The Huttig news., 1918-03-16
Camp Pike Notes.
Camp Pike. March 9. 1911

0dSe noSDLdl, dL the west end Ot the camp. As t is built primarily to serve the six hundred men com prising the medical force at the hospital, 1t is much smaller than the other Y. M. c. A. buildings. which are expected to serve be- tween five and six thousand men. While the secretaries of the build ing are allowed to go among the patients in noneontagious wards and serve them in every possible way, the building will be open to the eon4alescsnt patients aaly when they have special permit. Ths object of the building Is to aI= low the medical force an opportunz fly for recreation. unhampered by the presence of those with whom they have been working all day.
 For several weeks now the camp has |. e seeing a reproduction of the eaay days of the draft on 3 small scale in the white section. and on d considerable ssals among 1as negroes. Both arc the final quotas of the fall draft, au4 Vhle the number of whites are eompara- lively small and trey come in lots of ten to twenty-five, several thousand negroes have been arriY- ing. Judging from the number of bundles and suit cases. these new corners have heard of the shortage Of clothing and bedding by the men last fall and are coming prepared. But there is no need of such pre- cautions now for there is plenty of all needed supplies in camp and the hardships of those pioneer days would seem to be among the for gotten memories of the past.
 It is interesting to note that Camp Pike is well up among the leaders in all forms of Red Trian- gle activities in the army camps of the Southwest division. In Janu- ary t lead in number of stamps sold and in the total amount of money orders bought. It also lead in per cent of attendance at the re- Ggious meetings and in the per cent of men in the Bible classes. Camp Pike has just about as lively lot of Y. M. c. A. secretaries as you can find anywhere and they are on the job all the time.
 Unless one has loved ones in the camps at home and abroad they are not apt to realize just how impor- tant feature of army life letter writing really is. Many and many  man has been made or broken by the letters he did. or did not get. One special field work for the Red Triangle Gas the Y. M c. A. is now being termed in many places) is writing letters to the American boys in foreign prison camps. This is an extract from a letter to a sec retary from Wm. Fitzgerald. who was captured on the SS. Esmeral- das: Your letter to me and the address on the enyelop gee whiz, Just think, had almost forgotten l had a name. It was always No. 0 here and No. 10 there. took my letter out 40 times a day just to read my name, and caught the other fellows all doing the same thing. It is wonderful what one letter will do.
 A big lot of the soldiers arc going to learn more than military tactics and the manual of arms while in the army. Eacl ' M. c. A. build ing includes ia s force an eduoa- tional direet \ trifle curious to know just was. his duties were, interviewed 5le of them during my last visit, Tie told me he was holding, CT assisting some of the officers to hold, thirty classes ir English. Among the troops that came to the camp last fall from the North and East are many foregn- CTS; some knowing so little Eng fish that it was impossible for then to understand the orders of theii officers. A little later classes 1T