Aid-de-camp

“ To make a camp a profitable thing there must needs be instruction; not formal but informal instruction. Scouting, nature study, scout law, camp cooking, signalling, pioneering, path finding, sign reading, stalking for camera purposes, knowledge of animals and plants, first aid, life saving, manual work (making things) , hygiene, sex instruction, star gazing, discipline, knowing the rocks and trees, and the ability to do for one’s self, in order that a boy may grow strong, self-reliant, and helpful. ”

“ Unless some vigorous measures were taken, the labor and savings of a whole life would be sacrificed. I was greatly distressed, and knew not what to do. I went to my chamber, and endeavored to throw my burden upon one who has promised to aid his suffering children. All at once I determined to send to one of our neighbors for a young man, and get him to go to the camp."
"Jotham Frost was the only child of the sick woman up-stairs. At that time she was in good health, earning a comfortable support by her own exertions. ”

“ While the inspectors are making the round of tents, the boys should assemble either in the permanent building of the camp or under some big tree, to listen to a practical talk by the camp physician, a demonstration in first aid work, the reading of a story, or to something equally educational in character. ”

“ We have a great work to accomplish here, Miss Martin.”
“Yes, I can see that. How I should love to be connected with such a plan, where money is no object, but the welfare of Little Citizens is the main idea. Now let me see what you plan to do this afternoon with the boys. I heard it was a drill.”
“Yes, I am just organizing a staff of helpers to look after the general good of those at camp. Won’t you come over and stand under the shade of the trees while I give the boys their first lesson?” said Uncle Ben. ”

“ She proposed that any girls who cared to devote their holidays to a useful end should join a camp of strawberry-pickers who were to be employed on the farm.
“It is being arranged by a Government bureau,” she explained, “and many people will be coming who, like ourselves, want to help to bear their country’s burdens—university students, journalists, social workers, hospital nurses, matrons of institutions, and mistresses and scholars from other 108 schools. We shall sleep in tents, and lead an absolutely outdoor life. ”

“ A study of conditions during the Revolutionary War in the light of the present day and especially in the light of the Great War with the care given the soldiers in the way of housing, medical aid, sanitation and recreation makes the soldier of 1776 more of a hero than he had been before. ”

“ One of the large parks has been handed over to the Army by the city authorities, and in it has been established a summer camp. Tents are pitched on the grass under the trees, and poor families are brought out here for a week at a time. In this way hundreds of families have experienced a little of summer vacation who otherwise would never have left their slum dwellings. ”

“ Noting the interrogative look, the “Y” man said: “When I was stationed at one of the camps in the South, whenever anybody wanted anything done, the Christian Science Camp Welfare Worker was the man they got to do it. That man was always going somewhere with his car full of something or somebody.”
Like Paul, in his epistle to the Corinthians, the Camp Welfare Worker might have said of himself: “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” ”

“ The opportunity of the boys' camp leader is, first, to engage in the service that counts most largely in securing the future welfare of those who will soon be called upon to carry on the work that we are now engaged in. Most people are so busy with their own present enjoyment and future success that they pay little heed to the future of others. ”

“ Every boy going to camp agrees, in signing his application, to observe whatever rules are decided upon as best for the welfare of all. Boys should be trusted and expected to do as the majority think best. There should be a happy understanding and mutual confidence existing which should make a long list of rules unnecessary. When the boys arrive in camp, the director should outline and explain the purpose and policy of the camp in kind, but unmistakable terms. ”

“ Members of the different committees of the Emergency Corps visited the camp daily, consulting with the commanding officers as to the health, comfort and needs of the soldiers in their charge. Open house was kept at headquarters for the volunteers when in the city and everything human ingenuity could suggest and loving hearts contribute to smooth the pathway from comfortable civil life to the hardship and discipline of camp life was done. ”

“ Baker is not going to take her boys there to camp until the day following the Fourth, and the girls can have the use of the place until that time. They can start as soon as they wish to after school closes.”
“Oh, that is just what we need—a close companionship such as a camp at the farm will give. Then the crisis will be passed without danger,” sighed Miss Miller, gratefully. ”

“ The first phase of camp life considered is that of the housing conditions, the difficulties encountered, the description of the huts, the method of construction, and the furnishing. This is followed in the second chapter with a study of the food and clothing, the supply and scarcity of those necessities. The third chapter will have to do with the health and sanitation of the soldier while encamped, the hospital system, the number sick, the diseases most prevalent and the means of prevention. ”

“ The Emergency Stretcher-bearers when I first knew them were no man’s children. [Pg 217] The Red Cross flag flew over the entrance of their camp, but the Red Cross people accepted no responsibility for them. Their recreation room, which was not a room at all, but one end of their gaunt dining-room, was ill supplied with books and games, and had no papers. There were no lady workers in or near the camp, and only those who have seen the work which our ladies do in canteens in France can realise how great the loss was. There was no kind of unity in the camp. ”

“ However, there is another side of camp life, particularly in a boys’ camp, which has been very little dealt with, namely, the exercise of one’s ingenuity in creating out of the limited resources at hand such devices and articles as will add to one’s personal comfort and welfare. ”

“ This society seems to have sprung into life fully equipped for any emergency. Committees have been formed. Ten to twelve thousand dollars on hand available for further use; soldiers welcomed on arrival with friendly words and good cheer; none have left the port of entry for their long march to the camping ground without a good breakfast furnished by the Red Cross; further comforts provided while in camp, and physical welfare carefully looked after. ”

