Conscript 2989: Experiences of a Drafted Man — John Shaqi
Conscript 2989: Experiences of a Drafted ManCrump, Irving
History
Conscript 2989: Experiences of a Drafted Man
Crump, Irving
Military training camps -- United States; United States. Army -- Military life; World War, 1914-1918
Far off across the great camp, and across the tops of the pines one can
dimly see from the top of the hill the ocean with the moonlight flashing
on its surface, and occasionally comes a breath of chilled salt air that
stirs a longing, vague and fleeting, as the ocean has always stirred a
longing in the soul of the adventurer. From here one can look down upon
the great camp. Thousands and thousands of roofs stand out in the
moonlight, and the watch-fires twinkle in orderly rows up and down each
camp street. Far off to the left are the big machine shops and forges of
the construction company, the forge fires glowing red against the night,
while faintly comes the far-off ring of anvils. Those forge fires, like
the bakery fires, never die.
To the eastward is the railroad terminal with its panting engines and
its medley of noises, while nearer at hand but in the same direction is
the transport headquarters with its ceaselessly moving caravan of
rumbling, grumbling army trucks. All combines to make a picture that
holds one spell-bound.
The days here are pleasant indeed, but the nights are almost
intoxicating. They cast a spell upon me and leave a memory that can
never fade.
Monday:
This place looks like a growing mining town somewhere out West, but for
real atmosphere, the civilian camp, outside the reservation, has the
cantonment looking really civilized. I went out there this evening after
mess; for I heard that there was a cigar store included in the outfit,
and the impression I got was a lasting one. Everything of the frontier
was there save the saloons and the gambling halls. Shacks, tents (rows
upon rows of them), lean-tos and all forms of domiciles. And the men who
walked the streets were of every variety, including real lumber jabs in
mackinaws and spiked boots, who had come down to cut away the timber;
Italians, Poles, Swedes, Slavs and what not, and a real cowgirl, in
short skirts and high leather boots, with a silk handkerchief scarf,
sombrero and a big thirty-eight strapped to her hip. She, I learned,
runs a motor bus between the civilian camp and the nearest towns.
Cook fires twinkled outside of the tents, lights showed through the
canvas walls reflecting the huge, grotesque, shadowy figures of the
occupants. From one emanated the strains of an accordion and from
another the babble of voices that suggested a quarrel over a card game.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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