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Show Green Recruit Has Exciting Time First Day at Kearny After Many Awkward Experiences and Vain Searchings, Newcomer Meets Pals From Salt Lake and Finds Them Jolly Fellows. By FLOYD A. TIMMEE.MAN, Tribune Staff Correspondent. CAMP KEAKXY, Nov. 24. Across the huge drill ground toward the Utah camp there plows ii young man through the heavy dust. He wears civilian clothing and at his side bangs a heavy grip. As be nears a low row of build'ings at the south end of the grounds, he halts and gazes arouud rather bewildered. Slowly he steps forward for-ward again. A guard, pacing his beat a dozen yards away, pauses and eyes tho newcomer new-comer rather suspiciously, for civilian clothes are nut of place in the army cantonment. can-tonment. The guard steps forward and commands the stranger to halt. "Where bound?'' queries the guard pleasantly. "To the Utah artillery camp where I was told to report. You see, I am a recruit from Salt Lake, and " "Oh, yes." broke in the guard. "Just report to headquarters, that building right straight ahead." "Thank you," returns the recruit, and offers an awkward salute and wonders won-ders why the guard turns his face away so abruptly. "That fellow must be new at the war business, too; he hasn :t even learned to salute yet," says the newcomer new-comer to himself as he continues his way to headquarters. lie passes through the open door of the low wooilen building into a room where a battery of clerks are pounding scores of typewriters, and is confronted by Private Albert -H. Paul, who today is acting as orderly. "I have a letter from the recruiting station at Salt Lake," explains the recruit, re-cruit, and he is ushered in to another room and presented to Lieutenant Guy Holmes, assistant to tho regimental adjutant. ad-jutant. At the Headquarters. Within a few moments the recruit finds that ho has been attached to A battery, and, stepping to the door of the headquarters building, the orderly points out to him the battery tents. "Heport to First Sergeant Jdalvorsen; you will find him in the first tent on the row," and with this the orderly again returns to his work. The recruit, not wise to the workings of the camp, starts out on an air line for the tent to which he has been directed. di-rected. As he steps past a row of tents and over a line of neatly laid white stones, a voice hails him from one of the tents. "Please don't walk on the flowers," warns the hidden person, and the recruit halts and looks down. After searching for several seconds he at last focsses his eyes upon a dark, dust-covered stalk with one drooping leaf, almost under his foot. "They have started to kid me alreadv," thinks the newcomer. He does not know then that the. officers of the regiment have future hopes of blooming, fragrant rows of geraniums from the withered looking slips stuck into the ground. And of course he also does not know that Lieutenant Lieu-tenant L. Young is especially proud of his coining garden, and that he carefully care-fully protects them by warning the passerby. The recruit swerves in his eonrse and follows the strip of white sand which marks the walk and crossing the cement road passes between the long I mess halls to the A battery tent. He reports to Sergeant Halvorsen and there learns that he has been assigned to the fourth section. While watching the sergeant enter his name on the battery roll he notices the three inverted V's with a small diamond below are contained con-tained on both shirtsleeves. He tries to imprint this mark upon his mind as the means of distinguishing a first ser- geatit and unconsciously has started ! upon a most important lesson that of learning to tell at a glance the rank, of non-commissioned officers. ! Hears Cheery Voices: As he passes the brown tents on his way to the fourth section there .breaks from each opening tbe sound of cheery voices and snatches of song. The after-! after-! noon drill period is just over. "Jolly i bunch this. 1. wonder what kind of a i hunch there is in the fourth section," ! he muses as he steps into the tent opening. j Inside the tent is much activity. The men arc pulling on their baseball uniforms uni-forms and wasting little time to get I out upon the drill grounds for play. ! The recruit blinks as he gazes into J the interior, waiting for his eyes to ; respond after the dazzling light out- side. . "Well. I'll be darned. Look who's ! here," comes a cheery hail from the cor-j cor-j nor as a sun-browned voutH rushes forward. for-ward. "Welcome to our city, George." I "Clarence Olsen. as