Evening star., 1942-03-18

plCAcu up again dliU again III llOW-
ers and ties throughout the audi
ence in celebration of the day.
BY ell odds the most attractive
part of the spectacle were the young
women who opened and relayed the
capsules. Some Of them, as they
the stage, fingered on the sidelines
to talk with the young soldiers,
sailors and marines who took turns
lifting 125 capsules each from the
bowl.
Cots were provided below the
auditorium for the selective serv-
ice employees and others taking part
in the lottery to take cat maps dur
ing the night. All the employees
from selective service headquarters
worked through the entire day be-
fore reporting for duty at the lottery
and went back to their Offices again
today. following the principle that
the lottery should not interfere with
the war effort.
Numbers Follow Routine Course.
As the lottery settled down to
routine an enlisted man would
pluck a capsule and ''~"d j. -
the girl seated nearest him. She
would open the capsule a.lu p1sS ~
on to the second girl. who would
pull out the numbered slip and place
it before her on wooden trough
The next girls job was to insert the
slip on a card.
The card went to the announcer
Army officers worked this job in
l5-minute shifts. AS the announcer
called out the number. it was re-
corded in black crayon on huge
white sheets Of paper in numbers
large enough to be seen anywhere in
the auditorium.
The card was passed on again to a
filming machine which recorded the
time to the second and the date as
we'll as the number This is the
ofIicial record. After this process.
the slip was removed from the card
and passed on again to two other
girls who fastened the slips with
small hot irons to sheets of other
numbers. These are the sheets
which were rushed to the Govern
ment Printing Office.
Meanwhile, at selective service
headquarters another group Of en-
ployes were at work on a new sys-
tenn. As each number was broad
casted to them by means of a loud
speaker on a hook-up from the au-
ditorium, cards we're punched. This
worked on the principle that If any
cards remained unpunched at the
end Of the lottery, the missing num-
bers would be Immediately deter
mined.
This system also provided for q
tabulation by serial numbers. The
complete index. which will 60 out
with the master order lists. also
shows the page. column and line on
which any registrant's serial number
appears on the master list.
Opened Capsules Guarded.
To guard against error, the opened
capsules were kept In buckets
under special guard until the
drawing was completed and checked
AS each bucket was filled. two
bucket bearers, accompanied by
| police escort retired to lock up the
opened capsules and even souvenir
hunters with pull were told to
wait until morning.
The drawing was one more stop
on the tour of the graduating class
of the Wilcox PaD High School.
Although the high school is CO.
educational, only the girls wanted
to see the drawing. They spent 10
minutes watching numbers 60 up on
the board and then retired to q
nearby movie.
Watching the drawing with such
intense interest that he frequently
left his parents side to get nearer
the front was 10-year-old Buddy
Garrett, son of H. L. Garrett. 502l
Fifth street NV. The youngster
had his fathers serial number writ
ten for him and watched impa-
tiently for 1t to show up.
! "You going in the Army or the
Navy or the Marines?" he asked his
father, who pacified him with a,
We'll see"