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Show Tflll WILL BE INTERESTING WORK Scene of Mobilization of Volunteers Is Historic in Events of West. When the training camp recruits begin their business of learning to be soldiers at Fort Douglas three weeks from tomorrow the Inviting site at the base of the mountains moun-tains will shelter a modern volunteer band. " The first volunteers that located at Fort Douglas were those of California and Nevada, Ne-vada, under General P. J-. (Jonnpr, who Pitched camp on October 22, lSti:j Those hardy pioneers saw much more fighting than the training camp recruits will see, for the Indians then infested this country coun-try and It was t he duty of Connor's men to keep open the mail routes and protect the settlers in this region from the depredations of the redskin. Not only will the amateur soldiers at the training camp lead peaceful lives, but they will find more comfort than ever the Indian hunters of Connor's time even dreamed of. When the first volunteers volun-teers were camped on the eastern hench they lived In dugouts and shelters made for protection, and not for comfort. But the training camp recruits will be housed in the modern barracks, where there are real shower baths and all the comforts of a well-appointed college dormitory. dor-mitory. It Isn't fair, though, to give the impression im-pression that the training camp recruits will be "hot-house" products, for the chances are that by the time they finish their training they will be better equipped for modern soldiering than the volunteers that Connor led would be, for they will have the benefit of the experience of trained army officers, they will learn to shoot on the government ranges and will have intensive drill that was Impossible under! the first regime that held forth at Fort Douglas. And there will be work for the training camp recruits, too. Getting up at 6 o'clock in the morning and drilling at one thing or another until late in the afternoon', with tactical and technical lectures In the evening, Is not the laziest programme imaginable. im-aginable. But that is the programme for tUe training camp recruits that they will follow to detail, with, of course, more liberal lib-eral leave and excuses tnan. could be allowed al-lowed in the regular service. A member of the Plattsburg camp writes that the work is arduous, but every ev-ery minute of it is made interesting and instructive to such a degree that he plans to go to at least two more camps during the next two summers, for, he says, there is no better vacation to be had and no I more pleasant company and surroundings than he has found at the eastern camp. |