The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-09-04

of1uSopOFt uuen Will soon De
and for which Fl youths from
morning, possesses 1 900 hos
6 plants for the barracks which
t was reared by 1900 workmen
Getting buildings.
completed, 25 miles Of water and
sewer pipes, buried underground,
more miles of telephone and electric
wires, a dug well of fssome 2,500,00o or
100000 gallons capacity, miles of
roads passable enough to serve and
city in .numberless other details, a
city you would never know to exist
unless you rode in far back from the
state road, west of Aver.
Some 100000 feet of lumber will
have been nailed together when the
last Of the smaller buildings is up.
At present you may count, il you
wish, 100 company barracks, IA off,
GERS, barracks, 800 large and small
lavatorTes. 10 regimentaI headquar-
ters buildings, large double divis-
ional headquarters building, 10 quar-
tern1aster storehouses, Is medical
buildings three light and one heavy
artillery buildings, 15 medical b,iid-
ings, Al company stores, d refrigerz
ating plant, and postoffice buildings
bakery, hospital buildings. guard
houses, religious and recreational
buildings and other detached struct-
ues enough to fill a. column moe, it
seems.
Altogether there will be some LOO
buildings, including the smaller
buildings, 68 buildings for a remount
station and the great many others not
required to be erected before the first
detachments arrive to be trained. The
carpenters will be hammering away
into October.
They were hammering away around
Maj..Gen. Harry F. Hodges, COM
mander OF the cantonment, all last
week. Working under fire in France
could be no noisier than that building
racket, it seemed. They were doub-
ling the size Of the divisional head
quarters, so many carpenters pegging
away on the roof that you'd have
thought they would hit a human
head instead Of nail head more
than once.
But there haven't been accidents as
often as you might have expected. In
surance companies have saved them
selves money and the workmen injur-
les by keeping a safety squad prowl-
ing after every accident cause and
removing it. Minor fractures are the
most serious things reported among
the thousands at work.
The speed of the workmen has
been a marvel even to Capt. Edward
A. Canfield, Jr., the construction
quartermaster of the government.
Eight weeks ago he said the canton
ment must be ready Sept. 1, but he
said it with a smile and added a re-
mark which showed that he looked
at the undertaking as one of the it
can't-be-done class.
Last Thursday he agreed that
something had happened that he
hadn't expected-the camp was ready
for far more men than it would re-
ceive And he cited the speed this last
week on the hospital buildings, which
will hold 1000 cots. A gang of Por-
tuguese workmen started at last
Tuesday morning on a double build
noon late they were mailing on the
last roof boards.
The PIattsburg graduates more
than 1000 of them, who came into
camp Wednesday afternoon gasped at
the size of it all. They felt lost
Counting themselves and the 5000
workman and a few hundred other
troops in the cantonment there were
some 1900 on the grounds. but it
seemed as if only few men were
scattered here and there.
Most interest for New Englanders
is in the kind of buildings in which
their sons and brothers and husbands
will live. The barracks for enlisted
men are two-story wooden sheathed
buildings. The upper story is a large
sdormitory room, without partitions.
In it the cots for the whole company
will be ranged in rows, side by side.
The lower floor Is divided into two
rooms. One is the mess hall, with
long tables and benches and at the
end of the room a range and serving
table. The other room is a living
room or assembly room. suitable for
gatherings of different sorts, for
lectures or study or recreation,
In these barracks the Piattsburg
officers were located when they ar
rived last week. They set UP their
cots. stood in line at the stQ-M" for
bedding and trunks and raineats. and
then came back and sat around the
rest of tho week wondering which
officers quarters they would go in-
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