gcls_campsevier_052

TRENCH AND CAMP
A FINAL REMINDER
GOVERNMENT
INSURANCE
CERTIFICATE
DON’T FORGET YOUR INSURANCE!
PROTECT YOURSELF AND THE FOLKS AT HOME
APPLY TO-DAY OR REGRET TO-MORROW
FRIDAY, APRIL 12, IS THE LAST DAY FOR SOLDIERS TO TAKE OUT GOVERNMENT
INSURANCE.
THE FACT THAT CLOSE TO A MILLION AND A HALF OF UNCLE SAM’S FIGHTING MEN
HAVE INSURED
THEIR LIVES FOR MORE THAN TWELVE BILLION DOLLARS (WE’D PUT IT IN FIGURES,
ONLY PEOPLE
ARE SO CARELESS WITH THEIR CIPHERS THESE DAYS), SHOWS THAT A MAJORITY OF
MEN IN UNIFORM
REGARD IT AS A GOOD THING.
THERE ARE A THOUSAND ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF FIGHTING MEN INSURING
THEIR LIVES
WITH THEIR GOVERNMENT AND NOT A SINGLE ONE AGAINST IT. THE GOVERNMENT
IS READY, WILLING
AND ANXIOUS TO INSURE EACH AND EVERY SOLDIER’S LIFE FOR $10,000 AT A
RIDICULOUSLY
LOW COST. INSURE TODAY.
TAPS ONLY DISTINCTIVE
AMERICAN BUGLE CALL
Ten o’clock.
“Taps.”
Nothing to do till tomorrow.
In a marine camp out West, where
the bugle for more than two years has
sounded “bedtime” for Uncle Sam’s
boys, they got to discussing that “call”
the other night. And one old-timer
said: “How many people who have
stopped to listen to ‘taps,’ or how
many buglers who who have sounded it,
or how many soldiers, marines and
sailors who have obeyed it, are aware
that it is the only all-American call
of all calls used in the service?”
That is the fact. The author of
“taps” was Briga[d]ier-General Daniel
Butterfield of the Army of the Potomac.
It was first used in July, 1862.
One writer in describing it says:
“There is something singularly beautiful
and appropriate in the music of
this wonderful call. Its strains are
melancholy, yet full of rest and peace.

Its echoes linger in the heart long
after its tones have ceased to vibrate
in the air.”
“Retreat,” the sunset call used at
the lowering of the colors, has a peculiar
history. It appeared in the
opera “La Damnation de Faust” and
was sounded after the soldiers had
marched by on the plains of Hungary.
It is a French cavalry call, and is traditionally
handed down from the
Crusade.
“Tattoo,” from which “taps” was derived,
is partly French and partly English,
eight bars being taken from the
former and twenty bars from the latter.
During the Thirty Years’ War the
call was established for the purpose
of stopping for the night the drinking
bouts of the soldiers, and at the call
all bungs were put in the casks and
marked with chalk and were not to
be removed until morning; hence the
word “tattoo,” which means “tap to.”
IN AUSTALIA
Trench and Camp is read with
much interest in Australia, according
to a letter recently received by
Private G. Adolph Fischer, at Camp
Funston, Ft. Riley, Kansas, from
David Service, in Brisbane, Queensland,
Australia.
The letter reads in part asa follows:
“We very much appreciate the
copy of Trench and Camp you sent.
Have passed it around to friends,
who have enjoyed it as much as
we did and call for more copies.
“We are immensely pleased here
at the way you Americans are doing
things in connection with the
war. Of course, you are much
closer to the scene of action than
we and can consequently better appreciate
the need for determined
action.”
Few Slackers
Provost Marshal General Crowder’s
report to the Secretary of War shows
that out of the 3,082,949 selective
service registrants called by local
boards for examination for the first
draft, 2,830,655 or 91.82 per cent,

appeared, while 252,294, or 8.18 per
cent, were reported as failing to appear.
Analyzing this 8.18 per cent,
General Crowder shows that 150,000
of the 252,294 were aliens, most of
whom left the county to join the
armies of their native land, and that
a great majority of the Americans
who failed to appear where unable to
do so because they had already accepted
commissions or enlisted in
some branch of the nation’s fighting
forces. In conclusion, the statement
is made that less than 50,000 real
slackers were included in the 252,294
absentees.
Jewish Board Will Supply

