The sun., 1918-09-04

nxed bayonet, 10 reserved seats In the
balcony Of the drill hall. were fed by the
Government and marshaled again in
silent company until other soldiers took
them away to Fort Jay or Camp Upton,
there to be chucked into uniform forth
with, or. IL physically unit for service,
to work out fine as one Of Uncle Sans
laborers at the going rate OF 81 a day.
For these chaps It was the Jolt of their
lives. In the morning cheeky young
Americans. preening themselves on hav-
Ing lodged the nations summons. in the
evening were Gagged and due to wear sol
| diers' clothes for the duration of the
war.
The hunting { all over Manhattan
proved so good that instead of pro-
ceeding all night. as had been planned.
| 1t was abruptly stopped at nightfall.
The hunters were still full Of vim. but
the armory Of tha-Sixty-ninth Regiment
was SO congested that Charles De
| Woody. Division Superintendent of the
| Investigation Bureau of the Depart
| ment OF Justice, simply had to call
! temporary halt At that hour a.1S2
men had been serially numbered in the
armory.' The status OF about half of
these had been determined. and there
! was still another thousand to whom
| the busy sorters had not had time to
give attention. So the roundup was
called OF for the day in order that the
| arinory might catch up with its work.
1t was going to be an all night job
anyway. There were SO many arrests"
lot OF which were unreasonable, 80
| many perplexing cases. so many persons
about whom information was not readily
n. tn Inn IL
cluttered with anxious and bewildered
New Workers. with their fate yet to be
determined. A thousand cots were pro-
Vided IN the armory. and any man who
| was Kept away from home at mealtimo
was provided with two sandwiches, q.
piece or pie and cup Of coffee.
The simple piece OF strategy on which
the great offensive against slackerdom
was based was simply the guarding Of
all entrances to and exits from the
city. This means that az every rail-
road and ferry station. bridge, subway.
trolley line, or highway. the Government
MAD stationed agents whose business
was to see that nobody obviously of
draft age-e1 and less than 31-got
through unless he had both his blue
/ registration card of June and the
white card certifying his classification.
5000 Volunteers Aid In Task.
or the 10000 agents set to work on
| this job 5000 were members OF the
/ American Protective League, an organ
| ization of unpaid volunteers which has
been OF very great service TO the De-
partment OF Justice IN its war work
There We're also the police and police
| reserves-as many as could be spared
! from duty at the primary polls-the
the Army and Navy intelligence bureaus
the United States Marshal and his dep
| uties. the secret service OF the Customs
House and its narcotic squad. which
| found several drug victims These
hunters were assisted by several hun
bred automobiles lent to tlE Government,
and fleet Of gray fiivver buses labelled
Military Police Patrol Wagons"
Manhattan was divided into eight
zones. with an inspector of the American
Protective League responsible for the
conduct of the drive in each police pre-
clnct within his zone. At each police
station was an A. p. l.. Captain in
| direct charge of the canvass in that pre-
/ cinct.
From the railroad terminals. where
the roundup was liveliest and from the
| streets or wherever else the hunters did
| their duty, the men suspected OF draft
| lodging were supposed to be hauled to
police stations. There the first sorting
was done.
Theoretically each prisoner-for that
| Is what each man taken to the station
| amounted to for time-wss permitted
| to telephone home and bid somebody
there hurry TO the station with the price
less white card that was the ticket to
freedom. In practice many Of the sta
lions were so crowded that individual
| use of phones was out of the question.
The overflow of suspects was chucked
, into vacant stores, vacant .lots-any-
where room could be found.
Lively Scenes at G8th ArmOry.
From the stations those who, In the
Judgment OF the police station question
ers either were slackers or must he
passed upon by higher ups. were packed
Off to the Sixty-ninth Regiment Armory
When the stations got crowded many
men were taken to the armory direct
, from the spot of their detention.
OF course New York has never be-
I fore witnessed such a scene as was to
be observed in the armory. At the rear
entrance on Twenty sixth street a never
ending line OF motor vehicles. each with
military policeman with fixed bayonet
| aboard. delivered its load. The The
vehicles ranged from two seated fiivvers
to the proudest cars in the world, from
/ laundry delivery wagons to rubberneck
buses and furniture vans crammed with
as many Ia forty or fifty men at a time.
These men were as varied as the rigs
that carried them. Judging from the
number Of sample cases lugged into the
aHnory a shocking number OF CONNER
cial travellers had fallen into the
net! There\ slick youngsters tried to
chan their guards on the way to the
armory. but they formed a weary crew
before Judgment was pronounced ga
rage workers in undershirt and over
alls and with face and arms smeared
with black grease; several street car
motormen and conductors, at least one
plain clothes policeman, a street cleaner
with his mind in whirl, queer Great
ures from basement poolrooms, who
pleaded for enlightenment with both
extended arms from anybody that
looked their way: hapless commuters
by the hundred. who had been picked up
at railway and ferry stations. and who,
by the way, vindicated the suburbs by
proving themselves nearly 100 per cent
.. X OH the draft.
Eventually the New Workers. were es-
corted from the armory's central ''bull
pen" 10 smaller pens, where sat officials
who were in telephone communications
with all the draft boards In the city. A
man who said he was registered with
Board 1853. for example, was assigned TO
a pen whose guardians were in touch
with the Office of Board 1G9.
From Board 169 the status OF the man
could be quickly learned. II he was all
right and had a right TO be at large he
was shot into another line and pot n