Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-10-02
WHAT CAMP TOWNS
DO FOR SERVICE MEN
What The War Camp Communi.
ty Service Does In Amy Town
In Training Camp Activities
MEN ARE APPREcIATIvE

The following, which is taken from
the war Camp Community Service
Calls" shows what this service is
doing for Annapolis men in the SER
vice Of the Army and Navy. as Camp
Town:
When the representatives of War
Camp Community Service first ar
rived in Any-Camp-To the COM
merical amusement house was usually
the chief place of entertainment open
to the enlisted man. Before the camp
came, the average citizen patronized
these amusements only occasionally.
He found his recreation in attending
lodge meetings, church sociables.
neighborhood parties, and family
gatherings. He had not given much
though to the question of entertain
ing the transien-the person who
could not at once become part OF
the social life of his town. He had
thought of the problem in the large
perhaps once in his life-as MEM
Der of the entertainment committee
of a Labor Day celebration-when
over his printed name, he had COM
mitted the community to sixteen
hours of unrestrained hospitality to
any and all out-of-town guests who
would succumb to the lure of his
alliterative appeal. He remembered
with anxiety how the ingenuity of the
community had been taxed to provide
entertainment enough to keep four
hundred people amused from the time
the eight-twenty arrived in the morn
ing until the eleven-fif.y-six pulled
out at night. For the other three
hundred people amused from three
hundred and sixty-odd days of the
year, the average citizen had left
the transient to the mercy of the
commercial amusement manager.
When the Government revealed its
plan to establish military and naval
training stations throughout the coun-
try, there was a hurried influx into
many camp towns of cheap and vul-
gar amusements The problem of
providing recreation to twenty thous-
and or more transient visitors was
larger than most towns were able to
solve alone. They had neither the
powers to control undesirable attrac-
tions, nor facilities to provide ade
quate entertainment A street car
nival which came to one Southern
camp town featured gambling de-
vices, hoochi-koochi show, a peep
tent, and a course imitation of Bar
barry Coast dance hall. This particu-
lar aggregation was practically a
transient group of prostitutes and
traffiickers in prostitution, parading
as professional entertainers.
When War Camp Community Ser
vice went into the camp towns, these
attractions left! For them were sub
stituted athletics of all sorts, diver
sified entertainments, pageants, fes
rivals, parties, dances, automobile
rides, sightseeing excursions, picnics,
concerts, and wholesome commercial
amusements at reduced prices.
Americas outdoor sports require an
abundance of space and air. Given
these, the average American-reared
man can amuse himself at baseball,
lOOeDdll. Udohctbdlls IcuH1S dhu bAC1
kindred outlets for energy.
Through War Camp Community
Service, American towns were quick
to place their recreational facilities
at the disposal of the soldier, the
sailor, and the marine. Fairgrounds,
swimming pools, bath-housese, ath-
letic fields, stadiums, gymnasiums,
amusement parks, skating Kinks, dan
cling pavilions, and auditoriums
throughout the country are now open
to these men.
Atlantas mayor has placed ten
men in the military and naval SER
vice. Enlisted men are daily guests
in San Diego's world-renowned re-
creation building This city operates
a ee-game-a-week baseball league,
stages wrestling and boxing matches,
and conducts track and field meets.
Seattle's entertainment program fea-
lures water and ice carnivals. Six
hundred engineers stationed at DEM
ing, New Mexico, transformed an un-
used reservoir, covering fifteen acres,
into an amphitheater. 1t seats TWEEN
ty thousand soldiers. 1t provides
baseball and football fields, volley
ball, tennis and basketball courts, and
an open-air swimming pool for Camp
Cody's enlisted men.
In the opinion of Major-General
Wood, 1T is jus. as essential that
soldiers know how to sing as it is
that they carry rifles and know how
to use them" Boisterous when OPP
perfume and stilled when inoppor-
tune, song offers an invaluable outlet
to the calm and frenzied moods and
emotions of men on the battlefields.
Fighters must sing,
A distinct branch of the War and
Navy Departments Commissions on
Training Camp Activities is charged
with providing this vital part Of the
soldiers and sailors fighting equip
ment inside their training camps and
stations.
War Camp Community Service
keeps the soldiers singing outside the
camps. 1t conducts community sings
and festivals from mixed audiences of
enlisted me nand civilians. Such an
occasion given at Norfolk, Va. was
attended by some four thousand peo-
pie. One sing in Des Moines was ac-
companied by three military bands,
and combined the voices of twelve