Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 199, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1916 — HOOSIERS HIKE LIKE REAL SOLDIERS [ARTICLE]

HOOSIERS HIKE LIKE REAL SOLDIERS

Mosquitoes, Gnats, Flies and Creepin’ Things Besiege Boys in Khaki on Practice Hike. Mercedes, Texas, Aug. 18.—The First Indiana today made the first of the practice marches that are the last thing in fitting a soldiers for fighting and the significance of it is that the First, as well as other Indiana troops, is being prepared for anything that may happen. Of course, they cannot be sent into Mexico until the president signs the draft till, but they can do guard duty along the American side of the Rio Grande, nnd that duty already has begun. The practice march of the First regiment was in the line of guard duty." ' The bugles turned out the First Indiana at sunrise, and it was not long until they were matching away for Progreso. It required some time to get the men and horses ,across Llano Grande lake, but when that was accomplished they went on, with Colonel Leslie R. Naftzgor at their head. At his side, also on horseback, rode Lieutenant Colonel J. J. Toffey, Jr. If his friends at the University Club at Indianapolis could have seen him this morning they would do no more good this day. Behind them long rows of men in khaki, rifles on shoulder and ammunition belts filled, with heads erect, shoulders squared, eyes to the front, marching with the regularity of the ticking of a clock. The slouching gait of Fort Harrison was gone. They were ready for any emergency. The march was a long one. Fifty minutes of marching, ten minutes of rest. A long rest at noon and rations served just as if they were in th; field—hard tack, cold potatoes, no jam, no pie, no lemonade, water from the canteen and coffee that the gods might envy, that is, if the gods ever drank coffee. It was a fearfully hot day. Even the jackdaws, hopping along the road, seemed faint from the sun, but not a man fell out of ranks and not a soldier weakened. In some places the road, shade by trees, was a mudhole. In other places it was a pile of dust. There were germs in the mudholes and bacilli in the dust. Busy, curious and thirsty flies swarmed about the soldiers. Vicious little gnats clouded over them. Blood extracting mosquitoes attacked them. But on they marched over highways intended for aeroplanes only. The trees were lean and forlorn; hero and there were crimson blotches and flowers from which there was no perfume; rank smelling grass, rattlesnakes hidden in deep thickets, where men with murderous hearts also might be lurking; where beetles and centipedes an! crawling things live. That is what the soldiers of the First Indiana went through today and a better satisfied lot you never saw. They are beginning to laugh at what they regarded as hardships when they first came here, because now they see they are getting in shape for the real thing in a soldier’s lifo.