THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



87 



"We go,'' said Jose Cano, laboriously, 

 "on train. Bimeby, maybe, we walk." 



Those men left for France the follow- 

 ing week. 



"from new mexico to the united 

 states" 



We held a council of war that evening. 

 A fellow-teacher from the remount sta- 

 tion joined us, coming with the light of 

 a stupendous discovery in his face. 



"What do you think I've run across?" 



We could not guess. 



"Romero was having a time with his 

 words. I asked him how long he had 

 been in the United States. 



" 'Seven months,' he said. 



" 'How long in Camp Kearny ?' 



" 'Seven months/ 



" 'Where did you live before that?' 

 " 'Mexico.' 



"I don't know what made me ask the 

 next question : 



"'Old Mexico?' 



"'No, New Mexico.' " 



In New Mexico all his life, in the 

 United States seven months ! An Amer- 

 ican citizen by virtue of his birthplace, 

 and America to him was a military camp 

 set in the middle of a desert ! 



Later we ceased to be astounded. 

 There were many from New Mexico. 

 And we found not a few among them 

 who, when they left New Mexico, came 

 to the United States. 



So the geographic charts really had to 

 be, and, much as the beginners liked them, 

 it was among the more advanced classes 

 that they found their true appreciation. 



When war is so much a matter of 

 geography, it is inconceivable that a lec- 

 ture or recreation room in any camp 

 building can be considered even partially 

 equipped without a world map on the 

 wall. 



However determined and loyal a sol- 

 dier may be, it is hard for him to wax 

 enthusiastic over a war which is being 

 waged somewhere off in space. And it 

 is no less difficult for him to have a no- 

 tion of the part which various countries 

 have played and are playing in this war 

 unless he knows something of the coun- 

 tries themselves. "Allies" is, at best, a 

 hazy word, unless one can tie it down to 

 some sort of a picture or a printed page. 



THE RAID ON THE GEOGRAPHICS 



Back in the camp library, scissors in 

 hand, we smiled our way past the dubious 

 librarian and slipped into the alluring 

 store-room. 



"Anything but the National Geo- 

 graphic Magazines/' he cautioned. 



"Nothing but the Geographics," we 

 assured him, and held firmly to our point. 



Belgium, France and Italy, England and 

 Holland, Mexico and the British Em- 

 pire — we made charts on all of these and 

 then found Palestine, and the Palestine 

 series was a joy to make and a joy to 

 teach. The rich, glowing colors of the 

 illustrations, the stirring appeal of the 

 recent Jerusalem campaign — nothing but 

 the initial stand of Belgium touched those 

 classes as did the war story of the Holy 

 Land. 



THE NORTH AMERICAN MAM MAES 

 NUMBER 



Presently we deviated from our geo- 

 graphic path. We came upon the North 

 American Mammals number of the maga- 

 zine. 



It took us long to make the three charts 

 which exhausted those pictures. Over the 

 bears, especially, we lingered, with our 

 fingers in the gluepot. We rather ex- 

 pected a cheerful welcome for that chart, 

 but the shout of joy from our most stolid 

 beginners surpassed our greatest hopes. 



"Little white baby swim," said Pablo 

 Moreno, cautiously enunciating his words, 

 as he stared at the tiny Polar bear which 

 was being towed by the mother. 



"Big brown bear look under rock for 

 lizar'," added Pedro Ramirez, not to be 

 outdone. It was an unexpected sentence, 

 and yet, who knows, perhaps that is just 

 what the big brown bear is looking for. 



The chart on trees was hardly less ef- 

 fective, especially at the remount station, 

 which very soon will be the Paradise of 

 the camp, because its major believes that 

 trees are the beautifiers of the earth, and 

 acts upon his belief. The remount sol- 

 diers may not know how to dig trenches, 

 but surely holes for trees have no terrors 

 for them. With the photographs of the 

 giant redwoods we combined those of 

 forest fire and let the class draw its own 



