364 THE FORT SHERIDAN ASSOCIATION
In this connection nothing was more interesting to the former civilian than the part that "Rumors" play in army life. The newcomer in the army is quickly shut off from the matters which interested him before. Sometimes he w^ill go for weeks without reading papers carefully and what he reads is of little interest. His mind narrows down to the confines of the Camp, the doings in the company, and to insignificant matters that he would have smiled at weeks before.
Corporal H meets Private A while they are shaving in the washroom. "The Colonel called the Captain to Headquarters," says the Corporal. "What's doing?" says the Private. "1 hear they are only going to commission 20 per cent of the men from each company," says the Corporal. Then the rumor gets busy, runs up and down the barracks, across the company street, and finally gets down to headquarters a huge-sized tornado, with Corporal H and Private A oblivous of the storm. Then the Commanding Officer nails that one.
Private X, in a fit of anger because some one sat on his bunk, messed it up and brought him a reprimand, swears in German, forgetting for the time being how hard he has tried to keep the fact that his ancestors were Germans in the background. That was enough. Private Y starts "old rumor" a-going that there are German spies in the companies. Some one sees a man who looks like Private X being taken away from the guardhouse to Chicago by the military police. Another finds that there is a small amount of dynamite laid away in the Arsenal and "Rumor" is off again with a "wholesale con- spiracy of German spies to blow up the Camp, and a wonderful capture by the army intelligence department."
Here is a series of conflicting rumors from one mess hall on the subject
of commissions and the time the Camp would close a favorite subject of
conversation and the parent of prolific rumors:
(a) That the Camp will be over November 7th.
(b) That the Camp will be over October 2 7th.
(c) That the Camp will be over November 2 7th.
(d) That those commissioned will receive six week's more training at Fort Sheridan.
(e) That very few w^ill be commissioned.
(f) That most of the candidates will be commissioned.
(g) That those commissioned will be rushed to France.
(h) That practically none of those commissioned will get to France in less than six months.
(i) And other reports.
Some less serious and more interesting are starting all the time. Men are sitting on the edges of their bunks with staring eyes, listening to each new report. It is the life — and twice welcome the man who can bring some word from overhead that will give them a chance to build a new one. Who cares or remembers that nine out of ten are without sense and never come true? They gave a sensation greater than a murder, a cyclone or a mighty victory in France, because they ran right into the place where the men lived.
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