Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 106, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1911 — MAKING A BIG ARMY CAMP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MAKING A BIG ARMY CAMP

S (Special Correspondence.) AN ANTONIO, Tex. —When you take into consideration that gray-haired men still remember that Fort Bam Houston was not a show place, but a useful institution to protect the pioneer settlers from depredations of roving Indians and organized cattle thieves, the warlike enthusiasm of San Antonians can readily be understood. The people were as much aroused by the mobilization of troops as they would be if the United States bad entered upon the greatest war of Its history. Texans are ready to fight the Japanese or the Mexicans or anything they can find to fight.

When the troop trains rolled into San Antonio hundreds of citizens welcomed the Boldiers and cheered. Texas wants to fight. It doesn’t make any difference who is to be fought, so long as some powder smoke follows all this war-like display. Beyond a doubt, if every terrible prediction of Richmond Pearson Hobson as to the intentions of the Japanese were to be realized tomorrow Texas would simply mob Fort Sam Houston to enlist and start for the front Certainly, it was an Interesting sight to see the trains come in, one after another, and the soldiers come forth and organize with the speed of automatons and march away. If they arrived at night, their tents had already been prepared for them by the comrades who arrived before. If they arrived in the daytime they marched to the place marked out for them and pitched their own tents. Everything proceeded as if this mobilization had been planned months ahead. One would never think it was set in motion by telegrams flashed over the country in a single night. v The telegram which eet Fort Sam Houston in motion was received at one o’clock In the morning. An hour after dawn officers were surveying the parade ground of 800 acres and marking it off for tents. Two hundred men began work shortly thereafter to lay water mains. They worked night and day until their task was completed. Bids for supplies for 10,000 men for four months were asked. The contracts are still being let. All this was carried through according to the letter of the law. One firm which came in five minutes late with a bid for several thousand of dollars’ worth of supplies was denied permission to submit its proposition. Every precaution known to physicians and engineers has been taken to keep the camps absolutely sanitary, and as an extra measure the soldiers are invited to take anti-typhoid serum and thousands of them are taking the Injections. j. Of late the camp has been a sea of mud. The mud, however, is bearable. The dust which preceded it was not. The amount of dust thousands of marching men and hundreds of vehicles pulled by from four to eight mules can raise is beyond the understanding, of those who have not tried to breathe in it. The dust was simply stifling. But It is settled now, much to the delight of the men.

An amusing feature of this mobilization is the fear it aroused in winter tourists. The mobilization is certainly not an unmixed blessing for San Antonio, because at least 2,000 tourists went home. They feared trouble of some vague nature and they did not want to be near It They scurried away from San Antonio like ducks after the hunter had fired hls first shot The ignorance of the average tourist is a matter of much amusement everywhere, but It Is particularly amusing in Texas because visitors do not understand Texas distances.

The ride by railway from San Antonio to Laredo, the nearest point on the border, consumes an entire night *W the tourists, even after a residence of several weeks In San Antonio, were still of- the lmpreesion that a stray bullet from acmes the line might strike one of the local hotels. Troops coming from St. Louis and bound for K 1 Paso are only one-fourth pf the way to their destination when they reach the Texas Hue. ; Visitors are coming from every town and city in the state to see the big camp. Many of them are discharged soldiers. One of the favorite occupations of-these veterans in this city is that of street car conductor or motorman. They are also scattered about as waiters, cooks, bartenders and icewagon drivers. Meeting on street corners, they discuss among themselves the possibilities of the troops going into Mfltha Many of these old

campaigners are worried lest by not reenlisting they have lost an opportunity to get under fire. If the parade grounds on which the troops are now encamped are not large enough the maneuver grounds at Leon Springs, about twenty miles from this city, will be used. This mobilization Jtias impressed upon the officers and the war department the urgent need for having larger accommodations for the troops at this point. Already arrangements have been made for the construction of addition* al barracks and further arrangements of a similar nature will be made soon. San Antonio looms up. as the strategic point of greatest importance for the mobilization of American troops in the event of trouble anywhere in Latin America, and it must for all time in the future be possible to masd the entire strength of the United States army here. That, at least, is the opinion of many army men. The troops from along the Canadian border astounded native San Antonians by their utter disregard for the fitful north breezes, which occasionally bring the temperature down to 50 or 60. Most of the time the temperature stays about 70, and for a few days before the recent rain it was between 80 and 90.

Troop trains which came through Texas were queerlooking arrangements. There were cattle cars for the horses, box cars for the artillery and equipage and Pullman cars for the men. The three kinds were grouped in many of the trains. One serious mistake of the Spanish-Amer-ican war was repeated. The caissons of the artillery companies were packed in one section of a train and the guns in another. Hence, when the first section arrived the contents might be. unloaded, but couldn’t be moved off until the second section came in. In some instances harness was packed in the cars of one section, while the horses were in another. But, on the whole, the movement has been successful. It is especially notable that all of the trains have been handled from various parts of the United States with great speed. They have received the right of way over everything else, and not an accident has occurred. A little city has been built up around Fort Sam Houston. Saloons, dance halls, billiard rooms hare sprung up over night. Property has advanced about 1000 per cent in value and what would have bought the land a few weeks ago will not now pay rent for a year on it

The police were prepared to prevent trouble in the city, as the soldiers were inclined to have a good time. There was a tendency toward animosity between them and Mexican residents. This was particularly regrettable because thousands of the “Mexicans” were born in this city, and have never been across the line, them do not speak Spanish. By no means an unimportant part of arranging for the troops was to increase the post office facilities. Clerks and Inspectors were rushed from every part of this department, the local office was spread out into temporary quarters, and the mail was handled without delay. Pontoon bridges and engineering impedimenta remained on the cars ready for quick movement. Hundreds of the cars brought here were not taken away. Many of the bias accepted by the quartermaster’s department called for the delivery of goods on board trains, and not at Fort Bam Houston. That meant that the supplies were ready for shipment to the soldiers who were. being rushed to border points. This army of 20,000 men has been divided. Ten thousand men remained in San Antonio and 10,000 went to the border and formed a wall from El Paso to Brownsville. Troops did not arrive as rapidly ha scheduled, in spite of the well-laid plans in the office of the war department in Washington. Military men say this movement again demonstrates the fallacy of scattering the troops in small poets throughout the country. The prospect for trouble, uncertain as it is, has caused enlistments to increase enormously, and scores- of newly-recruited troops have come with the veterans. It Is an Interesting group of men gathered in San Antonia There are soldiers who have seen service in the Philippines. Cuba, China and Alaska, and won distinction for bravery, and there are men here who fought Indians in Texas a quarter at a oentury

THE CITY OF TENTS