Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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TROOP A G5TS HORSES AND BEGINS TO RID5 IN AR'mY STY.E. NEWS FROM BORDER CAMP A Weekly. Letter, Prepared Especially For Our Readers, From the -South Carolina Guardsmen- Encamped at Fort Bliss,' Texas'. In Camp with the South darolina.. Brigade, in the El Paso Patrol District. -The Charleston Light.Dragoons drew their horses immediately after their arrival on the border and are now eji. gaged in learning to ride like cavalry. men. Four hours are devoted ea6h day by the men to riding bareback with only a halter on their horse. The greater majority of the-Dragoons went at the bareback riding without ani difficulty but several sustaineel falls before learning how to stick on. However, those who were uiaccuH tomed to barelick riding soon acquir ed the art and the whole troop is now profici6nt. Four hours eaph day are devoted by the Dragoons to the horne- work. one hour to the officers' school and one hour to the non-commissioned officers school. A regular officer comes over from Fort Bliss to instruct the men each day in the cavalryman's school. Pleased With Horses. ,The Dragoons drew their horses out of the big government corrall where there are some 5,000 horses gathered for the army. They took the first which came out of the corrall but the animals they drew were very good . and they are well satisfied with them. The Dragoons number 86 men and three officers and each man takes care of his own horse. When this corres pondent visited the encampment of the Dragoons he found Capt. Manning, Lieut. Wells and Lieut. Porcher out with the men overlooking the feeding and cate of the korses. The men were all.. lined up with brushes and curry. combs and they went at the work of cleaning the horses systematically after the work which they had under gone during the day. Capt. W. M. Manning, directed at tention to the "Charlie Chaplins" which these Weastern horses affect. Each has a well developed mustache. There is not a single case of sick ness among the Dragoons and they express themselveE as well satisfied and delighted with their camp. They are glad to be on the border and have gone at the work of .tfaining with a vim which promises good results. The flouth Carolina- field hospital No..1 is encamped with a similar or ganization from Rhode Island just in the rear of the Dragoons. The Pal -Aetto organization is under the com mand of Maj. A. Moultrie Braisford and the camp is commanded by Maj. Renno of the regular army. The Pal. metto boys were engaged in practic ing pitching the hospital in the'fild and have entered into a competitive test with the Rhode Island and similar organizations from the regular army and the National Guardsmen stationed in this district. Although the South Carolinians have been here only a week they entered the contest on invi tation and the speed with which they - have been .doing their work gives promise of putting it all over some .of the organizations which -have been here for seyeral .weeks. The tests in pitching the hospitals in the field were made on the Fort Bliss -parade ground before rdgular army officers and the South Carolina boys showed up splendidly. The Bantamn Squad. - There are eight short men in the Camden company which form what is * known as the "runt" squad and they all occupy the same tent. This was the only squad which had started a flower garden around their tent an~d had built a rook protection raised to some feet around the side of the tent. When the big rain swept over the camp on Thursday night the "runt" squad found their tent flooded, the wall making a nice pond. All the dec. orations and flower garden were wash. *.-ed away and the men had ,to bale the water out of the tent. This squad is -- compos'ed of Corporal W. P. Huggins and Privates Lewis, Jordan, .Purvis, - Crosby, Hasty, Medlin, McLeod. The Second has 'erected a model tent showing the three different kinds of inspetions and all the enlisted men are studying the model to see just how their equipment is 'to be made up for the different kinds of inspec. tions and all t'he' enlisted men are * 'studying 'the modeR to see just how their equipment As to be made up for the different inspections. -- There are a great. many South- Car olinians in the regular army and soy oral of them are stationed with the regulars which are encamped at Fort Bliss and in and around 10l Paso, Mc Gowan Littlejohn,t a ,native of Jones vill'.j in Union county and a graduate of West Point, is a first lieutenant in the cavalry, Hie is an pld Cleinson (man. Alan Lester of Prosperity, who was graduated at the Citadel and w~ho went to West Point and~ graduated * with the class of 1915, Is 4 first lieu tenant in the Fifth f.ehd artflierZ'hbt-, received. 