THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



they had cold weather, they had but little 

 snow. These bad health conditions were 

 doubtless due to the unseasonable and 

 unusual conditions at these places. 



At San Antonio and at Camp Funston 

 the high winds blew the dust, so that it 

 seemed to carry the germs. At San An- 

 tonio the prevailing trouble was influenza, 

 followed by pneumonia. At Camp Pike 

 the pneumonia came from measles. At 

 Camp Funston the dust was dark and al- 

 most black loam. When I stepped from 

 the train at that place a high wind was 

 blowing and the dust was so thick that it 

 darkened the faces of the regiment and 

 its officers, so that they, although white, 

 had the appearance of a colored regiment. 



But, as already shown by General Gor- 

 gas' report, the health conditions are so 

 much better than they ever have been in 

 the past, that while we should not abate 

 our effort to reduce disease, we certainly 

 may felicitate ourselves and the War De- 

 partment on the comparatively small per- 

 centage of deaths and illness. 



As already said, at every camp there 

 are four to five English officers and four 

 to five French officers. The uniform 

 testimony of our commanding generals is 

 that these officers have been admirably 

 selected They are men who wear insig- 

 nia showing that they have been in the 

 trenches and in the places of danger on 

 the front, have been a number of times 

 wounded, and that they are very familiar 

 with the needs of this modern warfare. 

 They work very hard. They are admir- 

 able companions, they add to the enjoy- 

 ment of headquarters life, and they are 

 deeply interested in the work they are 

 doing. They are often discouraged by 

 the absence of tools, but in their lectures 

 to the officers and with such guns and 

 implements as they have had they are 

 entitled to the greatest credit for the 

 progress made. 



SINGING AN IMPORTANT FEATURE OF 

 CAMP LIFE 



One thing that impresses a visitor to a 

 camp is the real pleasure that the men 

 can derive from singing. They must have 

 a good leader — one who is active and 

 rhythmic and histrionic and almost fan- 

 tastic. There was one at Camp Devens, 



named McEwan, whose work with the 

 boys was remarkable. The songs "Over 

 There," "Keep the Home Fires Burning,'* 

 "Smile, Smile, Smile," "Tipperary," and 

 "The Eong Trail" are most catching in 

 their air and most stirring in their effect. 

 I had the pleasure of addressing four 

 or five audiences of negro troops. I 

 prophesy that they are going to make a 

 very effective part of our army. They 

 take training well and they make excel- 

 lent soldiers if well led. We have seen 

 that in the Regular Army, in the 24th 

 and 25th Infantry and the 9th and 10th 

 Cavalry, and in the old 48th Volunteers 

 in the Philippines. They are great, stal- 

 wart men, capable of enduring much, 

 loving military life, amenable to disci- 

 pline, and anxious to fit themselves. 



THE GREAT TAKES NAVAT STATION 



My last assignment, as I have said, was 

 the Great Eakes Naval Training Station, 

 north of Chicago. It was very interesting 

 to visit this and to compare what the navy 

 had done in its one great cantonment with 

 what the army had done. The navy had 

 25,000 men to drill and train, and this 

 cantonment is therefore about the same 

 size, or a little smaller, than that of the 

 army. There is a great permanent sta- 

 tion, with accommodations for some 1,200 

 or 1,500 jackies in training, and of course 

 this offers conveniences that are used in 

 connection with the cantonment. The 

 buildings are somewhat more stoutly 

 built. They are painted and constructed 

 on somewhat different architectural lines, 

 both of which make them a little more 

 attractive to the eye. They have also 

 what the army has not — two very large 

 drill halls. They gave me a review of 

 7,000 jackies in one drill hall, and it was 

 evident that these halls in the winter sea- 

 son had been of great advantage for 

 needed training in large bodies. 



Another difference was the difference 

 in the age of the men. The men were 

 really between 18 and 22, and in their 

 naval uniform they looked like cadets of 

 a high or preparatory school. They were 

 under excellent discipline, as one could 

 see. They needed no instruction as to 

 saluting, for that seemed a second nature 

 to them, from the discipline they had had. 



