gcls_campsevier_072

TRENCH AND CAMP

[comic strip spans columns 1-3]
FIRST CALL
[a staff of four bars of musical notes]
[A man is sitting up in bed. The open window shows that it's dark outside. He says:]
SHUT UP,
GET A
GUN!!

REVEILLE
[a staff of four bars of musical notes]
[Soldiers are filing out of the open door of a building. Four officers are standing in front.]

MESS
[a staff of four bars of musical notes]
[Soldiers are eating at a long table, while other soldiers are carrying food to another table. One of them says:]
COME AND
GET IT

DRILL
[a staff of four bars of musical notes]
[Soldiers are outside, one standing, two marching. One of them says:]
ONE.
TU.
TREE.
FOUR.
[Another says:]
HEADS UP.--
EYES OFF
THE GROUND.

SICK CALL
[a staff of four bars of musical notes]
[Soldiers appear to be in a hospital tent, being examined or waiting in line. One of them says:]
OH-OH-OH-
DOCTOR!
[An officer says:]
BRING
ON THE
PILLS

FATIGUE
[a staff of four bars of musical notes]
[Several soldiers are outside near a building. They are chopping or sawing wood, or pushing a wheelbarrow.]

STABLES
[a staff of four bars of musical notes]
[A soldier is leading a horse by the reins. He says:]
NICE
HORSE-Y
[Written at the bottom of the panel:]
F. A. NEALON - 311 F.A. BAT. "B".
CAMP MEADE, MD.

TAPS
[a staff of four bars of musical notes]
[The panel is mostly black. You can see a small, round moon and a man's face which looks like he is lying in bed sleeping. In a thought bubble over his head is a woman's head with a halo above it.]

"Jawbone"

Older soldiers take issue with a
man who signed himself "Old Sol-
dier" to a newspaper article at-
tempting to explain the origin of
the use of the word "jawbone" for
credit in the Army.

According to the "Old Soldier's"
version, "jawbone" originated
about twenty years ago in Manila,
where a Chinese storekeeper, who
exhibited a sign bearing the Span-
ish word, "jabon," meaning soap,
extended credit to American sol-
diers. The soldiers, he says,
thought "jabon" was the China-
man's name. When they got mer-
chandise from him on credit they
referred to the deal as getting it
"on jabon," which they mispro-
nounced as "jawbone."

Sounds interesting, but it does
not stack up with the stories of
Civil War veterans who tell the fol-
lowing version:

Outside the camps during the
War Between the States there were
sutlers who sold all the articles
now found at regimental canteens,
and a few that are not found there.
When soldiers did not have the
money with which to pay for their
purchases they said: "I'll square
this with you on pay day." In
other words they worked their
"jawbones" to talk and "stand off"
the sutlers. The word "jawbone"
has been used in the Army as slang
for credit or "on tick" since the
Civil War.

Some writers think it originated
with the American troops sent to
the Mexican border in 1916 and
others still more benighted believe
it was coined by the men now in
the training camps throughout the
country.

SCOTCH ECONOMY

An English, an Irish and a Scottish
soldier were returning to camp after
a drill. They were footsore and tired,
and a kindly farmer on his way home
from market gave them a lift on the
road.

The soldiers were very grateful and
wished to reward the farmer for his
kindness.

Said the Englishman: "Let's stand
him a drink!"

"Sure," said Pat, "that is agin the
law. Let's give him him some
backy!"

"Hoot, ma laddies!" interjected the
Scot. "Don't be extravagant. Let's
shake hands with the mon and wish
him a guid nicht."

ON WRONG TRACK

After two months at camp, Private
Nelson got his leave at last and made
what he conceived to be the best use
of his holiday by getting married.

On the journey back at the station
he gave the gateman his marriage
certificate in mistake for his return
railway ticket.

The official studied it carefully and
then said:

"Yes, my boy, you've got a ticket
for a long wearisome journey, but
not on this road."

MAIL IT TO MOTHER

Soldier, your mother would like to
read Trench and Camp, which prints
the news about you and your camp.
Mail it to her today.