111 pr;omtfl0Q~ ol a hddad ieutenahtiy on JI147.*n 'i: dotpnes~ at Work. < h krhee o e company;.\1,uowa A the Opn9; jiiitieers;. tnd e#Capk. Penteil ~na ~ped close by; the fil ho ' ad'ps and a)lso just behin4 the fr png .~O on . deers*.are roing t4o0TZ r iad-o ?. iing every day-: d4 are. efo UWell. Th mef #i -i'o like ell tho ther Southr Ooli e' determined to. make tlie'0. 0, 4 this opportuity to get- r it ,.cquaintahe". AIth 4ctual flelda :onditions an are his proving 'every minnte of titeir .time;. T'he engineers expect- to: dtaW new equipnient shortly but In the mean time ave jot right down to hard work. .,CofiL, B. Springs ''t..the becond has received instritition's to detail one officer and two non-commissioned of ficers to take four months training at the. school of musketry at Fort Sill, Okla; Tle selections will be made from among the men. who expect to continue in -the National Guard and who will be expert instruclors for the Alitia after they return -home. Several persons in South.. Carolina have evidenced a desire to sipply the soldiers with reading matter,.'wiiting material and- other things which will be of use to them here. Sun glasses are needed by the men and ,anything like magazines, newspapers, etc., would be of great benefit and would be very much appreciated. The Smyth Rifles of Pelzer have built around their spigot in the com pany street a .cavity four feet deep and four feet square and filled this in with, rock. The water seeps away through this and this prevents it from running over' the grodnd and leaving little mud - puddles. This arrange ment has been designated ' by Col. Blythe as "a model for the regiment and all the companies are now fixing theirs in the same manner. Lieut. John E. Ardery of the Twelfth infantry, which is stationed at Nogales Arizona, on the border, was a visitor< In camp. and'ate dinner with the Fort Hfill company. Vnder .Capt. Parks. Liout. Ardery was -borrf at Pineville jus,t across the line in North Carolna, but is really a Soutn Carolinian except for that slight geographical difference. He was greeted by many ofhis friends Who are members of the First South Carolina infantry. The band of the First would like to haie some new band music and any one who feels interested might send them some, but don't forget the orchestrations in selecting the music. vrhe bands of the First and Second are constantly improving and those who are interested might mail them, just such pieces as they think would fit the occasion. The officers of the Second have formed a club where 'magazines and other periodicals, writing materials, and other conveniences can be found. The officers will use the club for a lounging place. The officers of the First have been invited to -make use of the-'club whenever It suits their lleasure. - A Diamond Rattler. Just to the left of the camp lies a range of hills which are called moun tains in' this' country. This chain of hills lies diagonally to the Mexican border. They are bare of vegetation except for sage brush and cactus in the ravines. Some of the South Caro linians have already climbed to the top of. this range of hills which are about eight miles from camp. It is in these hills tha't ra'ttlesniakes and the other reptiles reside. On Sunday First Ser geant Hughes 'of the Smyth Rifles of .Polser climbed .the hills and brought back into camp a diamonid Mexican rattler. This snake is about 15 inches long and the one he captured had a button and two rattles, indicating that it was four years old. No snakes havt yet been seen in camp but there are plenty of horned toads, centipods. and ents. The bother from this source. however, is -insignificant so far and nothing like what one would expect from the stories heard before coming here. Carransa Is nominally the ruler .of Mexico, but there seems to be con euiderable doubt as to just how much authority he has. He seems to be the leader by virtue of the favor of his'generals, but there is strong doubt as to his- ability to control his gen erals. They obey him when they want to, and when they do -not they pay not