New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-07-29
Mosquitoes So Thick That
Workmen Leave Soon
After Being Hired
Government Planning
To Drive Out Pest
Contractors Admit Canton.
ment May Not Be Com
pleted Until October
By HARLAN BENNETT

Yaphank--the name is Indian and not
from vsudeville-is just place the
train goes through. Apparently, nobody
ever gets off there except by mistake.
The man in front Of me was saved. He
asked FOR ticket to Ysphank.
"Goin' to the camp?" queried the tick
ct clerk
yep"
"Then I'll sell you ticket to Camp
Long Island" said the clerk. "That1l
be i2 cents more"
Arrive at Camp Upton
And when he go. to bis destination
the man found the War and Postofice
departments had still another nsme for
the site Of the eity-to-bs where Uncle
Sam 10 TO train . sixteenth Of his big
draft army. The Official name is Camp
Upton, in honor Of Major General
Emery Upton. U. 8. v. Camp Upton It
will no doubt remain or, rather, be-
comet isn't anything much, yet
You go out Long Island way from
the Pennsylvania Station. By schedule
IL lie two hours, by train three hours.
The distance is sixty-four miles. The
first forty miles are not unpleasant
With the cooperation Of the engineer
it might be made exciting. The route
is through Mineola, where the aviation
training school is already turning out
eyes for the men who are to be trained
further down the island. The student
aviators, proud of their wings and
frisky with a desire for sport, fly over
and try to race with the train. But
the engineer refuses to bulge his
throttle, the train falls behind and the
birdlings turn off IN disgust.
Further along the girl IN the tennis
clothes with the pink silk hose Is wait
ing at the station in her Stutz run
about The train stops, the engine
snorts at the pink hose and SHES off
down the rails, trailing the coaches
after it. And after that the dark. Mile
after mile of thin, sandy land, covered
by dense growth Of scrub oak and
scrub pine. Yaphank, where the con-
ductor corrects the mistakes the ticket
clerk overlooked, and then-Camp Up
ton.
Soldiers Line up Employees
Two squads Of soldiers have strung
out in skirmish formation along the
tracks and they direct the new arrivals
TO line up where the dirt road crosses
the tracks. 1t is here that the fore
men and their assistants swarm out,
weaving their way through the crowd
and selecting the men they need. To
these they give small slip Of paper
and the men are passed by the SER
geant on duty.
Within an hour the whole crowd Is
inside the lines pressing about the
windows in the various shacks-chauf-
feurs, carpenters, plumbers, linemen,
unskilled laborers Of many national
tiles, all trying 10 complete the task
of getting a job. In and out among
them thread vehicles of every descrip-
ton. The great ive-ton army trucks
and their civilian cousins chug by with
loads of lumber for the scene Of con-
struction two miles away. Foremen in
fiivvers and buggies, timekeepers on
horseback, construction commissary
men, messengers on motorcycles.
One may see the first tractor the
American army ever had-awkward,
turtle-like, but still effectively one
minded, moving along like the wonder
ful one-horse shay.
On the way out a prospective work
man thought l belonged out there"
and put TO me the very questions was
taking out to get answered. He was
not sure he was going to stay. He
wanted 70 look the Job over. "How
about the pay? Was the grub good ?
Were the hours long? Did they work
fellow hard2" And then came what
seems to be tho real big question:
Mosquitoes Bother Workers
"Is IL true that the mosquitoes out
there won't let fellow sleep7"
| assume the gentleman can answer
his own questions by now. II he
stayed out there one day and one night,
Certainly he can. ] can-now
To begin with, the wage scale Is
undoubtedly the highest on the At
lantic seaboard. Ordinary, unskilled
labor is paid 37h cents an hour. Car
penters are paid IS for eight hours
work-the same scale as applies in
Brooklyn for union labor; but, whereas