Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, October 03, 1909, HALF-TONE, Image 19
unday Bee. PART THREE HALF-TONE PACU 1 TO A PAPER FOR THX HOME OMAHA BEE BEST IN THE VTE5T The Omaha VOL. XXXLX-NO. 16. OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 3, 1009. SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS. RAINING THE SOLDIERS FOR A MILITARY TOURNAMENT How the Sixteenth Infantry Was Prepared for the Great Triumph It Won in the Contest With Other Troops at the Recent Army Exhibition at Fort Des Moines Urjz.-.r---' v . v.r A1: v. 1 lw; . r . : -. : -1 "-n .i - ---- I it ' ' J.' v. START OF THE WALL CLIMB. VERY few people realize what it means for one of Uncle Sam's crack organizations to get ready for a military tournament. The Sixteenth Infantry, commanded by Colonel Gardener tnd stationed at Fort Crook, has just returned from Des Moines, where It participated in the big tournament. This fine body of men, with the Thirteenth infan try from Fort Leavenworth are now in Omaha to do homage to King Ak-Sar-Ben. The regiment marched overland to Des Moines and returned by rail. At the tournament there were many exhibitions and contests and there is always the keenest rivalry among the organizations. Last year at St Joseph the Sixteenth Infantry won everything in which it entered, except the relay race. This year the regiment did as well and the men showed up beautifully their particular "stunts." It is proposed to have the infantry organizations give an exhibition In Omaha and Oould Dletz, H. J. Penfold and Charles H. Pickens have taken the matter up with Colonel Gardener. This will be an unusual and attractive feature of the military week during the Ak-Sar-Ben days. There are many drills aside from the regular manual of arms, all selected with an idea to retain and develop the men physically and teach them to act and, think quickly in emergencies. They are taught how to take care of themselves if attacked and how to use their rifles and bayonets for this purpose. Foremost among these drills for physical development Is the "Butt's Manual." In this drill the men go through graceful motions with the rifles extended in dif ferent positions, then at a given command each alternate soldier lays abide his ritle, steps in front ofthe man next to him and they go through the drill with two men holding each rifle. The soldiers are also taught to use their bayonets for self defense In' case of attack at dost quarters. This is an outcome of the service In the tropics where bolo rushes are frequent.- In this drill the men are trained to lunge at an imaginary antagonist, take HALF WAY OVER THE WALL. LAST MAN GOING OVER THE WALL. the various positions of guard ana in other ways use the bayonets as a short sword. In order to bring out the muscles the calisthenlc exercises are resorted to. Every man must be a good physical specimen when he is accepted by the government for service, but the officers do not let the matter rest here, and every man Is encouraged to con tinue bis physical and mental development as long as be remains in the service. It is remarkable to see the men throwing themselves flat on the ground, leaping to a standing position and then lunging out with their fists. After watching this drill one cannot help but appreciate the splendid opportunities every one of Uncle Sam's boys has for improvement. In recent years there has been added to every regiment in the army a machine gun - platoon. These organizations consist of an officer, a servant, two corporals, eighteen privates and ten pack mules. They carry two Maxim Automatic man chine guns and a complete equipment for them. The drill of this platoon wIU be both novel and interesting to the people of Omaha. The little guns veritably Bplt flame at an enemy, as they fire hundreds of shots per minute. ' In the contest for this arm of service a section, one-half the platoon, runs 100 yards, from a standing f start, sets up the gun, fires a shot and returns to the starting line. The platoon at Fort Crook has been doing this in the remarkably fast time of sixty-eight seconds, and will be sure to make the other competitors In the event take a fast gait to beat them. 'U ... . . 1 -3.- X-A. 1 J. Fli- - -T 'i1- .k' vV - 1V Av?-."s ."J Jlf - . PITCHING THE SHELTER TENTS. f 1 Ml." 1 When on the march the men sleep in small shelter tents. ' The tents have always been known throughout the service as "pup" or "dog" tents. Each man carries one-half a tent. The tent serves as ( a covering for his pack, which is slung over his shoulder In the form of a roll. The tents are rec tangular, except that at one end there is a trian gular flap; when two of these flaps are buttoned together they form the closed end of a tent. Omaha will see this tent-pitching done by battal ion and the Sixteenth Infantry will go into ramp In less than throe minutes. A small city (springs up before the eye. For a number of ypars the War department has been encouraging athletics In the army. Field days have to be held quarterly at every army post throughout the service. It Is natural, therefore, that athletic events should be given a prominent A. u ii 50 1 rr- .1: only. In active service it very often happens that a force of men in pursuit of the