[headline spans columns 2 and 3]
Ancient Greeks Practiced Camouflage
When They Sent "Loaded" Horse To Troy

Although the word camouflage has
been added to French slang since the
war started, the art or science of fak-
ing, pretending or deceiving in war-
fare, which the word describes, is by
no means new.

Camouflage is as old as the fighting
instinct. One of the earliest and most
notable instances of the employment
of camouflage to fool the enemy was
when the Greeks sent that huge wood-
en horse into Troy, since which time
it has been regarded as the better
part of discretion to "Beware of the
Geeks bearing gifts."

Lieut. H. Ledyard Towle, of the
Seventy-first Infantry, New York Na-
tional Guard, and instructor of the
first camouflage school to be opened
in the United States, tells of the fol-
lowing remarkable cases of camou-
flage in the present war:

French troops establish listening
posts and lookouts in No Man's Land
by digging tunnels from their own
trenches out to a dead body lying on
the field and attaching a periscope
to the boot of the fallen soldier.

At night French soldiers set up a
barbed wire fence in plain view of the
Germans, expecting it to be shelled
the next morning. It is promptly
shelled, but one or two of the posts
supporting the wire remain standing.
The next night tunnels are run out to
the standing posts and periscopes at-
tached to them.

To prevent being seen under the
light of star shells sent up by both
sides every night, French, British and
[continued in column 3]

American soldiers wear hoods and
cloaks of the color of the earth and
streak their faces with grease paint.
Green and brown goggles are worn to
prevent the whites of the soldiers'
eyes from showing.

Near Amiens French troops had to
use an open road three miles in
length. There was no other way to
their objective point. German avia-
tors would have seen them on the
open road and the poilus would have
been shelled. At night a stretch of
canvas three miles in length and
painted to represent an open road,
was propped up over the entire high-
way and under this canopy the sol-
diers marched nearer to the German
lines.

A fake line of trenches was painted
by French artists and placed behind
the real ditches occupied by the poi-
lus. The Germans shelled the fake
trenches and then dashed toward
them to catch the French soldiers in
their dugouts. En route to the fake
trenches, however, the Huns suddenly
and unexpectedly encountered the
French soldiers in the real trenches
and were annihilated.

The Germans make diabolical use
of camouflage. After an engagement
they shell Red Cross workers attempt-
to gather up the bodies of French
soldiers. At night the Germans at-
tach high explosive bombs to the bod-
ies. When French soldiers creep up
under cover of darkness to recover
the bodies, the bombs are exploded by
the lifting of the arms or legs of the
fallen poilus and the rescuing party
is blown to atoms.

[next article spans columns 2-3]
ECOUTEZ
IS FRENCH FOR LISTEN.

It will do very well for the purpose of this announcement, which
is to acquaint the soldiers in the American Army that beginning next
week Trench and Camp will start a series of lessons in French in
every National Guard and National Army cantonment throughout the
country.

It is important that every American soldier who goes "Over
There" have some knowledge of French. Trench and Camp
regards it as its duty to the soldiers and the country to assist
them in learning French by the simplest method in the shortest
possible time.

The course of lessons which start in the next issue of Trench
and Camp was prepared by the Romance Language Committee of
the Modern Language Association of America. This committee is
made up of twenty-five of the most eminent French scholars in
schools, colleges and universities throughout the United States.

The lessons are so simple that any child can understand
them. You cannot fail to learn French if you read these short
lessons which will appear each week.

If you are already studying French, this course, nevertheless,
will be valuable to you.

WATCH FOR THE FIRST LESSON.

