always ablaze on the birthday of the Father of his Country, was this year fanned to a finer enthusiasm than usual by the consciousness of the great war and Amer draft men), and its bearing was characteristic of the ten thousand men from the training ground of Camp Upton, Long Island, who took part in this parade that he would take up for the evening the Army ration, and show reasons for the various foods and their amounts. At the outset the talk was very general, portraying the need for a balanced ration, and defining the customary method of obtaining this result. Then gradually the talk worked around to certain articles included in the ration, and their wholesomeness. "But when it comes to seasonings," the lieutenant said, “that is a different matter. Take the flavoring extracts, for instance. Both vanilla and lemon extracts contain a poison which, if accidentally taken in large enough doses, would probably prove fatal. In ordinary use, and with the amount of flavoring used in preparing one meal for this entire company, there is not enough of the poison to have any bad effects, even if it should all happen to be concentrated in the portion served one man. But the effect of a large amount of this extract taken without foods to lessen its attack might easily prove disastrous." All of the statements made were true, as the alcohol which forms eighty-odd per cent of the extracts is generally acknowledged to be deadly if taken in large enough quantities. The C. O. then went on to give antidotes for the poison, stating that an excellent palliative to be taken by the victim, if secured soon enough after the dose had been administered, was whites of eggs with a little mustard and salt. After the conclusion of the talk the mess sergeant was privately instructed to send any applicants for eggs to the company office, where the lieutenant would await developments. In less than half an hour they arrived. The mess sergeant knocked, and on being bidden to enter came in, followed by a darky so badly frightened he was an ashy gray instead of his customary glossy black. "Suh lieutenant, this man wants to borrow three eggs." And the mess sergeant saluted and stepped back. "Didn't you get your supper?" asked the lieutenant. "Y-yassuh, Ah done et. But Ah feels Ah des got to have dem eggs now, cap'n boss, Ah sure has!" The earnestness of the plea was evidenced by the drops of sweat which stood out on the darky's face, though the temperature was well below the freezing-point outside. Further questioning developed the fact that the man had been one of the detail for transferring kitchen supplies, and that he admitted taking "des one swallow" of the extract, and that he felt sure he would die if the antidote were further denied him. and faced the officer, the sergeant in charge of quarters coming forward for orders. His excuse that the meeting was in progress when he entered the room was cut short with an order to take Johnson into the company office. There the alarmist was shown the glaring inaccuracies of his statements, and was dis missed with a warning that he must stick to the truth in his exhortations if he wished to continue preaching to the men. With the sergeant's help a dose of eggs, mustard, and salt was prepared, and the man's request granted. For about fifteen minutes he was a sick man-too sick to care what happened to him-but he soon recovered and was sent to bed. Since then he has been trusted in the pantry on several occasions, and there have been no further mysterious disappearances of lemon extract in the organization. The man was one of three brothers, Isador, Isaiah, and Isaac Brennstein, each as black as the translation of the surname (coal) and as Hebraic of countenance as the given names suggested-the Yiddisher Silhouettes, as they were known to the officers of the division. Isaiah was asked if he and the others were kin. Four nights later the officer again overheard a meeting in the squad room. Anathema was preaching again. He had chosen for his theme the possibilities offered the Negro in the present war, showing how he might prove himself fit for greater trust, larger responsibilities, and complete sharing with the white man of the vote and its benefits if he but bore himself as a man during the fight. At the close of the talk the group sang "Onward, Christian Soldiers," and "Jerusalem the Golden !" with a vigor and a sincerity greater than had been shown in any of the group singing heard by the commanding officer in any of the other cantonments. The Negro division will never lay itself open to the charge of being voiceless if the men are given proper treatment and are allowed to break into song whenever the work permits. "Yes, sir lieutenant, we's kin; we three's twin brothers." Happening to work a little later than usual in the office one evening, the lieutenant was surprised to hear loud talking in the squad room adjoining, followed by the unmistakable sound of sobbing. Investigation proved that one of the Negroes, Anathema Maranatha Johnson, was living up to a part of his name. He had given his occupation as "countryside Gospel stirrer" when enrolled, and he was stirring by exhorting the men of the company to repent and pray for the forgiveness of their sins immediately for they were destined for the front battle-line in a short time, when they would surely be shot down. New songs