enemy will come to a wall separating them from their desired goal. This wall may be smooth and yet it Is necessary to get over it. Last year the men scaled a twelve-foot wall; this year the wall has been cut down to ten feet. The squads of eight men each start on a line twenty-five yards in front of the wall, at order arms, with five blank cartridges in each magazine. At the signal the team slips the rifles over the shoulder rfy means of the sling, except one man, then runs for the wall and th'e men are thrown over. The last man is pulled up by means of the one rifle not carried over the shoulder of the contestants. After getting over the wall the men must run to a line fifteen yards away, lie down and fire five rounds per man. This is to simulate actum conditions when It would be necessary to hold the enemy In check while the rest of the commaud came over the wall. The teams from the Sixteenth infantry have been doing this lately In thirty-five seconds, which is very good place at a military tournament and the events areAlme, indeed. INFANTRYMEN AT "BOLO" DRILL. always hotly contested. Last year the Sixteenth Infantry tug-of-war teams, one from each battal ion, were the only teams competing In the final in this event, which never came off because of rain, it was a big surprise when the light Infan trymen pulled the heavy engineers over the line, and this contest will be especially close, as the engineers and cavalry will try to win back their lout laurels. The teams consist of eight men and a team captain. They pull on an inch and a half rope for two minutes, or until one team has gained an advantage of six feet. The men are not allowed to wear gloves and must pull In com plete military uniforms. No holes are permitted for feet rests. It Is therefore a matter of strength At Des Moines the men are also trained to carry messages. The relay teams consist of eight men each and they are divided, four men being placed at each end of a stretch 100 yards long. At the signal the first man starts carrying an envelope containing a message; when he reaches the other end this message Is transferred to one ot his team mates and thin continues nntll 11 men have carried the mes sage. The team first accomplishing this feat Is the winner. 1 The skirmish or sharpshooters' race is also a novel and -interesting feature. The contestants stand on a line, with their rifles, the bplts having been removed from the rifles and put on the ground 10') yards to the front. Each man has to run to. his belt, assemble it'auJ return it to the rifle, after which he must retire to the start ing point, stopping every ten yards and lying down, facing about, to fire one shot at an imaginary enemy. This Is always a close and spirited contest. RLNCETOWN, England, dept. 15. In Bpito of Pthe fait that Americans were largely instru mental In building I'rincetown, the capital of the Forest of Dartmoor, few Americans have ever visited the spot. A wilder or more healthful place, could probably not have been chosen for the huge war prison which was to accommodate the 10,000 French and American prisoners who over flowed from the. prisons of Plymouth a century ago. For Dartmoor, covered with some 300 tors fantastically-shaped piles of granite rising to a height of 2.000 feet had remained a wilderness of rock and heather, bog and swamp, up to the beginning of the, nineteenth century. When the prison was finished In 1S0S Prlncetown, called af(er the prince of Wales, a little grim, gray vil lage of granite grew up around it and the Frenchmen, being the first to arrive, were set to work upon a church and a hotel. Then came the American prison ers, white and black, and the former, who were made to fit up the buildings, gave so much trouble that they bad to be separated from the others, who appeared contented with their lot. v But this was 100 years ago. The convicts today who are incarcerated in this establishment are housed iu comfort as compared with the unfortunates who came there at its opening. The 10,000 prisoners were packed together for the night in stages one over the otfrier, and by this means created an "artificial climate" of which one of the prison doctors of that day writes: "The statistical records of that great tomb of the living (embosomed as it is in a desert and desolate wild), with all its disadvantages, will show that the health of Its Incarcerated tenants in a general way Old Prison Built by American Prisoners equalled. If not surpassed, any war prison in Uuglaud or Scotland. It was not unusual In the months of December and January for the thermometer to stand at 30 to 35 degrees below freezing. Indicating cold al most too intense to support animal life. But the density of the congregated numbers created an arti ficial climate which counteracted the torpifylng effect of the Russian weather without. "It was an every day occurrence among the repro bate and Incorrigible classes who gambled away their clothing and rations for Individuals to be brought up to the reeclving room in a state of suspended anima tion, from which they were usually resuscitated by the process resorted to in like circumstances in frigid regions." Of course, mkny of the prisoners died, for coming as they did from southern climates