Page:History of the 305th field artillery (IA historyof305thfi01camp).pdf/37

Rh ership, ability to entertain, previous military experience -it all went down. There was one question in which we took a special interest.

"For what branch of the service do you wish to express a preference?"

Some had weighed the matter carefully. They believed themselves born to the Quarterinaster's Corps, but the majority had not foreseen that interrogation, nor, if they had, it is likely that the meat of their answer would have had a different texture. Its sincerity was sometimes naïve. "Oh, hell! I don't care, just so I lick the Choimans."

We concentrated on the finest. Shamelessly we proselytized, out of this impromptu mission came some of the regiment's best.

Those hours of dreary, yawning statistics, moreover, had their relieving moments. Here comes a slender young man in the familiar suit of remote beginnings. The officer asks him formally the formal question.

"Wages in your last job?”

"$50,000 a year."

That officer, one recalls, rose to the occasion, for the young man was not boasting.

"And I understand you wish to express a preference for the Field Artillery?"

Wasn't it Hoadley who faced a youth just the reverse of this last—that is, flashily tailored?

"What can you furnish in the way of entertainment?"

“Me?" the flashy young man replied. "I could steer the village miser into a poker game, and, believe me, bo, I can make a deck of cards lay down and roll over. What's the idea? What d'ye mean? I got to split with you?"

When he declared for the Cooks and Bakers his choice went down without argument.

Afterwards we would line our charges up again and desert qualification cards for sample shoes and hats and