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February 13
(By F - M - Kelso-)
■‘Dad why have you been so sad and
•omy since I joined the army!; you've
/■t there in a deep muse and the ex-
on your sac is a picture of men-
■ pain. Aren't you glad you're the
of a man?”
■"My son, I’m proud of you. I’m the
■oudest father in this land today. But
■was thinking of the day when I march
!■ away and of my father—the old vet
of Civil War days grew hoarse and
;Bars streamed down his cheek and blind-
■ his eyes—"and my father placed his
u P° n my shoulder and his last
■ords are ringing in my ears: ‘Make a
soldier, my boy.’ ”
dad,” broke in the boy, "didn’t
■>u make good? Didn’t you ”
■As if he had not heard, the old man
■ntinued: “I remember that day as if
■ were but yesterday—the day I march
■l away to the grand, wild music of war.
■was just realizing the strength of vigor
■is manhood. I kissed the sweetest
!■>£ of the purest woman God ever gave
man—my mother.”
■ "And was there a little girl, a sweet-
questioned the boy.
■ "Yes, your mother, and she was as
■ue and as pure and sweet as the whitest
■y heaven ever smiled upon.”
■ "Well, then, dad, why are you so sad,
■>u haven't answered me?”
■”I was thinking.”
■ "Thinking—thinking of what?”
■ Before the old man had time to answer
■.e boy continued: "Why, dad, you
■-ought credit to the name of Carter,
■’hen I enlisted old Uncle Elijah Brown
■id me how he served with the
■•avest soldier that ever fired a musket,
■nd that was you, dad, that was you. Un
■e Elijah told me so. He told me you
■as as fierce as a tiger in battle and as
■mder as a mother at other times. And
■f your bravery, dad, he told me how
■ou stole out, under fire, crawled for 300
■ards to a spring, crawled on your hands
■nd knees, ail for a poor comrade who
■as wild with thirst —the old warrior’s
■ice lighted with memories—and that
■>mrade was Uncle Elijah, dad.”
fl "Yes, my boy, it is true. I served my
■puntry. I loved her. I loved every
■ar in old glory. I was fired with a
■oly purpes to do or to die for the eternal
Bght.”
■ "Well, then, what’s wrong dad?” as big
■ars came to the old man’s eyes again.
■ "My son, I would give the world: I
■ould give all I own; I would give my
■ery life if I could just blot out one dark
■icture that haunts and follows—that blot
■n my honor is a thorn in my pillow at
■ight, it is a purgatory of torment in the
■ay time.”
■ “Come here, boy, I want you tc profit
■y my experience.”
■ “When I joined the army, I thought I
■new life- I thought I knew men; I thought
■ knew the temptations and pit-falls; I
■bought I knew human nature.”
■ "But in theJSchool of Life I had a pain
■ul and tragic Isson to learn.”
■ Otte night we were all sitting in the
■ent talking Os various subjects. Present
■' someone introduced jokes. Theye were
■ot confined to the jokes that could be
■elated in the presence of a mother.
■,inqcqsGui,‘Sfiod.|osSqy!!
■ I knew the dark and seamy side of life
■oo, but I had never actually experienced
■t. I had observed it in the lives of
■thers. But when I failed to enter as
■ eartily into the laughter as the rest, one
■f the boys said:
,1 "Bill, Its easy to be seen you’ve never
■raveled around much.”
1 “What do you mean.” I asked.
I “Oh nothing,” he replied with a know
ing smile.
I insisted that he tell me what he was
Iriving at.
"You haven’t traveled arcupd much,”
le repeated.
"You. don’t know much about the
vorld.” broke in another.
“And fast dames,” added another.
"Was you ever drunk?” sneered another.
“Its the old, old story, son, but its so
>ld its becoyne common-place. Young men
sneer and mock and jeer at a young fel
ow because he’s not ‘fast,’ my boy, but
et him be fast and contract disease and
he same men who sneered and jeered be
tause he was 'slow' (as they term it)
joint the finger or ridicule at him because
le happened to be Unfortunate—or tough
uck —as they call it. Let a young fellow
je infected and he’s outlawed from so
fibty. Oh they talk about good fellows
and all that, but my boy, let a man be
come diseased and he's isolated. One
night—it was a cruel awakening—l ask
ed a comrade for a drink from his cup.
He looked at me and muttered a lame
excuse that he was In a hurry, and left
me standing there chagrined and hurt to
the quick. One morning my supply of
towels was exhausted and I borrowed one
from my bunkie. I didn’t know him —
I understand now—he didn’t want to hurt
my feelings—and he burned it when I had
finished using it.
