of the training memorandum which follows: Based on conditions similar to those here assumed a training memorandum would be issued from regimental headquarters. The one given below covers the necessary arrangements, giving all the general information required as to time, events, entries, uniform, officials, etc.: Trg. Memo. No. 8 1. A Training Meet will be held on Friday, November 10, 1922, beginning at 8.30 a. m. 2. Organizations will be reported at the parade ground at 8.20 a. m. The Service Company will be excused from participation in this meet. 3. Events: (a) SKETCHING.-The problem will re quire the execution of a road Entries: 2 N. C. O.'s from each Points: Relative value of 3. Uniform: Full field. Entries: Two privates from rifle. Each organization will Points: Relative value of 1. Entries: Teams of four pri- (e) MANUAL OF ARMS. Entries: Four privates from each rifle and headquarters company. Uniform: Cap, coat, belt and rifle. Points: Relative value of 2. (x) No individual will be entered in more than one event. For details concerning events, method of scoring, etc., see Trg. Memo. No. 4. ; Timers, 4. Entries will be submitted to officer in charge before noon on November 7, 1922. 5. The following officials are detailed: Officer in charge, ; Judges, ; Recorder, 6. The officer in charge will submit a report giving the results in the various events and standings of the companies for the meet. The memorandum might have directed the officer in charge to prepare the problems for the various events, or might have stated that they would be furnished quarters. from regimental head The meet outlined in this memorandum, like any training meet, would be conducted very much along the lines of the usual field and track meet. However, the method of scoring would differ, for since in training we are concerned with general excellency rather than that of a few picked men, a method must be used by which even the poorest performance receives some credit. Such a method also makes it worth while for every entrant, even those far from the lead, to exert every effort. Were we to count only the three first places for points in an event where there are twenty entrants a number of the men would feel from the beginning that they were outclassed, and make small effort to do their best. But if every performer knows that possibly by winning tenth position instead of the eleventh he will earn enough points to keep his company in the lead, or by taking the fourteenth place rather than finishing in the fifteenth he will pick up enough points to keep his company from being pushed down one place, there is incentive for the best endeavor on the part of all. The simplest way to give credit for all performances is to base it on position. This is not so accurate as the system used in the pentathlon and decathlon events, but will be found under the circumstances to be quite fair and satisfactory. Grading any performance is complicated somewhat where more than one element enters into it. Thus, obviously a military sketch must be graded on at least two elements-time and accuracy-and a third-neatness-may well be added. The manner of grading and awarding points is explained in the training memorandum which follows. This would be gotten out prior to the holding of any training meets and would be current for the season. to be carried, written out, is handed to No. 1 of each team who is allowed a certain time to study it, when the papers are taken up, the No. 1's then proceeding to Station No. 2, repeating the message to the runner there, who immediately goes to No. 3, and so on. The runner at the last station brings the message as received by him to the judges at the finish, where he is given a form on which to write it out, then handing to a recorder posted to receive it. After delivering a message at any station the runner will remain there until directed to assemble. Messages will be graded, for accuracy, 80; time, 20. (c) MANUAL OF ARMS.-Teams will be composed of number and grade as may be prescribed. Entrants will be formed in single rank without regard to organization. Commands are given by an officer (not a judge) and the entrants fallen out by the judges for incorrect execution or other errors. The recorder notes name and organization of the man or men thus fallen, together with such information as is necessary to show at what point each entrant was fallen out. The commands are continued until but one man remains. (d) BAYONET COMBAT.-Entrants will be arranged in pairs by lot, but no two men of the same organization will be paired in the first round. Length of bouts will be stated. Winners in any round go to the next round. The recorder notes name and organization of those eliminated, together with number of round at which eliminated. same. (e) WRITTEN MESSAGES.-The number and grade of entries will be prescribed. Each competitor is given a paper setting forth a military situation and is allowed a certain time for studying the The requirement will call for the making of a proper written report on the prescribed message blanks. Messages are graded for accuracy (which includes selection of information to be reported, clearness with which such information is reported, correctness of the form as pared with a model message), accuracy, 70; time, 30. com 3. The following principles will govern the scoring: Performances in any event will be graded in the order of excellency without any regard to percentage marks; where more than one element enters into the work the performance will be graded separately for each element. In each grading the poorest performance will be awarded a figure equal to that part of 10 represented by the relative value for that element; the performance graded next above will be given double this figure; the performance next above three times, and so on. The total of points thus awarded determines the standing. Where there are two or more entries from an organization in an event in which each entry performs individually, the organization's standing is determined by the average of its entries. In events where competitors are eliminated those put out in the first round or by reason of the first error are each awarded 10 points; those eliminated in the next round or by the next error are each awarded 20 points, and so on. Example 1. Ten companies have each entered two sketchers. Corporal M of Company E turns in a sketch which is graded fifth in accuracy, tenth in time, sixth in neatness, for which he receives points as follows: 96, 33 and 15, a total of 144. Sergeant P, of the same company, submits a sketch which is graded twelfth in accuracy, fifth in time, eighth in neatness, for which points are respectively awarded: 54, 48 and 13, a total of 115. Company E's figure in this event would be 1291/2. We will assume this places this company fifth among the ten organizations competing, which according to the principle used here would entitle the company to 60 points. If sketching in any particular meet has been given a relative value higher than 1, these 60 points would be multiplied by such relative value, the total thus obtained being the final award. Example 2. Thirteen companies have entered teams of four men in the Manual of Arms event. Four men are fallen out by the judges after a certain command, each of the four being credited with 10 points. The contest goes on, and on some later command several more contestants are selected by the judges for elimination on account of improper execution, and to each of this group 20 points are awarded. Later a third group is fallen out and each of them are given 30 points. The event continues until but one man remains. The total points made by the four members of an organization determine that organization's standing among the thirteen entries, and points are then awarded the company as in Example 2. 