The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1918-08-29
EMMETT WOMAN VISITS
CAMP LEWIS
Miss Katherine Mann Describes
Days Exhibition at Noted
Training Camp

Lewis. 1t was indeed grand sight,
never to be forgotten. The day was
ideal, beautiful, although Tacomans
thought it very warm. A doctor
friend of mine, who had charge of
the laboratory at the Base Hospital,
acted as my guide.
In the afternoon an exhibition of
the various kinds of training given at
this camp, was given, in honor of the
especially invited guests of the day,
viz: 1000 Civil war veterans, 1000
Spanish-American war veterans, who
had been in attendance of the G. A. R.
encampment at Portland last week,
and 1000 returned Canadian soldiers,
from recuperation camp in Canada
Many of the Canadians were still in
| bandages, others walked with canes
or crutches, and l saw one man whose
disfigured face had been repaired with
plastic surgery The amhitheater
which surrounds the exhibition
grounds, was filled to it's utmost ca
pacity. l inquired several times of
its seating capacity, but got no defin-
ite answer. 1t may be fifty thousand,
or several hundred thousand, l don't
know, but this | do know, it was the
largest seated assemblage that / had
ever witnessed.
A Scotch Canadian bag-pipe band
of IL pieces entertained US. The play
ers wore the Scotch kits and caps.
Trench songs were sung by the boys
in training, after which the physical
training exhibition was given.
The first was on the order of a
Swedish drill, in which several hun
dred men took part, moving hand,
foot, body in unison for about 20
minutes. Then company was put
through the marching drills. A wa
gon contest was pulled off that was
exciting. Two wagons, each with
an eight-horse team, drove into
the grounds with ten men each.
At signal they stopped, un-
loaded the wagon, unhitched and un-
harnsuDed, even took the halter off the |
horses, took off the wagon box, the
wheels, in fact, took the wagon all
to pieces, then assembled it again,
harnessed and hitched up, loaded the
wagon and drove off. The winner in
this contect made it in minutee and
20 seconds.
Two contests of throwing hand
grenades were had; one was for dis
tance and one for accuracy of aim.
The contest of scaling the wall was
very exciting. A squad of IL men
were used. Four would run to the
wall and were used for steps for the
others so they could reach the top,
when the second four were on the
wall, they would reach down and pull
up the first four, SO there were none
left behind. Three squads were
shown. Time for the winners was 80
seconds.
Trench fighting, or over the top,
was shown by an embankment OF
sandbags, with another bag to repre-
sent German, Is or 20 feet beyond
the embanklnent. Each boy would
leap over the embankment and thrust
his bayonet into the German. Some
times he would lose his balance in
the leap, and miss his thrust, but 3
times out of 10 he bagged his man.
A gas mask drill was given in the
form of a relay race. Two lines of
men were stationed about 300 feet
apart. One man from each line was
,hosen. He then opened his mask case,
adjusted the mask ard made a dash
'or the other line, he touching man,
Who in turn took out his mask, ad-
usted it, and ran to the opposite line,
md so on, until the men stood in op-
,osite lines from which they started.
At the close of the above drills, a {
,oxing match was pulled off by the
rainers at Camp Lewis and Seattle q
hip yard. During this match &
Iivil war veteran, who fought with an |
illinois regiment, and s5 years of /
ge, asked to have round with the I
winner. He put on the gloves, and !
owned the champion, amid the rous- $
ng cheers of his comrades.
The Fife and Drum Corps, followed
" the Grand Army of the Republic,
he Spanish-American veterans, and 7
'anadian soldiers paraded, making a
rand and imposing spectacle of men
Tho have fought at different times, !,
ut for one great cause, for their +
ountry. At the close of the parade,
-as held an Allied flag raising. The
anadian flag was the first flung to
ne breeze, with the military band
laying "God Save the King Then j.