I live; well, this is luck; how is my old pal?" the recruit re-cruit bursts forth as he grasps tho outstretched out-stretched hand and receives a crushing slap on the back. Ho turns to find himself welcomed by four former Salt Lake friends, and he knows that ho has indeed found a home. The hours to follow contained manv .oys for the new arrival. At evening mess he was introduced to the 190 members of the battery and as he stood the bench to bow to them thev boomed forth in three loud chers. The recruit's heart went forth to them and he wished he could shake each tanned artilleryman by the hand. Tho pink coloring of his fare contrasted con-trasted noticeably w-jth the dull .brown of the lines of laughing and chatting soldiers w-ho attacked the heaping mess kits of food. Looking earcfully down the long line of men he spot's the shining countenance of Corporal John Holden, whom he remembers from the Salt Lake high school. Corporal llolden was prominent in athletics at that time and was a. wizard when it came to making long runs in a football game. Holden is now a gun corporal and is taking on weight like a drowning drown-ing man filling with water. Busy With the Eats. Over on the next table Supply Sergeant Ser-geant John A. Whelan is stowing" awav the eats. It can easily be seen that Whelan has little use for food conserv-lsts conserv-lsts and barbers. Upon his upper lip there is a growth of something which, when turned to the light, resembles goose fuzz. In Salt Lake Whelan upheld up-held the responsibilities of secretary to a large corporation and his experience has made him valuable at divisional headquarters, where he reports for work daily. As the rocruit's gaze passes down the line it rests upon something which fives out radiance as would a full grown moon. It is the bald pate of Hans E. Lange who, during the afternoon, decided de-cided to relieve himself of his shining locks. His barber did a good job and later applied the razor. Lange is indeed in-deed popular among members of the regiment for a few weeks ago he risked his life to save that of his comrade, Joseph R. Lawing, Jr. ' From railroading to bugling has been the course pursued by Albert O. Bob-erts Bob-erts who passes the recruit on his wav to the kitchen for "seconds." Bugler Roberts was on the payroll of the Oregon Ore-gon Short Lino when the call to the colors col-ors came. Corporal Robert Mitchell, a Salt Lake boy, sits on the recruit's right. He is the popular man who a wek ago received re-ceived a letter, 32 feot' in length from a Salt Lake girl. It is said that he is now contemplating request for a two weeks' furlough Ln which to answer the missive. On the recruit's left, of course, is his friend, Sergeant Clarence Olsen, a former employee of the Z. 0. M. I. drug store. Since the mobilization, Olsen has had a meteoric career," rising rapidly rap-idly from the ranks to sergeant in charge of a complete section; That night the recruit, with many of his old friends and many new ones, is hauled off in their midst to the Y. M. C. A. building not far away. There is a steady stream of khaki clad lads flowing in through many doors and the recruit and his friends join them. Inside In-side the large hall the benches have been arranged crosswise and the seats are rapidly disappearing as the soldiers make a rush for them. In the far corner, cor-ner, and near the stage a piano is surrounded sur-rounded by a group of soldiers who are booming "Where Do We Go From Here. Boys. " Packed in Aisles. Within a few minutes the seats have entirely disappeared and "a mass of soldiers sol-diers are packed in the aisles at each side of the building and in rear of the benches. This "Y ' building has been constructed especially for the 65th brigade bri-gade and on these gala nights each regiment regi-ment is represented nearly with its entire en-tire strength. The recruit now has a chance to look for Salt Lake-friends in the large assemblage. as-semblage. Standing near the window on the right is Frnest Christensen of the headquarters company and now one of the valuable employees of the regimental regi-mental canteen. In Salt Lake Christensen Chris-tensen had a private office of his own and attaller had to have important business busi-ness in oriier to get audience with him. At Camp Kearny be finds it a pleasure to hand out pies, candy, cake and ice cream over the counter to the eager artillerymen. I Under the are light to the left is lTavlor Chamberlain, who in Salt Lake, the. recruit remembered, was a promising young attorney. Chamberlain is now l it corporal in the supply