If you read that, you will eagerly look forward to the others.
Copy the lessons if possible. This will help you remember the
words, their pronunciation and meaning, and you will thereby
become a more valuable soldier to your country than you were
before learning to

PARLER FRANCAIS

FRENCH HOSPITALITY
CAPTIVATES U. S. SOLDIERS

Some idea of the warmth and hos-
pitality with which American soldiers
are received by the people of France
may be gotten from the following let-
ter written by a lieutenant now "Over
There" to a friend at home:

You have doubtless seen cartoons
showing a man wearing a small lump
of coal in place of a diamond shirt
stud, or putting an egg in a safe de-
posit vault. I have lived to see such
conditions in reality. At one place I
was billeted, with a woman over sev-
enty years old, there was a little lump
of coal which reposed on a shelf in
front of the stove. She burned twigs
and looked at the coal to keep warm.
One day she dug down behind some
papers in a cupboard and pulled out
an egg, which she showed me with all
the pride in possessing a diamond
necklace. She said she was saving
it for some day when she was sick.

"She was a dear, sweet old lady,
and insisted on folding our pajamas
when we packed to leave, saying she
was our 'mamma.'

"The women of France are won-
derful to us--and I refer now to the
real women. You can't always speak
their language, but they can read in
your eyes that you are hungry and
tired and I'll wager there isn't a cot-
tage in all France where an American
wouldn't be welcome to a meal and
bed. Often they haven't much to
offer, but it is yours for the asking.
In the part of the country where we
are now there are almost no hotels
and we are entirely dependent on the
hospitality of the inhabitants.

"There are no men in France, out-
side of the army, unless you happen
to be near a manufacturing centre.
In the country it is all women and
children and the village priest. They
are all in mourning, almost without
exception. In one house where I lived
the woman had lost seventeen in the
war, counting cousins and nephews.

"At present we are taking our
meals at the village bakery. We set-
tled down there before the regiment
arrived and have continued since, as
our stay here is only temporary, and
they haven't yet located an officers'
mess near enough to a fire to make
overcoats and gloves unnecessary at
meals. We are well cared for, though
we eat many strange things some-
times and say nothing.

"The woman who runs the place is
brisk and smart. Her husband is
employed guarding German prisoners.
She bakes splendid bread in the form
of huge doughnuts, with a great hole
in the centre, through which the arm
is slipped for convenience in carrying.
While we are eating breakfast the
whole village passes in review to get
their morning bread and we get all
the town gossip, 'bon jouring' back
and forth with greatest abandon."

AMERICAN BOYS TO RAISE
$1,000,000 FOR SOLDIERS

One hundred thousand American
boys throughout the United States
have gone to work at odd jobs to earn
a million dollars to help the Y. M. C.
A. pay for some extra comforts for
American soldiers and sailors at home
and overseas.

All of the boys are in their teens.
Each of them has pledged to work un-
til he has earned at least $10. They
will accept any honorable work.
Their task means some aching backs,
tired bodies and personal sacrifices,
but they are determined to "see it
through."

The gameness of the youngsters is
illustrated by the case of Samuel Bri-
ent, a fourteen-year-old Texan. For
several weeks he tried in vain to get
employment in his home town to earn
his pledged $10. A Y. M. C. A. sec-
retary heard of a job of milking two
cows at 5:30 o'clock every morning.
Samuel Brient had never milked a
cow in his life, and 5:30 A.M. was the
middle of the night to him, but he
took the job and got away with it in
fine style. He has earned considera-
ble more than his promised $10. This
same spirit is being shown by boys
throughout the country, and the prob-
abilities are that they will earn more
like two million dollars than one.

HIS OWN FATHER-IN-LAW

An Eastern district exemption
board certified for military service a
thirty-year-old man who became his
own father-in-law. His wife died
before the United States entered the
war and when the selective service
law went into effect he had no one
dependent upon him. He married
his mother-in-law a month after reg-
istering on June 5. The members of
the district board thought the young
man had gone to extremes in marry-
ing his mother-in-law to escape the
draft. They finally ruled that any
man brave enough to attempt to live
with his mother-in-law need have no
fear of the trenches.

[Along the right side of the page is a narrow illustration. At the top is a scene of an American flag flying over some buildings, with a group of soldiers marching in front. Below that is an illustration of a couple of trucks along a narrow road, a wagon with the word "U.S." on it, and perhaps an explosion in the foreground. The bottom illustration is of a solder in front of a fire, stirring something in a pot.]