The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-18
TALK OF KILLING
KanSanS at Fl. Sheridan Know
It's Their Business.
Embryo SunflOwer Officers Are
at the Front.
HELVERING LEADS HIS CLASS
Congressman a Real "Gun" in
the Quiz Work.
Students Are Being Given Fine
Imitation of War.
Hell ERING LEADS HIS CLASS

Fort Sheridan, Ill, Oct 1s.-Kan-
sas student officers for the first time
charged thru No Mans Land" today
No Mans Land was a bushy ra-
vine, swept by Lake Michigan breezes
and the enemy trenches were waiting
with ''blanks''-and smiles and hellos.
Under the smoke the crash of can
non and musketry, the Kansas men
cut thru thicket of "barbered'' wire
ESQ christened by Instructor Georges
Ettenne Bertrand, of the Alpine Chas-
seures) in the First Provisional regi-
ment's initial offensive against the
second regiments strongly fortified
positions in the most complete hypo-
thetical trench system in the United
States.
The First is made up largely of Kan
sas, Nebraska and Missouri troops
Three days and nights-Monday,
Tuesday and Wednesday-the First
lived in the redoubts. Today Colonel
Ryan ordered a strategic swop-about
and the First became the attackers.
The battle was the first of a series
of actions designed to harden the
future officers for the stuff they will
find in Europe. The trenches are
exact duplicates of sections on the
British front in Flanders.
Like Real Warfare.
water, kn66-QeSp III SOLlS p1dCSSs
camouflage, the smell of smoke and
the CULVER of the earth under the de-
donation of a battery, brought the EN-
gagement" as near real warfare as
safe warfare can be.
There were the thrilling trips thru
underground tubes to artillery range
depots. where imaginary hits were OBJ
| served thru Sits in the sod. There
| were the silent excursions into the
night across No Mans Land" the
! sudden exhilaration of an attack; in
| fact all the elements of war, except
| death.
Fort Sheridan, the de luxe of the
| training camps, commands Lake Mich
igan from high, shaggy bluff. The
| brick barracks, home of the First (and
Incidentally the finest quarters OF the
| fort) are along principal street. Half
| way down, a massive lookout tower
rises to sharp point. Through the
| tower runs road communicating with
| the wooden barracks and trenches
| on the other side of a little gully.
| BrOnzed by the outdoors, the Kan
sans are making good-gloriously so
both in the field and in classroom.
Kansas soldier congressman, for
instance, Guy I. Heverling, of Marys-
Vile, is gaining fame thru the fort as
a regular ''whizz'' He is said to be
in the quizzes.
! He gave up the job of representing
the Fifth district in congress to enter
| the officers reserve.
Talk of killing.
They talk of death with grim
| frankness that is gruesome, in the
| squad rooms, over their granite plates
at mess, in the trenches.
I'VE are taught to kill and kill
| quickly" explained w. w Hawkins of
| Lawrence. And to use steel, when
| possible, to save bullets. Our instruc-
Il
| Get the other fellow and get him
| first; if you don't he will get YOU We
| cut for the throat"
| Hawkins came direct from the Ger
man faculty of the University of Kan
sas to Fort Sheridan.
The fort runs like a great machine
every day except Sunday. Then it
might be a college campus.
I'VE work every minute we are
awake" declared Orlando Hughes OF
Wichita. Hughes served several years
in the Philippines. He showed a letter
from General Wood, commencing him
for killing twenty seven Sulus without
losing a man from his squad. He was
a postal clerk at Wichita.
Yet each regiment is going to find
time to stage a play in the auditorium
before camp closes. AS yet, the Kan
sas delegation, however, has not come
into it's own in dramatics.
Harlan Thompson, K. L. II, and re-
Gently assistant city editor of the Kan
sas City Star, and Wallace Casey, also
of the Star, are among the Kansas sol
dier-newspapermen in the camp. Reu-
ben Webster, well known racqueter OF
the Westport Tennis club of Kansas
City, is in Battery 1.
Harold Wilson. advertising man, K
L rs, is congratulating himself be-
cause his application to Fort Sheri-
dan was accepted the day before he re
ceived summons to report for service
under the draft law. F1avel Robert
son, K. U. 10, is in Co. 4.