company and spends most of his time nhwadavs in learning the important business of supplying sup-plying his brother soldiers with neccs-' neccs-' sities of life when tho time comes and ! the regiment is under fire. At his side ' stands his brother, George Chamber-i Chamber-i lain, who postponed his work with the i Chamberlain Music company of Salt Lake until Uncle Sam wins his scrap. I The recruit goes on down the line and recognizes many of his former acquain- tances who bave thrown aside everything every-thing in the fight for world democracy. The sight makes him feel proud of his enlistment and he looks forward to the time when he may become as tanned and healthy looking as they appear, and as noisy and carefree as those who patiently await the "doings" to take place on the stage ahead. The Curtain Rises. When at last the curtain rises and a few acts are reeled off without a hitch the recruit realizes that the talent gathered gath-ered here is equal to the highest vaudeville. He does not stop to consider, con-sider, for tbe time that Uncle Sam s call for fighters reached into all lines of business and that actors as well as bankers, lawyers, writers, tradesmen, laborers and 'busiuessmen heeded that summons. At the Camp Kearny "Y" "doin's" the boys arc treated 4o real performances from former followers of the footlights and many among these have appeared in headline banners .before .be-fore the largest theaters of the country. coun-try. With his arrival back to his tent at camp the recruit finds that Sergeant Whelan had not overlooked something which the recruit in his busy evening had not yet thought of a bed. In the corner of the tent he finds waiting for him everything necessary for a pleasant night's rest. There are blankets blank-ets three of them, thick and warm to shelter him from the chilly night air. There is a white bedsack, which, when filled with straw, makes a mattress as comfortable and warm as the most expensive. ex-pensive. A canvas pup tent half is also included, which is used as a cover to shelter the bedclothes from the blowing blow-ing dust during the daytime. Two beaming electric lights in the peak of the tent flood the interior with a bright glow. The recruit notices that as each soldier prepares himself for bed he has a place for everything. His shirt and trousers he uses for a pillow and when he is comfortably tucked under the blankets all that remain of bis presence are his shoes on the board floor underneath. The recruit reaches for his bag to haul forth his white pajamas, pa-jamas, but it suddenly occurs to him that they are decidedly scarce among his tent mates; lie hesitates and finally final-ly withdraws his hand, while visions of a parcel post package en route back home and just about the right size to contain two pairs of the pink bordered nightclothcs passes before him. Some Lively Debates. There is some lively debate from the several beds about football, baseball, running and camp news in general and many mentions of "back home'' in tbe few minutes' conversation before " taps M and the recruit wonders why tbe Italian retreat or the collapse of Russia does not occupy the bulk of the conversation. He does not know yet that when a soldier is at work he is all work and when at play, all play. Xor does he yet know thai: 1heso are the requisites' of a good soldier. "All work and no play." is likely to make a soldier sol-dier a sour person, but, Uncle Sam has fixed it so tie gets his share of both and when one is on tho programme the other is forgotten. With tho last notes of "taps'' the lights are switched off at some unknown un-known source and the recruit passes into deep slumber. In the morning he will be outfitted in his new uniform and the insignia of Uncle Sam's fighter. fight-er. Then comes the individual instruction instruc-tion regarding the saluting of the colors col-ors and officers, how to stand at attention, atten-tion, and the foot movements which all soldiers must learn, no matter to what branch of tho service they belong. The recruit but he is no longer recruit re-cruit when these lessons are learned instead he is one of tamp Kearny's "Sammies" preparing for the battlefields battle-fields ahead. He goes on from day to day enjoying the open life, eagerly awaiting the time when he will be chosen to sit upon the firing seat of one of the guns, and ,iust as eagerlv awaiting the letters from homo which tell him that they are proud 01 him hack there to work hard and win promotion pro-motion and to be sure to wear those woolen socks during tbe rainy reason so as not to catch a cold. |