The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1917-08-04
PLAYTIME With
MEN OF THE NAVY
What Happens When Several
Hundred JaCkieS Are Turned
Loose for Shore Liberty.
MAKES FOR The HAPPY SHIP
LlberalIty Of Private Citizens Has
Given Men of the Fleet a Big Ath-
letic Field for Their
Recreation.

With the United States Atlantic
F1eet.-It Is two bells in the afternoon
watch when the shrill trill of the
bos'n's whistles are heard piping the
crews of the mighty dreadnaughts to
the rails and the sing-s0ng cries of
the bos'n's mates carry out owe the
water, Liberty party to muster"
This is the summons given three
times each week to the men of the At
lantic fleet to take their hours of recre-
alton on the immense athletic field pro-
vided for them by the Navy league.
BY the hundreds, on every battleship
and cruiser, the youthful, white-uni-
| formed Jackies come rushing on deck
to form into line for the liberty in
spection.
Two long white lines form on deck
and every man stands rigidly at atten-
ton while officers pass along marking
the appearance of each one. Their uni
forms are spotlessly white. Their shoes
freshly %blackened. Off come their lit
tie round white caps to show that their
hair is closely cropped. No visitor to
the fleet fails to be struck, when he
views that line at inspection, with the
extreme youth of the men, their intelli-
gent faces and happy, smart appear
ance. The average age appears to be
less than twenty years and many of
them seem barely to have passed their
eighteenth birthday on the date of
their enlistment. From every state In
the Union they hail and thousands of
them from the farms of the middle
West. A collection certainly of Amer
ica's finest gathered on the deck of a
floating fortress to form the first line
of the nations defense.
off for Day of Sport.
On every s%un-tanned face is worn a
broad smile Ia expectation of the sport
that the afternoon will bring. Over
the rail, the visitor sees the ships
launches bobbing about in the seaway
with the bowmen holding fast to the
ships side with their boathooks. Then
the sharp word of command rings out
On deck and the white line of sailors
begins to move forward toward the
gangway and the men go over the side
to the waiting launches.
Discipline begins to give way a lit
tie at this point, although the cox
swain of the boat is all business as
he calls to the bowmen to shove off.
The afternoons recreation has begun.
Thousands Of superfluously healthy,
absolutely carefree and very young
men are turned loose. To be sure
there is the provost guard with their
policemen's sticks, but that is only to
guard against the chance of ugly blood
developing from the fun, which does
not happen.
When the dock at the athletic field
is reached the men from the launches
tumble out pell-mell and Immediately
begins a raid upon the canteen. Pop
is sold faster than corks can be pulled.
The man who gets anything over the
canteen counter fights for 1t. You
must come with your change ready or
go without. There is too much bust
ness to stop to change money.
3atermelons Last Quick.
A pump receives the overflow from
the canteen and those who have been
unable to spend their money for candy
or pop take their chances on getting
ducked under the pump. A farmer
drives onto the field with a load of
w~atermelons. AT so cents apiece his
watermelons last about fifty seconds.
A colored cooks helper buys a melon
and dives into it when a huge hand
belonging to a Jackie from an Indiana
farm buries the dark's face into the
melon up to his ears. Another enter
prising farmer brings some old farm