“The night I was told I was so inex
perienced and that I did not know life,
that I had not traveled around much, a
deep burning desire came Into my heart
to learn. I wanted to be able to talk of
fast women in that same glib manner as
the rest of my tent-mates; I wanted to
know life: I wanted to be a good pal:
I wanted to have it said of me: “He’s seen
some of life.” But —oh God—what a price
I naid!
“Back home a little sweetheart was
waiting for me with lips of purity and a
heart as clean as the driven enow.”
"My mother who had nursed me. look
ed into my baby eyes, put my dimpled
arms about her neck and thanked God
for my life —the precious lips of mother
love waited for my return. But dare I
press my lips to hers?”
“And my father who had sacrificed,
worked anil planned for his boy—could I
look into his clear, manly eves without
horror written over my face?”
“One night—l shall never forget it. no,
not to mv dying day—a most fascinating
young fellow in our regiment with a most
pleasing personality Introduced me to a
charming young woman. I noticed the
other boys smile. I didn’t guess the rea
son then. She was a winsome siren with
big dark eyes, a captivating smile—oh her
whole manner would bewitch any man.
And she purposely injected into every
move all that was calculated to beguile
me. I learned later what she was.”
“My boy, I was just your age and the
live blood was tingling through my veins.
I was aflame that night with the beastly
fires and passions that slumber in the
breast of every human. That girl lit the
fire.”
"I won’t go into the details and pic
ture that awful night, boy, but a week
la*er I was in a hospital of suffering and
i tin with the most loathsome disease
FROM OUT THE PAST
.'REN CH AND CAMP
known to medical science. For two long,
weary months Os agony and hopeless des
pair I lingered there. I came to serve
my country; I joined the army to fight
for old glory. I had walked into the face
of shot and shell while cannon roared and
bullets hummed and whistled about me
without flinching, but now 1 was a bur
den on my country, I was a debit and not
an asset, my strength must always now
be discounted. I was not the man my
mother knew I was and my father
thought I was.”
"My nerve left me and the first battle
after I was discharged from the hospital
found me trembling in every limb —I was
frightened with fear; I mustered all my
strength, but the old daring spirit that
once had hurled me into the face of
death with a smile had departed. That
battle was my last —I was discharged as
physically unfit.
"I came home, son, and to make the
flame' hotter in the hell Os agony in which
I had cast myself in an unthinking mo
ment, the most manly man I ever knew
—my father—used a towel which I had
dried on after a batm. Several weeks
later he went to the doctors, and in two
weeks he was blind—stone blind. And. oh
God forgive me, I was guilty, I was the
despicable wretch that had brought the
Virus of that dreadful disease into the
sacred portals of our home; the home
around which clustered so many tender
and fond memories.”
The old man became hoarse and his
speech was a whisper, great tears roll
ing down his scarred and furrowed face.
"But the girl, dad. what about mother—
the little sweetheart you left behind?”
"Well, my boy——
The silver voice of a bugle was sound
ing, a young man was rubbing his weary
eyes; he looked about bewildered.
He had dreamed a dream.
THE~MiUTARY SALUTE
Major General Muir has issued the fol
lowing memorandum concerning the sa
lute:
Officers and enlisted men in the mili
tary service salute as a mark of their
profession. It is distinct f a mark of the
man in the service. When an officer or
enlisted man salutes a superior officer he
is showing his respect for the position,
the rank held by that officer. Above all.
the salute is a mark of politeness and is
in keeping with the injunction contained
in Army Regulations, Paragraph 4, first
line, that "Courtesy among military men
Is indispensable to discipline.”
The salute is in keeping with the
ordinary amenities of social military life;
it is a means of acknowledging recogni
tion. Not to salute is to ignore the pres
ence of a superior, which is as flagrant
a discourtesy as for a civilian to ignore
the immediate presence or some one with
whom he associates; it is "snobbery” in
civil society, it is "lack of discipline” in
military life. Civilians who meet greet
each other by various salutations. In the
military service this salutation is definite
and exact, and is described as follows:
"Raise the right hand smartly till
the tip of the forefinger touches the
lower part of the headdress or fore
head above the right eye, thumb and
fingers extended and joined, palm to
the left, forearm inclined at about
forty-five degrees, hand and wrist
straight; at the same time look to
ward the person saluted. Drop the
army smartly by the side.”
