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Dec. 24, 191/. I Jim Wishes Al “Mary Crismus” I | BY OUR OWN RING W. LARDNER I well al hear it is geting dost to the day witch Sy \\ last yere was wen we got our bonenusses you re i member al miyun was ten dolars moar that what yrs / p | was i mene crismus al but their wont be no bone rsnusses this yere al & perapps it is just as well that X. ' their wont be no bonenusses. miyun last yere was yU \ ) \\n) S all S° ne ennyweigh by new yeres & what did it get H.'/.y If me hay al only a better drag with Aggie you know / m 0 al ‘ ■Vv ’ n yr e^ter y° u are lading to th .ik i will be •A. ) hear in this traneing camp sitting on my thum & •77(\ / VX\ wishing i was wear i aint witch wood be home wile a \ j\. you are & haveing a big time with the girls & r JU » everything, probly i will be wishing i was home ai but i know there aint mutch chants of my geting * S W'’ZP / . t&S” tbeir ts the ust of laying around & wishing. jp'/ ~'-TT?_jTg imc he p'uest it wont be so bad after all. I I & Wi:e * won t be geting no bonenuss of munny P U-V'bZz/A I ile be satistfide to know their are other bonenusses s// V/1 beside what are munny sutch as sealing better than | VB iof ever felt befoar. witch is sum bonenuss beleev 'PRIVATE JIM* % me al wen your in S ood helth & geting 3 good meels per day even if ime not home if i know everybody & Aggie at home is o. k. & not sick with newmonyou ; or pendisidus ile be satisfide beside knowing that ime doing the rite thing | by beeing down hear as a soldger in the stead of loafing around all day & hateing to think of having to go back to the ofiis the next day. from what is beeing ced hear we wont have sutch a poor crismus ennyweigh as the mest sargint is planning sum feed & we are haveing little sawdoff trees out of the woods in the bareux wear we. can lite them up & i put on a dubbel fire garde so they wont burn down the bareux witch will j maik it pretty mutch like home only nothing is like home wear your mother ■ aint or the old man dont sit around & cuss out the neckties & bum seegars. I out side of haveing your soaks a round tho what is crismus al but showing peepil that your thinking sumthing other about them be sides trying to ! sell them sumthing or maik your boss think your worth 20 dolars moar than you are worth, it shood be a grate time then for us soldgers al becaus as far as i can maik out no one is beeing thought moar about than the soldgers this crismus & that ought to maik us feel pretty good al because when i was a kid the most successful crismus was when i got the largest am’t of junk from sandy claus. after a wile they maid me see that it wasent the pile i got so much as the pile i gave. wall al by both those piles the soldger has got no kick, take the pile lies geting ala lady rushes out of a limazene the other day in a big fur coat & i beeing next to the car witch had come into the traneing camp from sum city she throws her arms about my neck al like i wish Aggie wood only shes not that kind & ced you dear soldger we are thinking a bout you so much & wandering what we can do to maik crismus nice for you. well al it was sum fur coat she had on i cood feel the dolars in the seelskin allmost & i ced that is very nice but we have never met befoar have we. she ced of course not but you are defending our homes arent you & i ced so far i have did vary little defending only offending the sarjint. she laffed & ced enny weigh we ladies are making up boxes for you boys out hear & what wood you like best, well al it sounded just like the old man when he wood ask my littel sister millie when i was a kid to find out what wood i rather have a tool chest or a pare of donahow skates, well i ced yourself lady it is up to you we of got so we taik everything, only dont maik the sox so big we are libel to wear them as underdose, she ced you are a nobel young man & i lit a eigaret haveing no comeback you know me al. their is dozens of wimmen like that al rushing a round & beleev me th eyre a grate buntch al they sertainly are bighearted & i beleev after nes tulling in that fur coat for a cuppel of seconds that the guy was rite hear the other nite who ced the wimmen will win this here war. we will know al on the twenty fifth of this month that their are thousands & millions of peepul who are with us &. even if we can get home the soaks can get stuff to us & we can get stuff to them & ennyweigh i hope ime not detaled on dubbel fire duty to watch that tree outen the woods with the candels on it. crismus comes but onct a year, hay al. & the other pile that were giving isent so small either al but it isent up to me to pull no sob stuff about what ime giving becaus its not mutch & its not as much as lots of the poor ducks have had to give, wen i joind into this here army al i give them myself & they are welcome to it sutch as it is. well al mary crismus as we ust to say the