The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1917-11-29

to the costliest theatre in town IN the
evening. He ovesstayed his leave az
hour, it is a strict regulation tina,
when the men are given leave they
must be back in barracks by ter
o'clock, and the next day he was clao
in fatigue uniform, blue denim dun
garees and jumper, and made to &c
fatigue duty, cleaning up the camp
picking up scraps of newspaper, cigar
stubs and "sich" things around the
camp, and the corporal who had
charge of his squad of "fatiguers" to
see that they did not loaf on the
job, at home was the janitor in his
bank and the captain of his company
was fireman who never received
more than $65.OO month till he got
his commission.
Army life is the greatest leveler:
wealth, social position, or influence
cut no figure. Mothers pets, who
took their breakfast in bed and swore
if the grape fruit was not properly
sweetened, get no more consideration
than river rats. Every man stands on
his own merits and is treated the same
as long as he conducts himself
properly.
It is National" army because it
is drawn from every part Of the ma
ton. Sectional virtues are magnified
and sectional faults disappear in the
melting pot of commonality. Men
from every part of the country meet
and come to know and respect each
other. They find out that under the
skin all Americans are the sarN
whether they come from the north,
south, east or west. When this wa
is over this nation will 70 longer be
a great aggregation of states but
an immense neighborhood and all will
be neighbors.
Some wild stories have been circul-
ated about the immortality of camp
life. When we state that there have
been over $4,000 soldiers there for 8
months and the average arrests for
drunkenness has been less than one
man every three days or only twenty
seven arrests for intoxication since
the camp was organized it will be
noted that these stories are either the
products. of the imagination-or
devilishness.
The morals of the men are most
carefully guarded. The Y. M. C. A.
nave numerous buildings where cleal
wholesome entertainment is provided
and where all are welcome. The
boys all swear by the Y. M. C. A.
and it is not safe to sheer at this Or
genizatien to q man in uniform. The
Knights of Columbus have buildings
and skilled men to specially look after
the welfare of the Catholic soldiery
and they are doing a great work.
The Masons have a bW A'ng nearly
ready, to be used for social purposes
only, for the benefit of the members
of the order, and one is astonished to
find how many members there are in
the ranks.
To the anxious mother who is afraid
that her dariin:, boy may 6cco i'm
moral while serving Uncle Sam, we
can assure her there is no place
where her pets morals are safer than
at Camp Dodge, except in heaven.
Of course there is some grumbling
over discipline and rations, hard work
and things in general. This must be
expected and it is good sign rather
than a bad one. AS an experienced
regular army officer expressed it eff
a. soldier don't grumble he is a poor
soldier"
One has to give the boys the once
over to discover what a clean visaged,
clear eyed, square shouldered, trim,
soldierly looking bunch they are, most
of them have put on weight, and at
the same time taken off superfous
fat since coming to camp. We hardly
recognized our old friends in uniform.
There is something different about
them than when they were at home.
We have seen most of the armies
of Europe and have no hesitation in
saying that we have never seen finer
and more soldierly looking bunch of
men in uniform than those at Camp
Dodge. Viewing them one is proud
that he is an American and he feels
thrill of pride that must be felt to be
realized and as he reluctantly bids the
camp good bye, he feels an unspeak-
able sadness that the years have de-
prived him Of the privilege Of enroll
ing among their number and an I'M
shaken confidence that when they get
cover there" they will show the
soldiers of the old world some new
wrinkles in warfare.
When our boys began to leave home
we felt it our duty to pray for them;
we don't feel that way any more; now
we are praying for the Germans. May
the Lord have mercy upon them when
the American lads start going "over
the top"
There are about seven thousand
colored soldiers located at Camp
Dodge and columns could be written
L ~