It is not only incumbent upon military
men to salute, but it is vitally essential
to discipline that they be on the alert to
note the presence of each other. Not to
recognize the presence of a superior by a
junior or of a junior by a superior within
saluting distance is to neglect to exer
cise that alertness so essential to the
trained officer or enlisted man. It has
been the expressed opinion of all military
leaders since time began that military
men should recognize the physical pres
ence of each other. This recognition is as
incumbent upon the senior as upon the
junior. The law exacts from the senior
the same preciseness and exactness of ex
ecuton in rendering the military salute
as it does the junior. In order to be
sure that recognition is obtained, the reg
ulation places upon the junior the duty
of what one might call "speaking first,”
which in military terms means to salute
first. The true meaning of the salute,
when made by an officer or enlisted man,
is an unexpressed statement to this ef
fect: “I am a soldier and I recognize you
to be one, superior in rank to myself.”
COL F. E. ZIEGLER DEAD;
THROWJMJROM HORSE
Lieut. Colonel F. E. Zeigler of the old
Eighth Infantry died last night from the
effect of injuries when thrown from his
horse at Fort Sam Houston.
Colonel Zeigler Was for some weeks un
assigned and was attending officers’
school. The accident occurred in line of
duty. In civil life he was a lawyer of
Harrisburg, Pa. He was married and
ha<T one daughter. It is understood that
his wife was with him when he passed
away in the hospital at San Antonio, Tex.
GERMAN “SONG OF WAR”
“BURN! KILL! KILL!”
The following German “Song of War” was found on a German prisoner
captured between Cividale and Udine. Underlying it is the belief that the
energy and virtue of the vanquished pass into the victor, known to be one
of the sanctions of cannibalism. It follows:
“Armed son of Germany, forward! ’Tis the hour of joy and of glory.
”O gunner, the great cannon —thy invulnerable brother, calls thee. Was
it not made to rejuvenate the world?
"O, riflemen, see, thou art the force that conquers even death. No ob
stacle avails—wher’er thou goest and enterest, there enters Germany.
“O, horseman, spur, fight, cast down —we await a harvest of heads;
guide thy steed ike a winged storm. That trembling flesh is ready to enrich
the fields that will be thine and thy chidren’s.
“Son of Germany, the longed-for hour has come. Life does not end, it
passes and is transformed; the life of the slain becomes a part of the slayer.
See how now thou canst gather into the bosom of thy holy Fatherland the
life of the world.
•‘Have no weak pity on women and children. The son of the vanquished
has often been the victor of the morrow. Os what use is victory if the mor
row brings revenge? Why, in killing thine enemy, should thou leave thy
son’s enemy alive?
"Armed son of Germany, forward! Destroy, break, cast down, spear
burn, kill, kill,- kill—the path of glory is before us!”
“Mother-She Died After I Left”
BY ELIAS RUTHERFORD.
It wasn’t a cheerful sort of night. In
fact, it was as cold as the Belgian
hearthstones, and as black as gloom
of defeat. And rain like tears of all
the world ever the war beat down upon
the draft cantonment field at Camp
Lee, Petersburg, Virginia.
Yet suddenly out of the depths of a
trench just ahead, came a rollicking
bit of song.
“Oh, we’ll hang the dirty Kaiser to
a sour apple tree!” it announced, to the
tune of “Mine Eyes Hath Seen the
Glory of the Coming of the Lord.” And
the secretary, taking a short cut back
to his own building, paused to admire
the valiant spirit of a man who Could
sing in a trench on such a night.
"Oh, we'll hang——” began the lusty
voice again, then died away in the
midst of a word. The singer seemed to
have arrived at the tardy realization
that it wasn’t a balmy summer night.
He began to wet-blankety-blank the
'‘rain and the mud and the wind and the
weather with precision and pungency.
The secretary had never heard a man
swear with more fluency and range.
"Cheer up!” he Called with a laugh in
his voice. “That was hot enough to
dry up the mud."
“Halt!” came the sharp command.
“Who goes there?” There was an in
terval during which he esablished the
Y. M. C. A. man’s identity by means of
a flashlight. "Pass, friend!” he said
with a grin. "If you Y. M. C. A. guys
always get by as easy as . ou do in this
camp, you should worry!”
He leaned his gun agai .st the side
of the trench, and looked up at the sec
retary with, a confidential air. He Was
hardly more than a youngster, with It
tle laugh-crinkles around his brown
eyes, and a devil-may-care swagger
that he seemed to consider an essential
part of the army uniform.