they could not en dure the extreme cold of a Dartmoor winter; and per haps the most striking remembrance of this period of the history of Prlncetown is the neatly laid out ceme teries which contain the remains of those who died during their term of imprisonment. Formerly the coffins were so slightly covered that the pigs in root ing about the ground turned, up bones and coffin ends, but when I and a party of Americans visited the scene of our countrymen's suffering the other day we felt gratitude for the respect that is now shown to the graves. The Forest of Dartmoor was regarded as a wild, dangerous and uninhabitable region centuries before the building of the great war prison. But the prehis toric remains that are found in all parts of the moor show that it was inhabited by some 100,00 human be ings, a pastoral, peai.c-loving people, who lived wretch edly poor, uncivilized and happy lnhuts of granite thatched with reeds and heather. Though tens of thousands of these huts have been destroyed, tens of thousands still remain clustered together in large cir cular spaces or pounds surrounded by a four-foot wall. There are fifteen of these pounds near Prlncetown, but no sign of a camp or fortress, such a3 is seen iu many parts of England, is to be found anywhere within the forest. Two or three of the tors on the borders were fortified with tlmber-rramed walls packed in w.ith stones. One of these tors, which stands out conspicuously from all points like an oil funnel, has a tiny church on its summit. In the old days, before a pathway was cut. It was desperate work clambering over the huge granite boulders iu wind, sleet and rain. Now, having galued the top, it is sometimes impossible to stand there, and I have more than once found it advisable to follow the old sexton's advice to "crookey down! crookey down!" which admirable suggestion the parson himself and his whole congregation were obliged to follow one day, standing like a grour of school boys at leapfrog dur ing the reading of the funeral service at a graveside. But it is not only people who cannot stand agtrlnst the fierce Moor winds. Centuries of wind and rain gnawing at the granite, which alternates with a hard and a soft bed, have worn it away irregularly, couhc quently in many places enormous stones rock like cra dles. One old Inhabitant of Dartmoor remembers seeing a stone about twenty feet by fifteen rocking in a gale like a ship at sea. Ia other places the rocks have worn to resemble faces, and a stranger seeing these imagines them to be the idols of the ancients. But none is artificial and probably none has been worshipped, for each Is sur rounded by gigantic blocks of granite which would have made the worshipper uncomfortable to say the least. There is one tor, a buge rocky pile standing upon a hillside, which bears an extraordinary resemblance to the Sphinx, but there is no trace of human habita tion for miles around. And another which I came upon suddenly one afternoon has almost sn alarming effect, for the Bowerman's Nose, a core of granite forty feet high surrouuded by masses of rock, really has the power to make you feel that you are In the preseuce of some god. There In a desolate and lonely spot: On the very edge Of the moorland, startling every eye, A shape enormous rises! High it towc-rs Above the hills bold brow, and seen from far Assumes the human form; a granite god To whom in days long flown the suppliant knee In trembling homage bowed. I have often heard it said that Dartmoor is inhos pitable to thobe who try to cultivate it. And It Is cer tainly true that' much money has been spent on its reclamation, and that it has spelled ruin to all who have not approached it in a suitable manner. Each succeeding century has seen the failure of more than one pet scheme. But the vast moorland tract, which for centuries remained a practically unknown wilder liess and royal hunting ground for red deer, makes excellent pasturage for cattle, sheep, donkies and ponies, thousands of which latter, small, wild, shaggy creatures with bong tangled manes, browse free upon the hillsides. Although many parts of the moor have lost noth ing of thtlr wildness, being boggy unknown tracts, crossed only by rough paths and tracks wbic'h serve the moormen, a comparison wilV show what vast changes have taken place during, century. China clay works and granite quarries have been started; Instead of the rough stoce hovels of the settlers squatters who, according to the law, have built their but and enclosed a piece of the moo; in one day there are now hundreds of prosperous, well built homesteads; agriculture has Improved; and perhaps one of the most amazing features, and one which strikes a stranger most forcibly, Is the excellent roads which connect the various villages, roads that com pete with the best in the land and run through a coun try such as Is not to be found elsewhere in England. Enclosures have crept on mid the military authori ties have utilized large tracts. But though the forest offers a magnificent practicing ground, the climatic cpnditlons are not always favorable, nor do the men consider it much of a holiday when they come in for. a dose of genuine moorland weather. Last month the (Continued on Page Two.)