attention to him. The idea hei-e now seems to be that Carransa is finding- his position shaky and that before ' long some other leader will arise a'nd depose him and direct the leaking- Mexican ship of state for a brief and stormy period, for that is the record of them all for the past sev eral years. The. - hee of the First are being equipped thoroughly with clothing. Every anan is. drawing two hats, two pairs of shoes, two pairs of leggihe, two shirts, four pairs of trousers, four suits of underwear and six pairs o' socks. ieut.. Col. P. KC. McCully- of the First "bagged') a horned toad and ship ped it to his home folks in Anderson. Capt. Heyward of -the Pelzer company has also sent -one of these home for a pet. They are plentiful -about the It is no wvonder that there are all k-inds of wild rumors hatching along the border. All kinds of people and all classes and conditions can- be seen and every one has something to say. Of course there is lot of "stringing" (lone for the beneflt of those who have come a long way from the bor der and who know nothing of It ex cept whant they have read, but the South Carolinians are skeptical and are not readily taken In by the "yarns" which are daily handed out by the chi'racters argund herp in large numbers. The .Palmetto boys arm studying the situation for thq~mselvea. '1TO "I rONCE Meeting. of Muoh importance Wil be Hold .in Orpange tg Week Begin' nipW Cioe 16th. Orbneburg .leeretary 'W, A. Liy. Ang~ton of the, Qratgebtrg chamber of commerce antiouced' that an.arrange. mont had been' pdrfeoted. (or holding a state wide diife'enee on live stock ralsinSat Orang5burg during the week beginning Octobet 16' next. The con ference will be held under the joint auspices of the Southern settlement and development. organIzation, which is conducting i South-wide propaganda in the., Interest oi live stock raising and diversified farming; the extension department of 4pemson 'Qollege, the state department of 8gricultUre and the Orangeburg champelerof. commerce. The conference will last two day't. There will be an exhibit of- South Carolinf bred cattle and hogs, a nd -the sessions will be devoted to practi cal discussions of the vital questions relating to animal husbandry, instepd of too set speeches which too often characterize meetings of this kind. Experts in various lines of live stock raising and marketing from the fed. era-l government and from those sec tions of the country where live stock is raised successfully will be In at. -tendanco, and preparations are being made to handle the largest crowd' of its -kind ever assembled in this state. To Reorganize Parker Mill. Greenville.-The stockholders'of the Paiter Cotton Mills Company at their annual meeting held in Greenville selected a committee to draw. up a plan of reorganization for that com pany. This plan will be submitted to the - stockholders by .letter within a few days and will be considered at a meeting of the stockholders which will be held within the next two months. A letter of explanation will accom. pany the proposed plan of reorganiza tion. This step is in accordance with the- general plans of the corporation formulated when * ~the sale of the Hampton group of mills was proposed and consummated. Big Fire at St. George. St. George.-One of the most disas trous fires that has ever occurred Ir St. George was when the residence of Dr. Daniel F. Moorer on Railroad avenue was completely destroyed witb all of its contents and the same fire spreading in a few minutes to the beautiful residence of Mrs. F. A Moorer a few yards away on the sam street destroying not only the tw residences but practically all of tht furniture and contents of Dr. Moorer' residence and with it an outhouse h' the yard where the furniture of hi son, Daniel r. Moorer, Jr., was store a, few days ago when h-3 -lecided. t, move to St. George. Lightn.ln. Kills Veteran.. Confederate veteran aged 72, wa killed by lightning a few miles -out o dreenville, near the, Easley " bridg( road. He had stepped into a cottoi Iouse 'to get out of the storm whei the lightning struck him causing' in stant death. Elliott Johnson, a smal colored boy, who lived near Conestee Mill was also killed by lightning. South Carolina Pays Least. Washington.