nite befoar leaving the ofiis. your friend, PRIVATE JIM. HER CHRISTMAS BY ROSCOE GILMORE STOTT ]\jO, DO not pity me nor call me sad, * Indeed yon are in error —I am glad! Glad that I bore and glad as well I gave; Glad that my blood may help to free, to save, “Somewhere in France?” E’en that Ido not know; He heard a call; my lips close whispered: “Go!” And now ’tis Christmas Day—and he is there — And earth's most precious hour I’ve learned to share. No, do not sympathise—your eyes are wet! Indeed, you do not understand—-or you forget. I gave him freely—as my cheerful gift— And now no doleful song my voice shall lift. No! Help me to be brave, deny my tears; Think of the glory and allay my fears; For this is Christmas Day in every land, And over seas of space I touch his hand. (Copyright Curtis Publishing Company) INSIGNIA FCN SECOND LIEUTEN ANTS Second lieutenants now are au thorized to wear a distinguishing in signia. A gold bar, as distinct from the silver bar of the first lieutenant, will denote the lower rank. On the overcoat sleeves the second lieuten ants may wear single knots of braid one-eighth of an inch wide. The dis tinguishing feature will be its color, brown. TRENCH AND CAMP GEN. PERSHING’S AID HERE Lieut. Col. Nelson E. Margetts, personal aid to General Pershing, has returned to the United States with six army o.fleers who also have been at the front. They will map out and conduct at the training camps here a course of instruction in European war methods. Col. Margetts says the progress of American soldiery has been unusual. He says the men overseas are eager for their mail from home U. S. First To Organize Morally Against Enemy BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. At Present Serving as a Y. M. C. A. Secretary at Camp Dix, Weigh ts / town, N. J. One of the most encouraging things in connection with America’s en trance into the war is the fact that, through the Commission on Training Camp Activities, established as a de partment in the offices of the Secre tary of War and the Secretary of the Navy, with Mr. Raymond B. Fosdick as its chairman, the period of mili tary training of such large numbers of our young men is to be used to bring about the highest degree of de velopment, both physical and moral, of these splendid youths. A highly important feature of this work is being carried on, at the re quest of the Commission on Training Camp Activities, by the War Cam' Community Service, whose partici ’ field of endeavor lies in the 126 c munities adjacent to our great tr ing camps, to finance which work . effort is now on foot in five thousand communities throughout the -country to raise the sum of $4,000,000. Fighting Loneliness Experience has shown that when enlisted men have free time many of them want to get away from camp routine and seek these nearby com munities. Within the camps they are under strict discipline. When they are on leave they are free to do as they choose. The War Camp Com munity Service is seeing to it that the recreation provided for them 'n these communities adjacent to tb r .mps is clean and wholesome. It m opening up channels through which the sol diers may find substitutes for the normal relationships of life from , which they have been suddenly cut off. It is making it possible for them to meet the townspeople and provid ing antidotes for the depression of social loneliness, which is so real a menace to the moral strength of the men. This work should not be confused with the splendid efforts of the Young Women’s Christian Associa tion, the Knights of Columbus and other organizations under the direc tion of the Fosdick Commission in side the camps. The work of the War Camp Community Service out side the camp is supplementary to 0. S, SOLDIERS’ CHRISTMAS TODAY IN STRONG CONTRAST WITH COLD, CHEERLESS YULETIDES THEIR FOREFATHERS SPENT IN FIELD Christmas in trench and camp will be very different this year from the Yule-tide known by our soldiers in the war between the states and in the Revolutionary War. This year, greens, welcome pack ages from home, entertainments, din ners and cosy gatherings in recrea tion ceni rs will mark the Christmas festivit’es. Quick transportation, a highly organized mail system and telegraph and telephone communica tion will bring substantial gifts and tender messages. Through the untiring efforts of the Quartermaster’s Department, the American soldier today is not only well fed but warmly clad and com fortably quartered. Think of the contrast between the Christmas of today and the Christ mas of Civil War days. Foliowin are a few facts from the “Reminis cences” of General John B. Gor don, C. S. A. “A Melancholy Wreck” “My men were winter-quartered in the dense pine thickets on the rough hills that border the Occoquan. Christmas came, and was to be made as joyous as our surroundings would permit by a genuine Southern egg nog with our friends. The country