AT VAN CORTLANDT PARK-THE TRANSFER TO THE 165TH

The companies of the regiment concentrated at Van Cortlandt Park on August 14, 1917, and remained in camp there until September 29. The men were in splendid physical condition after their five months of military service up-state. Life at Van Cortlandt Park consisted in hikes and drills including trench work and other training to be continued at Camp Wadsworth.

Soon after arriving at Van Cortlandt stories appeared in the public prints regarding a proposed breaking up of certain National Guard units. Friends of the 71st, in view of its numerical strength and efficiency, protested that the breaking up of the 71st was not to be thought of, but on the contrary, that it was highly probable that the 71st would be one of the first National Guard regiments in the country to be ordered to France. This prophecy, however, was not to prove correct, for shortly after reaching New York orders were received to transfer 350 men from the 71st to the 165th Infantry.

Great was the consternation of the friends of the 71st at the news of this transfer. Letters of protest from veterans of former wars appeared in the public prints and much bitterness was displayed. The reason for the transfer was that the authorities at Washington had decided to organize and send overseas without delay a Division which should be typical of the different sections of the country, thereby arousing wide interest among the people in the war and in the war loans about to be brought out. The representation in this new Division from so many different points in the United States would give the press of the country something to publish in the way of overseas news of an intimate local character.

"THE STORY OF THE RAINBOW DIVISION," in describing the organization of that Division, states that the formation of it was brought about by a story in the afternoon papers that a

Division of American troops was to be formed from National Guard organizations in 26 states and the District of Columbia. The 26 states took in every part of the country except New England. America was sending a "Rainbow" of hope to Europe. When the time came to pick a New York regiment, the 69th was selected as a nucleus, being a regiment of loyal Irish with a fine history. Added to the 69th were 350 men from each of the 7th, 12th, 14th, 23rd and 71st regiments, 1750 men. The men of the 71st who were transferred to the 165th did their full duty throughout the war, and of them 44 were killed or died of wounds or disease and 136 were wounded. The itinerary of the 165th Infantry which follows will give an idea of the activities of the men who served in that regiment.

ITINERARY OF THE 165TH INFANTRY

(1) Headquarters, 42nd Division, arrived in France 1st November, 1917.

(2) Successive locations of Division Headquarters since arrival in France are as follows:

Some idea of life in the 71st while the regiment was at Van Cortlandt Park may be had from the following article published in the New York Evening World, September 17, 1917:

From N. Y. Evening World, September 17, 1917.

MEN OF SECOND BRIGADE ARE MARVELS OF EFFICIENCY AND NEATNESS -KNOW HOW TO CARE FOR FOOD WHEN THEY GET IT AND HOW TO COOK AND SERVE IT, AS WELL AS HOW TO CLEAN UP EVERY SCRAP AND PREVENT OFFENSIVE SIGHTS AND ODORS-CLEANLINESS AND ORDERLINESS RULE IN THEIR TENTS AND COMPANY STREETS.

Five thousand men are keeping house in Van Cortlandt Park. They are the members of the Seventy-first, the Twenty-third and the First. And a more cleanly, orderly, comfortable, boileddown-to-the-first-principles housekeeping does not exist than that which I was privileged to observe yesterday in the tented town that begins at the entrance to the park's formal gardens and reaches as far as one can see.

Doubtless, when they are at home, these tanned, smiling, smoking boys drop cigarette ashes all over the carpet, don't know what the dishpan looks like and never pick up an article of clothing once they have laid it down. In camp they wash all their dishes. They do their own laundry work. They make their beds. They keep their tents in order. They rush after an errant scrap of paper on a company street with the feverish

zeal of a New England housewife who sees a crumb or a white thread clinging to her carpet. And in each company two or three men cook for the other hundred and forty odd three meals that are abundant, nourishing and decidedly appetizing. Dear mothers and sisters and sweethearts, send your boys all the chocolate cake and jelly you please. It won't be wasted-but, on the other hand, don't worry for fear Tom or Jack is suffering from malnutrition. Thanks to the courteous hospitality of Mess-Sergeant F. W. Cleeve, the artist and I messed yesterday with Company L of the Seventy-first. We had hamburger steak with a delicious sauce of tomato, onion and peppers; bread, coffee and canned peaches-a good enough lunch for anybody. And it cost just 1312 cents per person.

Feeding one's family is of course the most important feature of housekeeping. Therefore when we inspected the man-made variety we went at once to the cook tents. The first of these is headquarters mess, and then follows in order the mess of each company at the head of the company street.

mer.

Two picturesque persons are in charge of headquarters mess. The head cook is a full-blooded Pawnee Indian, Bright Star. He is one, too, in the culinary firmament; I had some of his beef stew. His associate is W. C. Miller, formerly a champion swimJust outside the cook tent is the regulation army stove, in which the fire is built in the ground. Over the trench containing burning logs is set the low sheet-iron stove, with a big oven and space for boiling and frying. At one side is the incinerator-another trench. There was a wash-boiler full of potatoes, a kettle of stew and a forty-quart can of coffee cooking when we arrived.

The camp kitchens are marvels of ingenious adaptation. They differ in details, but the general plan is the same. Tables, shelves and cupboards are constructed of the packing cases in which the canned goods arrive. Besides quantities of the latter, oatmeal, crackers, salt, pepper, eggs and spices were set out in orderly rows at the first cook tent we visited. Behind a board nailed upon two cleats were stuck big knives and spoons. Hanging to the tent pole was a long wooden paddle for stirring the coffee and three or four big hooks for opening the oven door and lifting hot kettles off the stove.

When we arrived at the tent the noon mess was being prepared-beans for this group. Each company has its own menu. Into two big pans, 3 feet square and a foot and a half deep,