery or their patriotic offspring. But it serves little toward advancing the dis cipiine and efficiency of the organization and makes trouble that the fellow with his pen in hand had never meant to create.
 LIVELY EXPERIENCES"
 perlences are lived within the stove- warmed interiors of their squad tents, where they load the little conical warmth-giver with pine wood from the ieveled woods and let the smoke 20 up the chimney just the same Perhaps Tn the course of an afternoons doze the man who is off duty will picture very brave deeo, and it immediately becomes an experience. With the writing if be- comes miracle. To the military author- it1es It often becomes a nuisance be- cause 1T the mother to whom it is sent IS the kind of loving soul that most of them are she considers 1t her first duty to nle her way down to the little local newspaper office, with the result that tne Friday issue usually carries the whole account. told as graphically as the men In Camp Mcclellan narrated it and usually with few embellishments added by the village editor just to give it a local flavor
 It IS not believed that the officials will experience any very great trouble in squelcning such letter writing. The men, when once they understand it's far. reaching effects, will very probably be glad to tell the truth Most of them would ordinarily prefer that way but the spirit Of adventure runs strong through tneir veins and if they can't have the real thing they like to enjoy their own n.tle world or battles. And of what good is battle or an experience ar any- thing else if there Is no one to whom to tell 1t? "