Perth Amboy evening news., 1918-10-09
ENEMY
BY CAMOUFLAGE
Americans Have Built Artificial
Forest-Some Real Arts
tic Work.
ASSOCIATED Press correspondence.)

BEHIND AMERICAN LINES IN
FRANCE, Sept. PA make-believe
forest stands along the edge OF the
road at the entrance to the American
camoufiage station here. 1t looks as
natural as the real woods along the
fighting front with the shiny silver
bark Of the beeches. the rough. jagged
trunks OF the old apple trees and the
%sprouting tops of the dwarf willows.
Yet every tree In the camou1age for
est has a steel core within which an
observer peers forth to watch the
movements of an enemy or a ma
chine gun Is located to sweep forth
from its hidden recess. They are only
one of the many strange devices to de-
ceive and mystify the enemy which
this American camoufage station Is
sending forth to the fighting enemy.
Camoufiage is one of the distinctly
new products of the war, even In the
name. which was used for the first
time by General de Castlenau. Chief
of Staff of General Joffre. h word
is not good French, but comes from
the argot, or French slang, the
verb, "~camoufier'' being used by
French police to indicate any disguise
used to capture criminals. For exam
pie a detective camoufiages himself
by dressing as a coachman.
Early in the war the famous por-
trait painter, Giron de Sivela. con
ceived the idea of Disgusting batteries
and buildings by painting them in fan
tastic patterns blending with the land
scape. He laid the plan before Cen
eral de CastlenRu who, struck with
the practical value of the plan. ex-
claimed "Camoufiage." And from
that time the words grew and with 1t
grew into a tremendous magnitude
this art of misleading the enemy.
rThA ~ AUfru rpr hos hnn- nntttAr
to make a full use of the strange new
weapon of warfare and the camoufiage
plant is one of the most complete
In existence with a working force of
nearly one thousand and a staff in
GLIDING many OF the well known mural
artists and decorators and sculptors OF
America. all of them engaged In pro-
ducing these curious devices by which
military art deceives the enemy.
One of the officers. Captain Homer
Saint Gaudens is a son of the Ameri
can sculptor, Saint Gaudens. An.
other, Major Tracy, Is q prominent
architect who did much of the work
on thet Lincoln Memorial. Lieuten-
ant Barry Faulkner, Is an American
mural artist and Lieutenant Sherry
Fray an American sculptor in Paris.
Sergeant Leslie Thrasher and +. Earl
Christy and Corporal Duer are well
known American illustrators: Walt
Lee is a ~cartoonist and Sergeant MUIR
ply is an American mural decorator
whose work Is well known in England.
But there must be something more
than stage properties In the produc-
lions of these artists. they must be
practical and suited to the use OF war
fare. and II Is the part OF Colonel
Bennion, head of the camoufiage sta
ton to keep these artistic productions
within practical limits. The Colonel
Is an engineer officer with West Point
training, and when any camoufiage
is adopted for American army uses. 1t
has the double merit of being the pro-
duct OF American artistic skill and at
the same time an eminently practical
device from the standpoint OF military
engineering.