for group singing were taught by taking advantage of the imitative nature of the Negro. A small talking machine was secured, and the song to be learned was played over a time or two. If the music was catchy, it was only a little while before the men would begin to join in on the words, and the first thing they knew the song would be learned. After the men acquired confidence the machine would be stopped suddenly, leaving the group to carry the song. He was graphically picturing the slaughter, dwelling especially on the slow deaths from wounds, and was in the midst of a vivid description-wholly imaginary-of the effects of the newest development in German trench gas, when one of the mourners happened to glance around and see the officer behind the group. Military training, embryonic as it was, triumphed over emotional fervor, and the man sprang to his feet, straightened up, and shouted, "Attention!" in the soldierly manner prescribed in the drill regulations. The entire command rose An example of the unifying effect of song occurred early in the life of the organization. The company was engaged in clearing the ground around the barracks, and it was necessary to move some heavy timbers. Ten or twelve men would cluster around a stick and try to move it, the acting sergeant in charge strutting along ahead and counting" One, two, three, four-r-r!" for the step. Some would start on the right foot instead of the left, and then would throw the entire squad off when they attempted to change cadence. Finally Potassium Acetate, in one of the intervals while the sergeant was calling down one of the clumsy ones, began to chant: "Left, Ah left, Ah had a good home an' left, and in less than the time it took the sergeant to count fours the men were all in step and carrying the timber with half their previous effort. The various organizations of the division took turns guarding the camp site. In preparing the men for their first tour of guard duty much time was spent in explaining the meaning of the sentry's general orders and in attempting to teach the men to repeat them verbatim. The teaching bore fruit when the actual test came. The men had been warned that their authority lay only within the definitions of the orders, and that only one of the officers of the guard had power to change the instructions. The first night the men stood guard it was windy-which, in that locality, meant that the camp was in the midst of a dust storm cold, and pitch dark. Between taps and reveille the sentry was ordered to challenge all persons on or near his post, and to allow no one to pass without satisfactory identification. The sentry on the main road entering camp was especially careful to watch for entering automobiles, and after one slipped into the grounds without being stopped he decided to spend the remainder of his relief patrolling the road. Within a few minutes he was repaid by seeing the faint glimmer of headlights through the dust clouds which enveloped him. At the command of the guard the machine stopped, and the chauffeur pulled aside his curtain to shout: "It's the commanding officer's car. Stand aside and let us in!" "Mah orders say nobody's gwine by, an' dey ain't!" After a brief attempt at arguing the sentry into passing the car, the officer got out and started forward that he might identify himself as belonging to the camp. "Stop! Stop right where you is!" commanded the sentry, bringing his gun to the ready. "De sergeant say 'twell six paces, an' if you-all comes any closer to me I'se gwine bust down on you, suah!” And the commanding officer was thus held, despite his threats and pleadings, until the commander of the guard came by on his round of inspection, half an hour later. Anathema Johnson's peculiar vocation was not the only oddity to be brought out by the completion of the qualification cards. One darky gave his age as thirty-three years, and when asked why he had registered replied that he was not sure of his age, and could not think of the address of his sister, who knew, in time to write and verify the date. He was drawn in the first quota. Drill for men of the Negro division, as indeed for all men of the draft armies, began with the fundamentals, and built up from them only when the men had thoroughly mastered the basic principles of their work. The various facings-right-face, left-face, and about-face-all resulted in confusion. If the instructor, facing the men, would execute right-face properly, most of the men would face to the left, so as to reproduce the movement of the leader, while a few would recognize their right, and turn in that direction. But if the instructor turned the wrong way at his commands, to look in the direction the men were supposed to face, there were always a few who turned as he did, and faced the wrong front. The men were finally trained to recognize the facings instinctively by having two or more noncommissioned officers in front of them to execute movements properly, while the commanding officer stood to one side and went through none of the movements ordered. All the instruction was founded on the natural imitative tendencies of the Negro. He learns from example quickly, and it was but a short time before the men had mastered the simpler movements of the manual of arms, and could go through them without a single pause. From the manual to evolutions on the drill