-In 29 of the 48 statei of the Union the excess of expendi tures for governmental. costs, includ ing 'interest and outlays for permaneni improvements, over revenues, during the fiscal year 1.916 was $55,283,404, o1 86 cents per capita. In the remaining 19 states the excess of revenues ovel expenditures amounted "to $18,608,917 or 54 cents per capita. Taking the entire 48 states as a whole, the excesi of expenditures over revenues wai $36,674,487, or 37- cents per capita. Preparing Poultry Exhibit. Columbia.-Gold medals, purses, pro miums and ribbons will be awarded foi the best poultry exhibits at the stat( fair to be held at Columbia Octobe2 23-27. The long list of awards foi the poultry department includes ein gle specimens, breeding pens and dis play pens of pract-ically every breet and variety of 'chickens, turkeys geese, ducks, pheasants, pigeons, -1an tams, games and egg. SOUTH CAROLINA N4EWS iTfeMS New cotton has been sold on the Lexington market. The figures on ,the illiteracy among voters in Greenwood county as corn piled for the state superintendent o| education show that a total of . 331 voters out of 3,288 had to or did make their marks. The percentage in the country is-10.2. The trustees of the Burroughs higi school of Conway are planning the construction of a four-room addition t< the present building in order to meei -the demands of the increased enioll ment and to' furnish physical acoom modat-ions f6r the teracher tralini class. C. E. Hoke of Columbia has beer appointed a scientfic assistant in the farm field service of the Federal de partment of agriculture at a salary o, $1,020 .a y'ear. "In my op~finin 'the eight hour do mand of the men is just and' right,' said 0Ov. Manning,.in a statementi al York, in regard- to the pending differ euces between the railroads and theiu anployes.. Another case of'-ipfantile paralyer was .reported'to the state board -01 health frotn Greenville county, whick makes a total of 40 oftses reported dur lnur the nientti apt' Aio All otilal photograph Iroii 1hea British Tommie giving a wounded Get canteen. TELLS.OF DEEDS OF DARING ON FRONT AT YSER American Motorcyclist Relates the Dangers of Carrying Dispatches. RIDER WINS VICTORIA CROSS Six Killed in One instance Before Seventh Delivers Message-Trench Pools Made Up Before, Dl vided After Action. London.-The Daily Express pub lishes the following: William J. Robinson was born and lived the first six years of his life at sea. You will have realized that he is an American. He landed in England on September 10, 1914. He had been here before. He was still a young man. - A year after he, landed he found himself withbut a Job. A few days later he was a troober in the Fifth bragoon 'Guards. He had done no soldiering before. He could not ride a horse. He spent a few days in a riding school at 41dershot, and by way of stopping chaitff it his expense in barracks went up to a "blig chap" (who, lhe found out afterward, had been heavyweight chamapion of the army) and ->egan a light- by hitting him In the face. That 'madt~e them friends. On October 8 lhe landed at Ostend, andl on the afternoon of the third day camne under fire at itoulers. lHe land been- in the army just over a month. He spent 14 months at the front as motorcar driver, motorcycle dispa tch rider and imotor maclhlne gun dIriver, and has written the story of 4.hls ad ventures and escapes in a very read able volume. ("My Fourteen Months at the Front," by WVilliamn J. Rtobin son.) "Hellfire Corner." Soon after he reached tho front, Private Robinson became temporary driver to Lieut. Glen. Sir Juilan Byng' and he was in Ypres when the first shelling began. From that lhe was swItched off to armtored cars, and then to motor machine guns, with which he fought in ditches at "Hell fire Corner," on the Menin road. It was while he was on this job) that ho saw. a motorcyclist win the VictorIa Cross. He descrIbes the incident thus: " 'Volunteer dIspatch riders for dan ger ' work' were called for. About eighteen of our chaps offered themt selves, and, of course, all were ac cepted. A dispatch had to be carried about two miles along the road which follows the bank of the Yser canal. The road was constatntly bieing swvept by German machine gun and rifle fire. The dispatch was to be handed to a F4reneh commander who was wvaiting for it. "The first man started and, was soon out of sIght. They waited in valat a certain length of time for a signal that he had arrived and then called 'No. 2.' These signals are utade bly heliograph, lbut while they are good for this kind of work, the Gher mans can see the signal as well as we can. 