100 years ago in The Record
Sunday, Jan. 27, 1918
Spartanburg SC, home to the army camp where hundreds of Troy soldiers are stationed, is under quarantine this weekend after an outbreak of spinal meningitis.
A special correspondent for the Sunday Budget reports that churches in Spartanburg are closed today, while schools will be closed tomorrow. Seven cases of meningitis have been reported, with no fatalities so far.
The city proper is barred to the men of the 105th U.S. Infantry regiment, the former Second regiment of the New York National Guard. Based in Troy, the Second did border-patrol duty in Texas in 1916 and was called back into federal service shortly before the U.S. declaration of war against Germany last April. The regiment is undergoing training in trench warfare in advance of their shipment to Europe. “Indications prevail that departure will not be taken before spring,” the reporter notes.
Camp Wadsworth, where the 105th and several other regiments are stationed, has had four meningitis cases recently, but none in the last two weeks.
“When a contagious disease appears in camp the regiment affected is immediately quarantined and all the men are given preventative treatment,” the reporter explains, “This accounts for the marvelously low sick and death rate here and explains the concession that health officials of this camp are more efficient than those of any other camp in the country.”
Camp Devens
While Troy’s volunteer soldiers remain in South Carolina, local men drafted last summer continue their training with the 303rd U.S. Infantry at Camp Devens in Ayer MA.
“Camp life is a fertile field for songs and poetry,” a Budget correspondent reports from Ayer, “Men who have never written a line of verse before find in the camp the necessary inspiration.
“Of this amateur work some is very good, the rest very bad. And it is the same way with songs. A catchy tune, a few lines of sentiment, and a song becomes popular over night. Like ‘ Tipperary,’ some songs receive no recognition for months, until the soldiers pick it up; then it spreads like wildfire, not only in the army, but over the entire country, or continent.”
On a related note, “Voice culture is the latest wrinkle woven into the intricate system of training the officers here for eventual service ‘over there.’
“The spectacle of candidates in company streets shouting orders for a half hour at a time to imaginary commands is, to say the least amusing,” but one officer says that “It wouldn’t be too much if these young fellows practices shouting, or softly speaking orders, two hours every day. It’ll help ‘em a lot.”