The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1917-04-12
FIRST REGIMENT
IS BEGINNING TO
FEEL At ITS EASE
Army Y. M. C. A. Great Help
in Giving it "At Home"
Sense.

The statement that an army moves
on its belly may be true at least in the
case of the soldiers in camp at the
Fair Ground, East Side here. At>any
rate when an army of soldiers tries
to move on its feet and finds itself
slipping in the mud and very shortly
down on its belly the old aphorism may
be true.
But as regards food there is nothing
that could be wanted to maintain good
husky soldiers that cannot be found
at camp. The men at times have a
taste for pie and ice cream but they
have no room for Therefore they
miss it little. There is a pie wagon
ut the camp daily and it does a regular
Sixth avenue pie counter business. The
men at mess yesterday were heard to
pull this little chatter from between
their munching molars: Where did
that pie come from that links had
this noon?"
"Oh that was brought in the pie wag-
en- that comes every day." answered
a blue tassled hat. Il never see it,
said the other.
Guess you don't kid, it never gets
by the officers tents; them guys has
money and they eats pies as fast as
they can bring them from town.
This condition never will last at any
camp. The soldiers will keep the pie
man off the ground and one OF their
number become his agent so that there
may be little percentage forthcom'
ing. Some of the men make money
now in gathering laundry for the COM
panies and caring for it, sending 1t to
certain laundries to be done up. Then
there is the camp newsboy who occa-
sionally makes a few pennies with
which to pay car fare to and from
camp.
The men have begun to feel their
positions and now are able to handle
all orders that come their way. They
work hard during fatigue and drill and
at mess time but when they get
chance to loaf a few minutes they
shoot down to the Y. NJ. c. A. and fol
lowing out the request Of one of the
cards printed and rung on the wall
Write to Mother" they get busy with
paper and pens. Already the Y. NJ. G.
A. has handed out $500 sheets of writ
ing paper which indicates that some
mothers are hearing from their boys.
Ink is something with which some
Of the soldiers have just become &C.
Quainted according to what they say.
They do not like pens, pencils being
much handler and more easily erased.
One of the youngsters who thought the
Y. M. c. A. was an institution extraor-
nary asked yesterday for ten two cent
stamps. They were handed him and
he started to walk away. When told
they were 20 cents he handed them
hack and decided not to write just now.
He figured stamps at least, ought to
be free to soldiers who are working
for Uncle Sam. He returned in about
a half hour and putting down the 70
cents decided to write right now.
The Y. NJ. c. A. has furnished all
sorts of music for the boys since they
have been visiting there. There Is
piano which some Of the fellows can
play and a graphaphone. These two
play at once, one a hymn, the other
"Poor Butterfly" while some OF the
bows punched together sing Don't Bite
the Bread They're Feeding you" They
sing this song SO the rookie can pre-
serve his teeth while in camp. Then
there are books to read and sore arms
to talk about. This latter seems to
be a popular topic. When everything
else fails to draw the attention of the
young soldier the mere statement that
''My arm hurts" gets q response. mot
as bad as mine" and then the talk
begins.
The boys have work to do during tho
day that keeps thoughts away from
-nra arms. The smallpox vaccination