Suitable Books to Soldiers
The Jewish Board for Welfare Work
announces the completion of plans for
supplying suitable reading matter to
Jewish soldiers and sailors; reading
matter which will meet the needs the
men have expressed, and which will
form a valuable addition to the library
facilities already provided through the
American Library Association.
The Jewish Board for Welfare Work
is actively co-operating with the American
Library Association and makes
an appeal to the Jewish public to contribute
books on Jewish subjects in
liberal quantity, both new books and
those which can be spared from private
libraries and from institutions.
It is announced that especially useful
to the cause will be copies of the
Jewish Encyclopedia, Graetz’s History
of the Jews, together with essays and
addresses on Jewish subjects, particularly
those dealing with religion, Bible
history, economics and nationalism.
Only complete individual volumes and
sets in good condition can be used.
The Jewish Publication Society has
placed sets of its publication at the
disposal of the Board and similar generosity
has been shown by both Jewish
and non-Jewish publishers.
The Library Committee of the
Board has addressed an appeal to all
the religious, educational and communial
organizations throughout the
country, requesting their co-operation
and asking that they in turn make an

appeal to their members for donations
of books in both Yiddish and English
on Jewish subjects.
The committee in charge of the
Jewish Library Campaign consists of
George Alexander Kohut, Chairman;
Harry L. Glucksman, L. George Dobsevage,
A. G. Robison, A. S. Freidus
and Charles E. Bloch.
U.S. SOLDIERS EXPECTED
TO PLAY BASEBALL
“In the spring the soldier’s fancy
turns to baseball.”
And the War Department Commission
on Training Activities and the
other organizations which have undertaken
the task of providing recreational
facilities for the America’s soldiers
are up against a Herculean job to provide
all the boys in khaki with paraphernalia
with which to play the national
game.
That baseball is no less popular
with the American soldiers overseas
than it was with them while they
were at home is evidenced by the fact
that recently a shipment of 144,000
bats, 79,680 baseballs, 8,000 fielders’
gloves and 2,000 catchers’ mitts was
sent “Over There” and this is only a
beginning.
Realizing that “few games develop
the co-ordination of mind and muscle
and judgment of distance like baseball”
and that the national game will
be of invaluable assistance to soldiers
in the trenches and in open fighting,
the War Department Commission on
Training Activities has adopted as its
spring and summer slogan “Every
American soldier a baseball player.”
There are about 4,000 companies of
soldiers in training in the various
camps and cantonments throughout
the United States, and the Commission,
through Dr. Joseph A. Raycroft,
general director of athletics, intends
organizing just that many good baseball
teams. Camp teams and camp
leagues are also being organized by
Dr. Raycraft. No divisional leagues
are contemplated because of the scattered
locations of most of the cantonments,
but where travel conditions
permit, inter-camp games will be

played.
There are any number of big
leaguers in the camps to coach and developed
crack teams and some hot
games are expected on the numerous
diamonds in the camps—one camp
boasts of sixteen diamonds.
Among the big league stars now in
the service are included “Rabbit”
Maranville, Ernie Shore, Del Gainer,
Chick Shorten, Herb Pennock, John
Barry, Jack Leary and Jim Scott. An
All-American Army team undoubtedly
would be able to “knock the sox off”
of the pennant winners in either of
the big leagues.
Dr. Raycroft estimates that about
70,000 baseballs will be “officially”
used in the various camps and cantonments
during the coming season.
In addition to witnessing games
between soldiers, the men in the camps
will be frequently treated to contests
in which major league teams participate
not only during the training
period, but after the leagues have
gotten started, as a number of managers
have signified their intention of
taking their nines to the camp on
days on which championship games
are not scheduled.
ANANIAS & CO.
A Civil War veteran sends the following
to Trench and Camp:
We had a man in our company (D,
21st Iowa) whom we will call Hugh,
for that was his name. Every time he
drew his pay until it was all gone he
was of no manner of account to the
branch of the service to which he belonged,
nor to any other branch of the
service, for the matter of that.
It became impossible for him to obtain
a pass, so he had to run the
guards. That became monotonous after
a while and resorted to the following
plan to get out:
He went to the colonel’s tent and
said: “Colonel, I just got a letter from
my wife saying that our little boy was
very sick and she wanted to know if I
could get a short leave.”
The colonel knew his man and at
once replied: “Why, Hugh, I just got
a letter from your wife asking me not

to let you go, as you would spend all
your money and not send her any.”
Hugh stood for a moment in blank
amazement. Backing toward the door,
he asked: “Colonel, may I say a word
or two?”
“Certainly,” replied the colonel.
“Well, all I’ve got to say is that
there are two big liars in this tent, for
I have no wife.”
NO UNIONS IN THE TRENCHES
American soldiers now in training
had best get accustomed to working
long hours. There are no unions in
the trenches. Sixteen hours’ work is
a short day “Over There.”
UNEEDA
One cent stamp to send Trench and
Camp home to the members of your
family who want to read every line
they can lay their eyes on about your
camp. The Y. M. C. A. huts have the
stamps and you have this paper in
your hand. Let’s go!