Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-03-13

OF any important place, are the first
things on which the eye of the visitor
rests. Thus at Camp Hancock the new
conner sees the staid old Southern city
on the cool plain along the river, rising
gently toward the west into the fine resi-
dence section, many being winter homes
of Northern people These beautiful
homes, and also the fine winter hotels,
stand amid groves of pine, oak and mag
nolia; and in late February or early
March the lawns and gardens show vines,
shrubs and trees swelling with buds or
showing tiny pale green new leaves, the
pink of peach blooms, flowers of lavender
purple, blue and white. Adjoining this,
and near on the south and east to the
beautiful Augusta Country Club and pic
turesque gold links, is Camp Hancock.
Along the brow of the hill slopng to the
Savannah river and on the border of the
golf links stand the remains of old Con-
federate forts built to command certain
roads against the forces of Sherman,
whose daring march to the sea and whose
definition of war will be memorable in
the military annals of the American peo-
pie for all time.
Camp Hancock occupies an elevated
plateau formerly cotton and corn fields,
stretches of sand and brush and patches
of pines. 1t slopes to the south and
commanding beautiful prospects of hill
and valley, landscape of pine woods
spotted with farms. The ground was
cleared of brush and rubbish by the thir
ty-odd thousand soldiers most Pennsyl-
vanians, who are here. The pale gray
sand is cut by the reddish colored main
roads. while from these at right angles
run back the company streets with the
one story wooden mess halls next the
street and back of these the tents. The
sides Of the hill slopes are gashed deep
into the red subsoil with trenches zig
tagging far into the surrounding pine
WOODS.
First and last everything to the eye
spells Sanitation and order. The incinera-
tors outside the mess halls are built of
brick and white-washed. Garbage cans
stand ready for all refuse. Inside the
kitchens are clean. The mess tables are
constructed so that every other top board
is loose and can be readily removed for
the daily cleaning. One does not remem
Der seeing a fly. Floors are swept and
scrubbed. Latrines are as clean and as
nearly Odorless as it is practicable to
make them. The huts of the officers rum
ming along the opposite sides of the main
streets are neat and tidy. In front of some
of these, little patches of grass and flow
ers have been started. The tents of the
men holding eight men each, are gem
orally floored with pine and are built up
three feet around the sides with boards
and banked to keep out the cold. The
tent flaps can be readily drawn into the
days. A stove is in the center and am
pie ventilation is furnished by an opening
at the top of the tent. Men are re-
quired to sleep with the tent door open
except in weather that is too stormy or
cold Shower baths are provided for all
the men Cleanliness, fresh air and good
order are written in every arrangement,
Were one required to arrange a plan for
the physical upbuilding OF company of
even semi-inValdS it would seem diff
cult to improve on this soldiers camp
among the pine hills of Georgia.
Food is plentiful and of good quality.
Of necessity there cannot be the variety
found in private home. OF course too,
there are cooks and cooks. At least one
company has a regular "chef." Here
.ge the good, the Indifferent, possibly the
poor. In lumber camps the cook is often
described by the men as "a fellow who
couldn't boil water without burning 1t.
There is no point on which companies of
men are so prone to critiCiSe as the cook
ing. Anyone who has had to run board
ing camps can Sympathtze with Uncle
Sam in the matter of cooks. But two or
three meals at camp and casual Observa-
tion of the food served up and the appe
tiZing doors therefrom gave the impress
sion that at Camp Hancock the eating is
very good. Even in q company where the
cook and his assistants We're described as
having come from brickIayers, found
ries and other non-culinary emplOymentS,
an actual eating of a meal showed it to
be good.
The big base hospital set at the highest
elevation, with it's many separate build
ings connected by sheltered board walks,
showed patients in bath robes sitting on
the porches on a day in February. The
mercury in the tube at the front porch
showed the top of the red at 80. Many
cots were out in the open, the occupants
reading, smoking, or talking. These pa
tients are especially in need of light read
ing matter, books, magazines and news
papers. So far as care and surroundings
go, their condition seems nearly ideal
THE deadly monotOny" is an expression
often used in describing the chief COM
plant of army camp life. 1t is drill, drill,
drill doing the same thing over and over
again, week after week, month after
month. you know exactly what you are
going to do, Monday, Tuesday, Wednes-
day, Thursday, Friday and Saturday"
You know what you are going to have to
eat next Wednesday a-Week and the
day after that and the day after that"
These show how the men feel They want
to be where they can seem to be doing
something to get across" All seemed
eager to go to France. Most do not seem
TO realize that in steady, daily dull drill
ing a man is made over, his efficiency
developed such as cannot be done in other
ways. Out of the daily grind of drudg-
cry year after year there come forth
furnished actors musicians, experts, and