The Cordova daily times., 1917-01-11
HOW \ FIGHTING MAN |S MADE
 AND REMADE
(By Associated Press.)

National College Athletic Association here today, R. Tait Mckenzie, profes sor of physical education at the Uni versity of Pennsylvania and late ma. jor R. A. M. C., England. said, in part
 You do not need a watch to tell when it is g o'clock at the headquar- ters gymnasium at Aldershot For Is minutes or more groups of men in black trousers and jerseys, or officers in tennis kit, have been accommodating, and at g o'clock precisely a shrill whistle petrifies them in the position of attention. There ia dead silence and the sharp command fall in" is succeeded by scramble out of which emerge 20 classes of officers and men, each in proportion of about 4 to 1, neatly arranged on the floor, each with staff instructor in charge. At the command staff fall in each in structor doubles to where the ser geant major stands, and there they stand at attention to receive the days orders. These given, they make right turn, rise on the toes and scur- ry off to their respective classes. An. other silence and the sharp command 1 carry on is followed by babel of orders as the various groups march out of the four doors to selected places in the twenty acre grounds that sur rounded the gymnasium. For the next hour and half each class is put through the table of exercises for the day; each exercise detailed, repeated and corrected until officer and men have the proper speed and accuracy for which they strive.
 At 30 the whistle breaks the | classes up into groups for brief time After fifteen minutes the same pro. Ceeding is gone through again, but this time the men are paired off; No. 1 teaching the last hours work to No. ? and back again from to l, 1 under the fire of the instructors Criti. cism. Again a short rest and the bayonets are fixed, and the position of on guard. point and parry are explained, shown and demonstrated There is an interval for lunch and at 2:15 the classes reassemble, and now they are marched out, combined into one mass drill of exercises selected from the eight tables of the British gymnastic law. After this display the mass breaks up into it's component classes, and the detailing exercises, bayOnet fighting and gymnastic games fills the time until o'clock, when the days work is over. Every month a new class replaces those who have gone out into the great training camps.
 When the war broke out in August, 1914. the staff of gymnastic instruct Ors, up to the inspector himself, dis solved overnight and rejOined their regiments, and for ten days this de- partment had no head. The new in. spector was confronted by an urgent demand for instructors, with none to send. but he at once re-enlisted men who had gone into civil life teachers in board and private schools), in fact anyone who had had training, and he reconstructed his staff from these vet erans. Soon, however. their numbers were augmented by another way. Fa- miliar faces reappeared (men from the trenches). one with a bullet through his shoulder blade. another With part of his foot gone from shrap- nel. They were not fit for active ser. vice, but their experience as teachers was invaluable.
 The new armies had tapped every stratum of English society: the ill., disciplined lordling, whose whim was his only law; the stripling just from school and college; lawyers. doctors, merchants, clerks (soft from seden- tary life; ironworkers. navvies. labor CTS (slow of action and speechl - all had to be welded into a homogenous body, quick and alert Of action. sure Of eye and hand. and above all cap- able of endurance; able to march and take care of themselves; ready to ob- iiterate themselves before a hostile aeroplane by day or a star shell at night; able to dig like badgers even after hard days march: steady with rifle; quick, powerful and relentless with the bayonet
 The shooting and digging are taught elsewhere. but the headouar. ters gymnasium is the source of all knowledge on those Fundamental ex. erclses that train in accuracy, bal. ance and speed. without which the musketry instructor instructs in vain
 ana the drill sergeant's shouts are flu,
 tile. It Is also the source from which
 has come the new practical method oI teaching the use of the bayonet. There is no hesitation or sparrlng for an opening or elaborate parrying; just , short pab, and on to the next inc two simple parries taught being mol
 Tor defense so much as to clear ths
 way for attack. a subtle but important . mental difference. This is the gls