Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-12-04
THE JOB OF BEING
A PHYSICAL DIRECTOR
TO BUNCH MAHOUTS
For Uncle Sans Missouri Night
ingales In France Is No
Cinch
YET THE JOB WAS
"CINCHED" BY WILLIAMS
An All Round Athlete Is Making
Big Success OF Athletics
In France

Persistence and versatility are two
of the most useful qualities that any
one connected with the American Ex-
peditionary Force can possess. In
fact. these two. with courage, which
is taken as a matter of course by the
Yankees, are fairly good equipment
for any task you want to tackle In
France.
j Herbert Williams. of Altoona, Pa,
has all three of these desirable things.
That is why he is one of the most val
liable physical directors serving with
the American Y. NJ. C. A. If he lacked
any one of them, he never would have
made good on a job that he recently
put across Many persons would have
said right at the outset that IL was
impossible and would have passed"
But Williams isn't given TO passing"
at least until he has tried to see
what he can do with a poor hand.
An army colonel, recognizing the
need of some diversion for the men in
the trains attached to one unit, re-
Iquested the Y. NJ. c. A. TO assign ply
sical department man to travel with
this part of the organization. The
idea was that If these soldiers. who
belong to the class known as mule
skinners," had something to amuse
them i'm the few hours OF each day
/ that they weren't working or sleeping,
their morale would be benefited.
The outlook was certainly not propi-
tious 1t was customary for the
trains to move at night and for the
men to sleep until about 4 o'clock each
afternoon This left possibly two
hours in which they were free to do
as they pleased. AS they usually halt
ed at some spot utterly devoid of all
chances for recreation, this time some
times was spent in ways that didn't
promote the moral tone of the trains
a bit "Mule-skinnersp as a class are
among the hravest men in the army.
They take all sorts of chances without
having the pleasure Of fighting back.
They work hard and they sleep and
eat when they can. Among them is
very large percentage of fellows who
might without any exaggeration be
called hard" In fact, the mule
skinner" rather rejoices in his reputa-
ton OF being a bear-cat. His is no
job for a lounge lizard and sometimes
his play is as rough as his work.
1t seemed the height of absurdity at
first glance to ask men who were
| ,,,o,lrf,,s, eorrtao,, bo,.ro o~ ,,,ora axavxx
day. who were getting less than a nor
NAL amount of sleep and who we're
exposed to all kinds of weather, to
take up athletic sports in their leisure
moments. The problem that confront
ed Williams was to make sports SO
attractive that none OF the men would
want to be left out.
He did exactly this thing:
The first day out on long trip. the
soldiers were assembled by their ser
geants at o'clock in the afternoon
and the Red Triangle man put them
through setting up" drill, followed
by informal games. The sports lasted
until it was time for the caravan to
get under way again, and they proved
so popular that the men protested
when it was necessary TO call a halt.
For five days, not man was missing
from the athletic events and the wine
shops along the route lost "beaucoup"
francs in trade. On the sixth day, the
tains halted at large town for con-
siderable time and a few jumped the
reservation But the great majority
stuck to the games in preference to
win ordinaire" and other attractions
For three of the six days that the
journey lasted, it rained day and night.
but this did not interfere with the
sports program. In fact, rain is so
much part of the life of mule
skinner" in France that he pays no
more attention to 1t than a fish. No
better endorsement of the value and
popularity of athletics in the army
even under extraordinary conditions
could be asked than this. The games
put on by Williams were simple and
often they had to be played in places
that could by no stretch of imagination
be mistaken for the Polo Grounds.
But they served the purpose of giving
the men something TO do and some
thing to think about. to say nothing
lof the opportunity for working out the
kinks that riding from twelve to four,
-lteen hours daily in wagon will leave
with fellcw.
Williams was making big success
lof promoting sports for the Pennsyl-
vania railroad at its Altoona shops be-
fore he came to France for the Y. M
lC A. He is himself an all-round ath-
lete. having played baseball, football
and basketball in school and college,
and later making good in the Tri-
IState league