'No. 2' started out, but wYe saw him go down before he haud gone a hundred yards. "Then 'No. 3' started. It wps pitiful to watch those poor chaps. Wh'len ni muan knew it wags his tun ntext, I co.d see the poor fellow nervously wvorking on his machine. Ile'd prime the engin~e, then he'd open andl close the throttle quickly several times anything,. in fact, to keep himself busy. 'Six 'o tese fellows went down in tes ttia If an hour, 'No. 7' was a DUNDEDV .W.I.ft III-AI on thu wesernl front showtg a iman. made captive,- a drink from his young fellow whose name I don't know. I wish I did, for he was cer tinnly eilt nerviest man I ever aw. 'No. 7' was hardly out of the oilleer's Iouth before he had his dispatch and was on his way. About flve minutes later the signal came that the dis patch had been delivered. "My oflicer told mne afterward that the French general to whom he hnd hinded the dispatch had taken the Medaille Militaire off his own breast and pinned it on that of this young dispatch rider. He was also later awarded the Victoria Cross and given a commission. It ii things like this that make one proud to belong to such an army." Sniping a Sniper. After spending Christmas, 1914, in the Ypres trenches, Robinson helped a second lieutenant in the Royal 11ngi neers to snipe a German sniper on the Dickehusch-Hollebeke road. As they rode over a. wooden bridge a bullet whistled. Neither spoke, but on the way back, three hours Inter, the offi cer said: "That blasted sniper has potted at me once too often. We'll leave the road here and sneak down qpposite the hedge under cover of the trees." Tethering their horses, they crept near the bridge, waited until ai wagon passed and heard the sniper's shot, from behind. They crawled a hun dred yards and waited. Soon -they heard the rifle crack again, not far away. Creeping a little further, they waited again, watching the trees. 'lhey came so close to the sniper, without seeing him, that next time he fired they -heard the ejector fly back .-A the -olt snap. Then they spot ted him, Hie was well up a tree, with hi~s rifle fitted on a tripod, so that when ever lie heard anyone on the wvooden bridA he had only to pull the trig ger. But lhe had ended his sniping. '"he lieutenant and Private Robinson fired together, and "Mir. Sniper camne diown like a thlousand of bricks." Thie "British Tommy" of those days, accordling to William J., was a "great gambler" ats well as a great fighter. One of his forms of gambling was a kind of tontine, known as a "trench "About ten fellows got together, andl each put" ten francs in a pool just before they went into action. They left this money with someone behinld the lines, for they would he in action anywhere from six (lays to three weeks. The idea of the pool was this: Those wvho lived to get back would take the money and split it evenly among themselves. If only one lived lhe would have the whole lot., Daredevil Officer, The Tommies kept canaries, rate, mice, dogs, cnts, goats, and even pigs, as pets, and would go hungry before the pet hungered. The "higgest daredevil" thats Robin son heard of wats known as the "Mfad lajor"-an artillery oflicer who kept his own aeroplane for range finding puirposes. When hie wvanted to cor rect a range lie just flew ove'r and dropped smoke b~omibs on the pairticu inr spot he wanted his guns to lilt. Thlen he wvent hne~k and set the guns to work, One day, being annoyed with a Glerman 17-inch hlowitz.er, he flew over with a- 100-pountd bo0mb, nose dived to withini 400 feet, dIropped the bo0mb and blew the howitzer to atoms, lHe -retturned with his planes riddled with butllets. Mmr. itohinison indicates in a1 few words whalit happened to two men, a woman and two children when a Tantb(e droppedl a bo0mb in the squnire at P'Operinighe(. It is enough her'e to ay that they were killed, and that the icycle one oif the inen was rid inlg wlne foutnd twistedl atnd beat on n ihmnilpos.t iibotut fifty yardls away. ie ail.o describes briefly the killn of iwo oficers in a nfototrcar h'y a (heriman 15-inch shell on the rond go lng itito Y'pres. The dlrI-er eseimp'd, but was sent nearly mitd by the shock, His nerve was, gone and lie bind to be discharged. This was during the se'cond battle of Y'pres, when~ the city was being destroyed by shell fire and the houses were burning, PAA Proces f Through e,7 on' ONTHEIR WAY Roar of Guns Puntuati of. Pain-Wracked 8qldirv, tilated' Men Think Oh the Enemyr Berlii.