Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 194, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1915 — GREATEST SPECTACLE INDIANA EVER HAD [ARTICLE]

GREATEST SPECTACLE INDIANA EVER HAD

Plana Are Making For the Tournament at the Speedway Near Indianapolis September 6th. Indianapolis, August 17. —Forty field ranges for company kitchens, and 100,000 rounds of blank ammunition for the attacking and defending armies—these two items suggest the immensity of the scale of preparations for the war spectacle, “War in Indiana,” to be given at the Indianapolis motor speedway, Monday, Sept. 6, for the building fund of the Indiana National Guard. 'But they are only two of the particulars. Enough shelter tents to house a city full of people must be drawn from the Storehouses of the state guard and the regular army, and the acres sweeping away from the speedway track will be thickly flecked with the brown and white houses of the boys in khaki on the morning of Monday, Sept. 6. With the conclusion of the instruction camp at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Adjt. Gen. Bridges, Capt. Carpenter, Major Tyndall, and Captain Toffy, of the regular army, who form the committee in charge of the spectacle, will be able to devote all their time to the program, and to arrangements for the proper handling of the state’s soldiers and visiting squads of cavalry. Oapt. Carpenter has already contracted for the removal of forty field ranges from Ft. Benjamin Harrison to the speedway, and cook tents will be set up a day or two before the arrival of the troops. The quartermaster’s department has begun to figure on provisioning the immense number of men for three or four meals.

.Major P. A. Davis, quartermaster general, has made formal application for 100,000 rounds of blank ammunition from the division of militia affairs of the war department. This is the allotment for the infantry, 500 rounds a man. Other blank ammunition will be requisitioned for the machine guns and field pieces used by the armored motor cars and artillery. Meanwhile, nightly practise has started throughout the state by infantry companies in drills and field formartaons. It will be possible in many instances to assign the position of companies in the war spectacle long before their arrival in Indianapolis, and with a map of their position in hand they are expected to need but little coaching to fit into place. The spectacle in full blast is expected to surpass anything ever witnessed in the United States. The celebrated Boer war, which was featured at the St. Louis world’s fair, will prove pigmy like in comparison. “War in Indiana,” is to be in a class by itself. Mike Wagner, who was injured in an automobile accident Sunday evening, has been suffering considerable pain and it is now feared that in addition to the fractured ribs he may have a perforated bowel and if this is the case an operation will be necessary and will probably be performed yet today. Later advices say he is getting along nicely and no operation will be necessary.