was scoured far and near for eggs, which were exceedingly scarce. Os sugar we still had at that time a rea sonable supply, but our small store of eggs and tho other ingredients could not be increased in all the country round about. Mrs. Gordon superintended the preparation of this favorite Christmas beverage, and at last the delicious potion was ready. All stood anxiously waiting with camp cups in hand. The servant start ed toward the company with full and foaming bowl, holding it out before him with almost painful care. He had taken but a few steps when he struck his toe against the uneven floor of the rude quarters and stum bled. The scattered fragments of crockery and the aroma of the wasted nectar marked the melancholy wreck of our Christmas cheer. these efforts, and is done in order that much Os the benefits derived from them may not be lost. We non-combatants cannot set up moral standards for the fighting men that we are not living up to our selves. I believe that it is our pre eminent duty to live cleaner lives, to set a higher standard of morality for ourselves, as one great means of helping the fighting men. If the non combatants will do this, it will be a tremendous support to the soldiers in France and will be a mighty factor for military victory. For it has been estimated that soldiers, physically and morally clean, mean an active army of at least twenty-five per cent more men on duty. Helping to Win the War It is a splendid thing to be able to say that the United States is the first nation in the history of the world to organize morally against the enemy. That is the meaning of all this work under the direction of the Fosdick Commission, inside and outside the amps. Its purpose is to help win the war, to help win it in the shortest possible time, and to win it with the sacrifice of a minimum number of lives. It is a work which will affect directly the character and the spirit of the men behind the guns, that will keep them clean of mind and body, that will prevent them from being in capacitated through disease, and that will bring them home an asset to the nation and not a liability. I want to emphasize the fact that the work of the War Camp Commun ity Service is entirely constructive and in no way restrictive of the sol dier’s liberty. At home he has his friends, his clubs or associations, his local dances, moving picture theatres, books and outdoor sports. This or ganization is supplying him with sub stitutes to occupy his time when he is on leave from camp. It is building him club houses and recreation build ings, comfort stations and swimming pools. It is giving him books to read, socials and receptions, smokers, vaudeville, athletics, concerts and motion picture shows. All these will be at his disposal. He is free to choose them or the unwholesomfe some amusements which scar the body and sear the soul. No one ques tions what the choice of the average wholesome, manly American boy will be. “The winter was a severe one and the men suffered greatly—not only for want of sufficient preparation, but, beciuse those from farther south were unaccustomed to so cold d cli mate. There was much sickness in camp. It was amazing to see the large number of country boys who had never had the measles. Indeed, Ft seemed to me that they ran through the whole catalogue of com plaints to which boyhood and even babyhood are subjected. They had everything almost except teething, nettle-rash, and whooping-cough. 1 rather think some of them were af flicted with this latter disease.” Barefooted in Snow Fiske, in his history of the United States, says, “The dreadful sufferings if Washington’s army at Valley orge have called forth the pity and ’Deration of historians, but the point i the story is lost unless we realize hat the misery resulted from gross mismanagement rather than from the poverty of tho country. As the poor soldiers marched, their route could be traced in the snow by the blood that oozed from their bare, frost-bit ten feet. On the 23rd of December, Washington informed Congress that he had in camp (2,898 men unfit for duty'because they are barefoot and otherwise naked). For want of blan kets many were fain to sit up all night by fires instead of taking com fortable rest in a natural and com mon way. “Cold and hunger daily added many to the sick list and in the crowded hospitals, which were for the most part mere log huts or frail wig wams woven of twisted boughs, men sometimes died for want of straw to put between themselves and the frozen ground on which they lay.” Montgomery tells us, “While Howe and his officers were living luxurious ly in Philadelphia. Washington’s men, naked and starving, were dying of putrid fever on the frozen hill sides of Valley Forge. They were dying, too, before the good news, could reach them that the French king would certainly aid America.” '' ■ I L, | I ' B o M J i i H I p— JIIIE IP? s Co I B Page 9