4. All performances must be the work solely of competitors and the officer in charge will make the necessary arrangements to prevent unauthorized assistance being given or received. In practice the method of scoring is much simpler than a casual reading of the description would indicate. From the fact that in the training memorandums here given relative values have been assigned the various events and values given to the several places in each event, it is evident that it is intended to arrange the organization in order of merit determined by their work in the meet considered as a whole. This would have to be done in groups for the reason that not all organizations take part in every event, a company limited to participation in two events, of course, being unable to earn as many points as might be made by companies taking part in three or four events. This is merely a detail, however, and all events might be given equal weight and no regard paid to total points for the meet. To include in the memorandum just above a description of all the events that might be held during the season would require too much space for this article; those given are sufficient to present the general nature. Others involving competitive endeavor on the part of wire and radio sections, machine-gun companies, and for various specialists are easily drawn up and would appear in a memorandum actually issued. It is apparent that were all the events of a meet carried out over an extended area like sketching necessarily requires, there could be but little interest maintained among those not engaged in the particular event. It will frequently be found desirable to have an event or two of a character less strictly military, as medicine-ball races, wall scaling, something essentially of a competitive nature, and in which a fair number of men may take part. Not a little of the value of these meets is in the number of men engaged. A meet held under the order given in this article would bring out more than fifty noncommissioned officers and over two hundred privates. This number would be excessive perhaps for some of our regiments at the present time, but the point must not be overlooked that, unlike an intercollegiate track meet, the object of a training meet is not to set the scene for the performance of stars, and, while the number of participants may be regulated from as few as one to as many as are present, the entry requirements should be large and varied. I There are a few more details which are important to the conduct of a meet. The events so far as possible, and always the finish, should be staged at some point suitable for spectators, as the athletic field or in the gym or recreation hall, if the weather is cold and wet. The band should be out with their instruments. It is an opportunity to build morale, develop esprit, and while one hesitates to write down such nowadays hackneyed words, they do come to one's mind. And any training schedule or program in which between the lines can not be read thoughts suggested by these words lacks a proper conception. Long Meals Thomas A. Edison is not much given. to humor-he is far too busy for thatbut he has one pet yarn that he is never tired of repeating: A man from the country one day came to town and put up at a firstclass hotel. He went to the office and asked the clerk what were the times of the meals. "Breakfast, seven to eleven," answered the clerk; "lunch, eleven to three; tea, three to six; dinner, six to eight; and supper, eight to twelve." "What!" shouted the astonished visitor, "When am I going to get time to see the town?"-Pittsburgh Christian Advocate. Defense of a Wood Maj. Ward L. Schrantz, Infantry, O. R. C. HE Bois de Manheulles, some twelve kilometers east and three south of Verdun, was held by the Germans for over two years, and although the situation to the south of the wood was changed somewhat by the St. Mihiel offensive during which the village of Manheulles fell into Allied hands the problem of the defense of the west side of the wood remained practically unchanged during the whole of the time it was held by the Kaiser's troops. This meant that a good many experienced Teuton officers had pondered over the defense plan and the scheme finally in use was doubtless the one which German military experience would indicate to be the best under the circumstances. The western portion of the wood was low and flat but farther to the east rose low hills which gave some command over the terrain to the immediate front. The Allied position ran at the base of the high hills which bound the western side of the Woevre, and in the region treated in this article-that just north of Haudimont-the distance between the edge of the wood and the Allied line of observation ranged from 400 to 700 meters. The area between the lines was well tangled with wire and in many places swampy. The hills within the Allied line completely overlooked the German wood, but the thick ness of the timber afforded cover from view. It was the writer's fortune to command a machine gun company, a portion of which was located opposite the Bois de Manheulles, during the latter part of October and the early part of November, 1918, and in common with other officers to speculate daily on just what the enemy had in the woods. The front at this particular point was quiet and so far as any one knew no attack was contemplated, although off to the left there was a constant roar of battle from the fighting of the battle of the Meuse-Argonne. By day the edge of the Bois de Manheulles appeared entirely deserted. Along toward dusk there came bursts of machine gun fire from the interior of the wood and from dusk on, all night, there was intermittent and ineffective machine gun fire from the edge of the timber. Nothing at all seemed to be gained by this continual firing on the part of the enemy, and my first thought was that the wood was lightly held and that the continual "popping off" was for the purpose of making us think that the place was held stronger than it really was. This seemed to be the opinion of our division headquarters also, for I remember the battalion intelligence officer saying that they were demanding that he take a patrol into the interior of the wood and find out what was there. On the night of November 4 he tried it, but was promptly met with so heavy a machine gun fire that he abandoned the attempt. He told me |