The Springdale news., 1918-03-01
CAMP PIKE GETS
IT'S FIRST BIG GUNS
Artillery at Camp Pike Now Have
Real Guns-Other Interesting News
From the Camp.
By Erwin Funk.

| BY Erwin Funk.
Camp Pike, Feb. 23.-"As tickled
as boy with his first pair of red top
boots" is supposed to express excess
slve pleasure. But the aforesaid fic-
tltlous boy isn't to be compared with
an artillery regiment that has been
drilling all fall and winter with the
crudest kind of dummies, when If
gets its first consignment of real
/ guns
was at the camp a few days ago
when one Of the batteries was being
given its first introduction to its new
Al inch howitzers 1t was prybab bly,
the first time most of them had ever
seen real artillery, and they treated
1t very cautiously and refused to do
any erowdng. A bunch If sergeants
were doing the demonstration work,
and they went over their lecture rime
after time to impress upon the men
the names of the various parts and
! the way and how of the rather COM
pllcated mechanism of the breech
block and the sighting outfit. One
soldier was standing back from the
gun, looking 50 long faced that the
sergeant turned to him and said
What's the matter, jim? Just
h.t 4 a
Germans with these playthings soon"
Yep drawled Jim, but what
makes me feel sorry is remembering
that them Germans has some play
things just like these"
An interesting feature of the Red
Triangle work in the camp the past
few weeks mas been the campaign for
the Pocket Testament League Over
| 5000 of the soldiers have accepted
the little khaki covered Testaments
and signed the pledge to read at
least a chapter every day. There are
many earnest Christian men among
the soldiers and they have rendered
the Red Triangle workers much aid
in getting the pledges signed.
One knows that spring is really
headed this way when you can hear
the thump Of the base ball into the
cateher's nit and the rack of the
bat Every Y. NJ. c. A. building on
the ground is furnished with number
Of complete baseball outfits and be
| tween six and seven o'clock in the ev
ening the vacant places and the com
pany streets are filled with ball play
ers. Others are working on the bas-
| kct ball court some are kicking a
. football some training for the field
ff==== s---ssizz---
day meets. You might expect raeri
to be loafing after strenuous days
work and few are, but most want a
change and appear to be getting lots
Of fun out of their various sports.
Perhaps the sweetest gift that has
come to the men at Camp Pike was
the barrel Of sorghum donated
through the Van Buren, Red Triangle
workers by James Little of Harold
ton, Crawford County. A barrel of
sorghum of fifty gallons will last
quite a while in most homes, but at
Camp Pike it won't last longer than
the proyerbial SNOWFALL.
1t sounds very reasonable and yet
no one had ever before suggested to
me that one of the most acceptable
gifts to a soldier who is just recov-
ering at the hospital, too weak and too
Indifferent to read ana yet we'll
enough to fret because of the enforc
ed idleness, is a puzzle. 1t does not
matter what kind Of a puzzle-key
and ring, wire combinations, pigs
in-the-clover, block or casdboa d
any puzzle that is not too easy and
vet not too complicated; they will be
welcomed in any quantity at Camp
Pike Perhaps your merchants have
some of them for advertising pur-
poses. Perhaps you have some of
them hidden away in forgotten
drawer that you would like to share
with the boys here Just mail them
to the Y. NJ. c. A. Administration
Building, Camp Pike, for Base Hos
pital. and hundreds of weary men will
call YOU blessed. This suggestion
came from Mr.. Slower, our new Red
Triangle man out at the Base Hospi-
tai. The new "Y" building will soon
be completed there and 1t Will and
greatly in the work among the pa
TENTS. There were less than l,4oo
men there when | asked last and con-
ditions are speedily improving. The
greatest number there at any ore
time was about 1900.
If the army was in tented city
instead of one that looks very much
a. though it were big collection Of
harms. the casual visitor would get
the impression that big circus had
lust reached town. The huge noun
tairs Of baled hay; men Gathering up
ard down tie streets on artillery and
truck horses, bands and individual
musicians practicing here and there;
. constant stream of autos motor
cvcles. trucks, ambulances, delivery
wagons; men. with and without their
rifles, stride by in squads, compah-
les and regiments Freight engines
Duff noisly up and down the track
that divides the camp into two equal
communities. And ever, where the
soldiers. Ever, balraei TIL IS under
quarantine has its yards on all sides
and every sunny day the cots and
bedding are CUT in the company front
or back yard to air until it looks Ike
moving lay. TIE comedy is furnish
ed by an auto load of negroes with "a