“ It was better than remaining in the little shelter tent; but I was so miserable that I cared very little whether I lived or died.
The sick and wounded of the volunteers had a "sanitary commission," supported by the various states, which furnished nurses, supplies and delicacies that the army could not provide. The regulars, when in their own hospitals, received no such attention; they had to get along on soldiers' rations, if they could eat them. At this camp we had company cooks. ”

“ Because of the stampede for the open, in which people of all ages have joined, there are so many kinds of camps nowadays: scout camps, soldier camps, training camps, recreation camps, girls' camps and boys' camps, that it is somewhat difficult for a writer to tell what to do in order to "Be Prepared." There are freight car side-track camps, gypsy wagon camps, houseboat camps, old-fashioned camp-meeting camps and picnic camps ”

“ The Welfare House was truly an oasis in the desert—where one found refuge and succor from the many doubts and fears of mortal existence. ‘Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need’ (Science and Health, page 494) . Many times did I go to the Welfare House depressed and with a heavy heart and came away refreshed and in a buoyant mood.”
Sometimes the boys' enjoyment of the rooms took an amusing turn as shown by the following from our Worker at Camp Cody, New Mexico:
“Within two hours after I had placed our sign in the window four new men came in. ”

“ The position—an immense clearing in the centre of a pine-forest—is healthy. Nothing will be wanting: there is abundance of water, electric light will be installed, large windows will give light and air to the huts, the roofs will be thick and the walls made of bricks lined with wood.
Later, when the camp is on the point of being finished, the General who commands the district will let neutral notabilities and journalists visit it, and will present it to them as the future residence of those poor French prisoners over which Germany watches with a mother’s love. ”

“ There were great numbers of devoted women, who performed uncomplainingly the hardest hospital service, and managed great fairs and relief societies with an enthusiasm that never wearied. And there were the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, whose agents went everywhere between the dépôt in the rear and the skirmish-line in front, carrying not only whatever was needed to alleviate the sufferings of the sick and wounded, but also many things to beguile the tedious hours in camp and diminish the serious evil of homesickness. ”

“ When the men are in their tents and the rain is driving down outside, the interminable songs of the army may be heard from the interiors of the tents. Even in a standing camp—that is to say, a camp located in one position for a period of several days—the men are made to undergo a certain number of parades in order to keep them in health, for continued idleness in camp almost certainly means disease, and, as has already been remarked, the authorities of the French Army are fully alive to the necessity for preserving the health of the men. ”

“ It is necessary for the boys to pass a physical examination, because no state authorities care to 275 assume the responsibility of taking the physically unfit. It is taken for granted that the boy is to fit into the organization of the camp as a business proposition and that he is to stick to his work, pay his share of the cost of the food and its preparation, respond to leadership, and in every way do his part toward promoting the general efficiency of the camp. ”

“ For many years I have recommended the establishment of Supply Depots, large Military Posts, Hospital and Recuperation Camp on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, where new levies for the active armies could and would become perfect in physical condition to meet the rigorous requirements incident thereto and where men disabled in the service of their country might be sent for that care and attention which would quickest restore them to a normal condition of health and strength. ”

“ The work of the day is sometimes done by tent groups or by boys grouped in alphabetical order, each group being under a leader whose part is assigned daily by the Camp Director (see chapter on Organization) . In the writer's camp, work is considered a great privilege. For instance, if three bushels of peas must be picked from the camp garden for dinner, a call is made for volunteers. From forty to fifty hands will go up and after careful choosing, six boys are selected to do this coveted work, much to the disappointment of the others. ”

“ In other words, in this type of camp a city man, acting as leader, comes into a community with a group of boys who live at the camp but receive their training with the near-by farmers. A labor-supply camp, composed of able-bodied boys, is a type which adequately meets the need at small expense. ”

“ Supplementing the work of the Commissions on Training Camp Activities for the Army and Navy, the War Camp Community Service operated in the regions immediately surrounding or near the training camps. It bettered moral conditions in camp environments, provided sleeping quarters, baths, canteens, information booths, clubs, reading rooms, arranged dances and theatrical entertainments, served as a medium through which the hospitable desires of the community might reach the men, thus making possible their entertainment in hundreds of thousands of homes. ”

“ One girl should be on duty at one time and another at another and all in regular rotation. No camp life can go on successfully [124] without some law and order of this sort. For it is just as necessary for the smooth running of household wheels in the log cabin as it is in the city home. Whoever occupies the guide’s position, that is the one who is chiefly responsible for everything, should be ably helped by the whole party but not by the whole party at the same time. Evolve a system for the particular conditions of the camp life in which you find yourself and stick to it. ”

“ This of course was to include physical healing by Christian Science methods, and the supply of Christian Science books and literature to whatever extent might be justified by the circumstances. This service was to be rendered by Camp Workers who would visit the camps daily and remain only as long as their work required. It was hoped that such a service would quickly justify itself and result in official permission for these Workers to live permanently in the camps, in homes provided either by our Committee or the Government itself. ”

“ The evening saw a merry lot sitting round the usual great camp fire, song after song passing on from officer or man until the bugle rung out the retire, and visitor and volunteer quitted the scene. But they had to be up early the next day; breakfasts soon after daybreak, their tents to strike, and the whole camp to be packed. This done, a picnic dinner on the short crisp turf of the wild downs, and the whole marched to Warminster on the return to their respective homes. ”