field was but a step, each new formation being drilled into a picked squad first, and this squad used to lead the others until the entire company had picked up the movement. The personnel of the instruction squad was changed frequently, and in this way each man received the benefit of some individual instruction, and the C. O. obtained data upon which to base his recommendations for non-commissioned officers' warrants, those in force at first being merely temporary, to afford a skeleton upon which to hang a company formation. The seriousness of drill and its need as a basis for successful and safe handling of the organization was continually kept before the men, and they were encouraged to bring their questions to the C. O. whenever he was at leisure. On the evenings when Anathema was not holding forth or when no talk was scheduled by the lieutenant the men would gather in groups and practice the work they had been given during the day. If there were cases where the orders had been imperfectly understood, those men who had held the company back were given instruction by those who had solved the movement, and in this way the individuals of the organization kept pace together. The semaphore system of signaling taught to troops in all branches of the service for communication over short distanceswas difficult to master. The average Negro has no conception of angles, and since a variation of over twenty degrees in the position of one arm may make either a poor "1," or an equally incorrect" 'm," or a weak "r," or a slipshod "s," the first attempts at transmission were almost hopeless. If the sender stopped to look at the hand he was holding over his head, he invariably shifted the other arm to such an extent that when he was satisfied as to his upper arm the position of the lower had changed the letter to something entirely different. This was gradually overcome, as in the facing drill, by careful practice with men in front to set the proper example. Reading messages given to the sender verbally was more a matter of mind-reading than of signaling. The Negro's spelling is usually phonetic with variations. The first time the lieutenant attempted to read what was being sent he failed so miserably that he spent two hours that night brushing up on his semaphore work, thinking that he must have grown rusty in reading the positions. The next day showed no improvement, and it was not until the C. O. attempting to receive wrote down each letter as it was formed that he was able to decipher the message. Such spellings as "b-a-r-a-x." "M-i-s-u-r-i," and "F-e-n-i-x" were noted in the morning's sending. Phonetically, each word approximates the one intended, but coming a letter at a time, with many shifts of the arm positions, it was easy to see why the men progressed comparatively rapidly as senders and so slowly as receivers. During the time the men were being drilled they received their vaccinations and inoculations, and suffered the usual sore arms from the treatment, as a rule feeling the effect more severely than the average white man. But, taken as a whole, the company did not use the prophylaxis as an excuse for dodging drill, as did some others primarily because the men feared the ridicule of their comrades once they again appeared in formation and were behind in drill progress. Some few were quarantined for measles or mumps, and a smaller number on account of spinal meningitis. These three diseases were widespread at camp, and every precaution was being taken against their spread. Detention camps were instituted to hold the incoming men until their freedom from disease was established, but still the sickness spread. It was finally determined to test each officer to find whether or not each officer was a carrier of the meningitis germs, even if he showed no symptoms of the disease himself. At the time the first group was tested a number of Negro orderlies and waiters were in the room, and with awestruck eyes saw the medical corps men take a wad of cotton, wind it deftly on a small wooden skewer, and then poke it clear back to the ultimate end of the officer's nostril, carefully wiping the cotton on a glass dish after completing the torture. The darkies watched in tongue-tied silence until one of the victims, sneezing violently from the effect of the test, passed near them. A waiter summoned up nerve enough to ask: "What's dey doin' you-all dat-a-way fo', cap'n?" "Spinal meningitis," answered the captain, shortly. And from that as a beginning word spread over the marvelously fast wireless information system common to the Negro that the doctors were inoculating the officers with "spiral McGinnis" (that being the camp corruption of the medical term). And from the camp sources it got into the papers, with the added thrill that the doctor caught doing the work had suffered capital punishment! The first pay day, long and anxiously awaited, finally came, and the men were mustered and inspected before being marched to the paymaster. The quartermaster in charge, to facilitate quick payment, had arranged before him piles of bills in larger denominations and heaps of silver dollars six to eight inches high in the centers. Scarcely any of the men even so much as glanced at the bills, but the mountains of silver fascinated them. One man, after receiving a twenty-dollar and a ten-dollar bill as his pay, stood around, hat in hand, until the entire company had been paid off. He approached the pay desk timidly, one eye on the pile of silver and the other on the service automatic ostentatiously worn by the paymaster. 