Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-04-27
THIS DISTRICT
RUNNING AHEAD
in RECRUITING
Leads State Always and Was
Sixth in U. S. Last Month;
Applicants For Reserve

The Harrisburg army recruiting
district in charge of Captain Will
liam F. Harrell, with headquarters
IN the Strouse Building, led Peensyl-
Vanla in army recruiting for March
and was sixth of all the districts
in the United States, according to
the official report received from the
Adjutant Generals office, Washing
| ton, late yesterday
Captain Harrell announced this
morning that his district enlisted
27S men last month, nearly as many
as was enlisted from the other three
districts in the State, which COM
bined only furnished 291 men. One
hundred and four of these were
/ from Philadelphia, 100 from Scran-
ton and 81 from Pittsburgh.
Watch Our Record
This is an excellent showing for
the local district which is COMPARE
lively small. The six western dis
tricts which led the Harrisburg dis
trict, are nearly three times as large.
or the districts in the State, Harris
burg is the smallest with a popu-
lation of 1,720,0Co; Pittsburgh has
2,O49, 42S; Philadelphia has 2,022,247
and Scranton has 1,S73,028.
When congratulated on his fine
rell said, The worst is yet to come.
Watch our record next month. To
date we have enlisted 1850 men and
would have had q larger number but
we were held up by the added work
for the Officers Reserve Corps"
Yesterday recruiting fell off in the
district but took an added boom in
the city. Thirty men were sent to
Columbus Barracks and out of this
number twenty-one were from Har-
risburg and nine from Johnstown.
Band TO DO Bit
While the majority of the men,
bers of the Comm Band
cannot join the ranks they are not
going to be slackers and will do
their bit in assisting in recruiting
here. Elmer Eshenour, manager
band offered the services of the or
ganization to Captain Harrell in giv-
ing free concert in an effort to
stimulate enlistment. Arrangements
will be made to hold the concert
within the next week and q num-
ber of patriotic citizens have vol
unteered their services to speak in
behalf of recruiting on the night of
the concert Captain Harrell will
assign a squad of his men to re-
ceive the applicants at the meet
ing.
Fought Under Villa
Men and boys of all ages and
types are besieging Captain Harrell
and the. recruiting office in an effort
to secure a place among the $500
who will attend the Fort Niagara
camp for the training of prospective
officers from this section of Pennsyl-
vania. The demand here and else
where has been terrific; in Philadel-
mia thnrn iG lnnU limo NJ annIi-
cants constantly waiting to be ap-
proved and a Harrisburg man, who
went down there, said he saw people
stand as long as three hours before
their turn came. The indications are
that there will be many thousand
more applications received than will
be accepted. 1t is understood that
preference will be given to men
of mature years, of previous mill
tary. experience and good education.
One young fellow came in to the
Harrisburg office yesterday with the
information that he had recently
spent some months in Mexico under
Villa, before the American troops
were sent to the border. He is a
graduate of a western High school,
spent a year or so at Michigan Uni
versity, got tired fighting with Villa
and came north to work He filed
Jackson Herr Boyd, of this city,
who served some time at the French
front with the American Ambulance
Corps, has made application for a
commission in the Officers Reserve
Corps.
Detail Coming
Quartermaster W. e. Quirk, in
charge of the navy office sent Bert
ram Cast, Steelton, to Philadelphia,
this morning. Chief Water Tender
Charles Rive, who was assisting
Quartermaster Quirk, here was call
ed to Philadelphia, where he will go
on the receiving ship for detail duty.
At the request of Captain w. c. Her.
bert, inspector of engineering mate
rials for this district with offices in
the Bergner building and r. A.
Bacon, the Camp Hill lad who en-
listed in the Naval Coast Defense
Reserves, Captain Fl. A. Busphane,
commandant of the Fourth Naval
District, Philadelphia, will send a
detail of recruiting officers here to
enlist men for that branch of the
service.
EEAD 0C CTDTKE