New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-02
Student Officers Only Rockies
To Indifferent Plattsburg
By F. F. VAN DE WATER


house the sign "All you can drink for
nickel" and reaped vast profit
| thereby.
Shock number two comes when the
| candidate realizes that uniforms and
all the feeble glitter that military SCI
ence has left TO warlike apparel are
old. old stories to Plattsburg. The
town has seen them come and go for
years. It has seen regulars by the
| thousands and student officers by the
ten thousands. A new influx of raw
material is looked on as promising for
business, but it is regarded in much
the same way as the farmer views the
rain Of which his garden stands IN
need. or as the tradesmen in college
town greet the incoming freshman
class.
On the day when new increment OF
candidates is to arrive Plattsburgers
who own motor cars paste up new TO
Hire" signs on their windshields. while
shopkeepers refurbish their windows
and then sit calmly down to wait be-
hind placards advertising scores OF
various essentials which no real SOL
dicr can do without The men arrive.
and PlattsburS yawns. Presently they
leave, and Plattsburg yawns again, and
then waits for the next crop.
Feminine Awe Lacking
On the day camp opened here the
candidates focked to town by the nun
dred, some of them to make legitimate
purchases, others merely to tramp tne
streets. with martial tread, looking
sidelone into the shop windows to eaten
slimpses of their warrior forms. And
no one shrieked, ooh girls, the soldiers
are coming" and no one marvelled
audibly at their brave display. There
was no awed respect in the eyes OF
Youthful Plattsburg, masculine or
feminine, and presently they went out
for a soda together and let the candl-
dates tramp the streets in their piano.
ply Of war, without an audience.
The shop windows are the most open
observers of the fact that a new mere
ment of would-be soldiers is in town.
Were the candidates possessed OF sum-
cient funds and ambition to purchase
all of the Soldiers necessities for
sale here, each officer would go to the
front attended by several pack mules
loaded with equipment. There are
countless volumes on military science,
from aeronautics TO zoology. lhere
are field glasses, and puttees, and wrist
watches, and notebooks with leather
cases, gauntlets, ponchos, footease pow
ders, and innumerable types of march
ing shoes" each better than all the
rest. Officers are apparently regarded
, by statesmen here as quadrupeds, at
| least.
There was little difference in the re-
ception accorded by Plattsburg TO this
camp from that received by previous
gatherings But there was a change in
the type of men who arrived here last
week The first officers training camp
was afflicted with youth. Most of those
who responded to the nations first call
early twenties:
Atmosphere Changed
The members of the second camp are
older. Their average age is only slight
ly under thirty. And there are many
who will never see the thrty-tfth mile
post again. They are graver, too. The
first camp became grave after they had
labored under the driving power Of
Regular Army officers for a few weeks,
but the members of the second camp
came here gravely, and are taking up
their work seriously and steadily from
the first. In them is exemplifed the
change that has come over the nations
attitude toward the war in the last four
months.
/ The first camp came as if 10 a picnic.
/ The second arrived to face stern, SOL
emn duty.
There are men of all types and all
walks of life in this camp college ath-
.etes, slim and deep chested; older men,
heavier Of limb, with the smooth, round
faces OF those whose bodies have begun
TO pay the penalty for too much seden-
tary work. There are even few beard
ed candidates, who look strangely out
of place in the youthful, clean cut Of
the army uniforms.
Some of the men have come here be-
cause il seemed right to them and also
because they had little that held them
TO civilian life. But others have made
big sacrifices to serve their nation.
/ These have given up not alone consid-
cradle salaries, but also even stronger
ties-children and other dependents
medical or legal practices, which may
melt away before they return. Middle
aged men who have whirled to and fro
from their Offices in their own automo-
biles now tramp the hot parade ground
in the broiling sun. Stomachs which
have waxed noticeable on good living
are now being compressed and tortured
by the merclless setting IN exercises
Men who have made an entire Office
force jump when they spoke now leap
as quickly and agilely as possible when
an officer barks a word Of command.
And what for?
Go to Plattsburg at sunset, when the
waters of the lake, down beyond the
parade ground glitter red in the hush
of late afternoon. Candidates, with the
work OF the day almost over, skylark
and shout to each other about the low.
ugly barracks. Their voices carry
strangely in the quiet air
Then, presently, somewhere, a bugle
calls
The sound carries far and each man
stands al salute, facing toward where
something is creeping down the tall
whitewashed staff. II is the flag. IL
also is the answer.