66 Cap'n boss," began the darky, laying down his two bills, "cain't you-all gimme dis in money 'stead of paper?" And when the paymaster explained that he had just dollars enough to make the proper change for each man, he asked: "Den could stack me up what this comes to in dollars, so's you I can see how much I'se got?" month. Shortly after pay day an order was received transferring the lieutenant in charge to another camp. As soon as word of this was wirelessed through the company there were applications from several of the men for the position of orderly, the idea that officers were allowed personal servants in the new Army apparently carrying over from Civil War days. Properly officered, trained slowly and thoroughly, the Negro division will be able to give a good report of itself when the test comes, and our Negro soldiers will be loyal to the death to those officers who have won their confidence. WEEKLY OUTLINE STUDY OF CURRENT HISTORY BY J. MADISON GATHANY, A.M. HOPE STREET HIGH SCHOOL, PROVIDENCE, R. I. Based on The Outlook of March 6, 1918 Each week an Outline Study of Current History based on the preceding number of The Outlook will be printed for the benefit of current events classes, debating clubs, teachers of history and of English, and the like, and for use in the home and by such individual readers as may desire suggestions in the serious study of current history.-THE EDITORS. [Those who are using the weekly outline should not attempt to cover the whole of an outline in any one lesson or study. Assign for one lesson selected questions, one or two propositions for discussion, and only such words as are found in the material assigned. Or distribute selected questions among different members of the class or group and have them report their findings to all when assembled. Then have all discuss the questions together.]. I-INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Topic: Germany's Advance on Russia; Questions: 66 was 1. What has The Outlook said in describing Germany's Advance on Russia"? 2. What does this advance mean for Russia? For Germany? 3. Do you think 3. Do you think Germany's willingness to talk about "no annexations and no indemnities" from the first intended to deceive the Bolsheviki? 4. Have you come to the conclusion that Germany is a land of official liars? Your reasons. 5. State and discuss your opinion of those who still hold that the Allies should try to secure a political victory over Germany and not a complete military defeat of her. 6. How has The Outlook answered its own question, "What has become of Russia?" 7. It is quite evident that a government can be destroyed. But is the Russian nation destroyed? 8. What are the three things The Outlook says Americans will do well to bear in mind in forming a reasonable estimate of the Russian collapse? Discuss each carefully. 9. Trace the steps by which Russia got into her present plight. Where do you place responsibility? 10. How many lessons in this topic do you see for any nation? 11. Read for this topic Germany vs. Civilization," by W. R. Thayer (Houghton Mifflin); "In the Claws of the German Eagle," by A. R. Williams (Dutton); and "Potential Russia," by R. W. Child (Dutton). 66 B. Topic: The New Garden Cities of Eng- Up to date this has been rather too much of a war of the Democratic party, fought by the Democratic party, for the Democratic party"? 3. State definitely what you think Professor Davenport's opinion of President Wilson is. Prove your answer by using statements made by Professor Davenport. 4. Explain what is meant by 66 a genuine and complete moral victory III-PROPOSITIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. Politics should be taught in all public 1. Explain England's method of building new garden cities" for munition workers. 2. What are the characteristics of the houses and villages described by Mr. Childs. 3. What contrasts does Mr. Childs point out between America's method and England's method of providing homes for munition workers? Why does not America follow the English method? 4. What advice does Mr. Childs offer to the United States? Do you think our country should accept it? If it did, what results would follow now and after the war? 5. What do you know about "socialized Germany"? Should America be similarly socialized? Discuss at length. Put extra-serious thought into this question. 6. What is the condition described by The Outlook (page 359)? If this condition was foreseen, as The Outlook says, why did not our Government head it off? Discuss. 7. State and discuss several propositions suggested by A booklet suggesting methods of using the Weekly Outline of Current History will be sent on application IV-VOCABULARY BUILDING (All of the following words and expressions are found in The Outlook for March 6, 1918. Both before and after looking them up in the dictionary or elsewhere, give their meaning in your own words. The figures in parentheses refer to pages on which the words may be found.) Social revolution (353), arbitration, rapprochement (354), bogie (358), National fabric, disports, posit (363), arrogate, quiescence, manikin (368), monstrosity (373). |