-A German corre with the '.army of the crown near Verdin sends a graphicd-d' tion' to his newopaper 'of scenes little French village where the- 3od k ed are brought In and taken care O' "The songs of the rian soigt who are on leave einthii illage'h writes, "becomb softeir:.s the'gtay ho pital wagon appears in the dastystreot. - The men are seyerely Wounded and. are unable to sit up. They-are, lying on their narrow strefcelrs, 'Somti are iII and others are only slightly wo.ng ed. The wounded now and& then look sadly at the bindings of their weinds, They tell of their sufferingsm Ofie of them wa' wounded by shrapnel durlng an uttack by the enemy, Re-na able. to crawl to the 'rear, and 'while fim, wounds were being dressed i shell ex ploded nearby and he was -wounded a second time. But now we are all wov: Ing to the rear-to Germany. Wounded Hobble In. "It Is getting quite dark. The croak- ' Ing of frogs comes from a pond not far away. The roar of guns Is no longer % deafening. . The hospital wagon slowly moves up the street and stops before the barracks. Those who are able at Once alight. One, who received a rtie ball In his leg, Jumps to the ground with his good leg and hobbles off. An. other takes an ill soldier on his bucle and carries him to the barracks. The ' physician meets us, -glances nt our pa. pers and asks us to sit on the nearest bench while the severely wounded are at once taken care of by other physa clans. All around the room are beds occupied by wounded soldiers who are In no condition to be sent back to Ger many for the present. In one bed lies a man whose head Is all tied up; an other has had his arm amputated, an. other his leg. All are asleep, and some are smiling, laughing and talking in their dreams-what sweet dreams they knut be1--golden dreams. The man with his head all bound up is talking softly. The physleian says that he had the worst wounds that he has yet seen during the war. It was a ques-' tion whether he could live, but the pi1cians brought him around all right, and today, when the wounded man asked for something to eat, they were so delighted they treated every. one with cigars. "We are waiting for the automobile which Is to take us to the nearest field hbosp1ital. No one says a word. The guns are aigain roaring. Looking out~ of the wvindow we can see the clear starlight blue sky now and then vivid ly illuminated by the fierce glare froid explodilng shells. Here and .there is seen the searchlight on the watch for hostile aviators. One of -tho wounded remarks i "'it would just be my luck to have somnyinvitor drop a bomb on me now nfter nil I have alone through.' is Short of Time. 4 "The door -is opened suddenly, and a soldier stummbles in. He is holding his holad wvith both hands and the. blood Is streaming doewn his face. Hed~ quietly tells the physician that ha would like to have his wounds dressed.2; Ele adds that he was driving 'an anid' munition wagon when he was wound ed. As thme attendant examines his woundls the soldier- remarks that he has not much time to spare, as the am munition wagon is awaiting 'outside anmd it is his duty to deliver the am munition promptly. lie tells the physi cian simply to wash his wounds and let him be off. .The physician tells him quietly and firml'y that that is impos sible0. He must remain; ihis - wounds are more serious than he' imagines. "Iaverything is quiet again and noth ing is heard except the depp breathing. of the leeping wounded. Near -me, one man awakens and sits up In his beCd. He looks at ime with two star lag, feverIsh eyes: -" 'How is it with - the French'?' f asks me. I notice that his wounds ar in tihe chest. "What a question to ask, I paid to7 myself. Here is a man seriously' wounded, and from a deep sleep he suddenly awakes and all' he asks is about the enemy. Not ~a word abo4 his nfother or his home, not a wl complaint about his sufferings, "'The French are worse off .thaR are,' I answered him. - "That seemed to satisfy.h then he asked for- a drink of a~~ "Just then the automobite stops i front of the dlor amnd those ef; ts nlo severely wounded. are escorted outsid~ iad placed in the machine. Adieu I Am4 the automobile starts on its to th'at beloved place Whre)a and loving hands awitt4 nur~ Will Make SUre Ao~ New York.-After Sy people of New York may ubly certain as to the st'tj, vatlon of the eggs th~ybi tlat date the law reqr'~J of cold storage- etg, letters, at least on