“There ain’t no use at all o’ puttin’
me here on guard,” he said, dolefully.
“The only two livin’ bein's I ever met
here was a Y. M. C. A. man and a cow.”
“I heard your voice as I came over
the hill,” said the secretary. “At first,
I didn't gather that you were just ad
dressing the weather,—l thought you
had some one here with you,”
“I did have a guy here,” grinned the
soldier, as he looked down at his feet,
half lost in the mud. "But I’m standin’
on his shoulders!”
The Association man chuckeld.
“You certainly have a soft job to
night,” he suggested.
“I ain’t in right with the officers,”
explained the boy with a grin. "I sassed
one of them, and since then I been as
popular as a mouse at a meetin’ of the
Ladles’ Aid.”
They talked for a While and the as
sociation man found Out tha: his pic
turesque companion of the darkness
run away from his Pennsylvania home
when he was fifteen, and since then
had turned his hand to about every
thing from cow-puching to profession
al baseball.
"Folks both living?” asked the sec
retary .
There was a pause. Then the young
soldier spoke in a different tone.
“Dad is, and my sister,” he said.
"Mother—she died, after I left.” There
was another little silence, "It always
makes me.feel like the devil when I
think o’ my mother. I guess my run
nin’ away just about killed her.” He
tramped, up and down a few times,
jamming his gun viciously into the
dirt walls of the trench. “I never would
do a thing she wanted me to when I
was a kid,” he burst out at last.
“The next best thing is to please her
now,” said the secretary gently.
“She won’t know it now,” was the
sombre answer, “Oh, I forgot. You’re
oner of them guys that believe you’re
livin’ when you’re dead. But I never
been much on religion.”
“The secretary, who had been a
prominent minister before the war, was
a Wise man; he did not speak much of
religion, but led the young soldier on to
talk of his mother.
"She was great on church," said the
boy, miserably, at last. “I’d —I’d like
to be the kind of a guy she’d want. You
sure think she knows?”
“Sure,” said the Y. M. C. A. man.
“A fellow’d like to think that when
he’s goin’ away to fight,” the boy ad
mitted. “But I ain’t been nothin’ but a
bum. I couldn't be the sort of church
Johnnie she’d like.”
"You can start over again, and take
Jesus Christ as your Savior and leader,
and you’ll come out all right,” the sec
retary assured him.
“That Jesus Christ fellow ain’t both
erin’ with a cussin', fightin’ son-of-a
gun like I am,” wistfully.
“That's just the kind he is botherng
about,” the Association man declared.
All Was silent in the trench for a time.
“And you think He can help a guy
along, fightin’ the booze, and the cus
sin’ and all?” he demanded. "You think
He can turn me into the kind of a guy
my mother'd want?”
"Just trust Him and ask Him for
help.”
“Pal, Pm on,” said the boy, after a
moment, and the two reached for each
other’s hands in the darkness.
‘‘You’re sure she knows?” begged the
young soldier.
"I’m sure!”
And there in the trench the rain fell
upon two bowed heads, as they lifted
their hearts in a prayer of thanksgiv
ing and appeal.
—FROM ASSOCIATION MEN.
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS FOR
ARMY MEN
Following the article of Captain Ry
man, published last week in Trench
and Camp, Colonel Shaw’s report of
inspection of Major Yerke's work will
be of Interest.
Value of the Tests.
“The value of these psychological
tests as an indication of mental ca
pacity cannot be definitely determined
at present; further comparison must
be made of officers’ estimates and the
performance of the men with psychol
ogical scores. The general opinion at
Camp Lee is distinctly favorable.
“There is nothing novel or experi
mental in the principle of applying
psychological tests as a means of de
termining practical every-day mental
capacity. They have been repeatedly
made us of heretofore among big bus
iness concerns, With results indicated
in dollars and cents saved. The value
of the work of Major Yerkes and h?<
assistants consists in devising mental
tests of such a nature as to serve
as a practical index of the intelli
gence of men in the military service.
If the results of the work at Camp Lee
are borne out at other places, it must
be admitted that Major Yerkes has
been eminently successful.”
General Cronkhite Gives the follow
ing endorsement:
“It may be revolutionary, but the
psychiatric board’s intelligence tests
will play a great part of this division
These tests are virtually conclusive,
they have proved so in thousands of
cases. And men who show a high in
telligence rating will be watched close
ly—Will be given every chance for ad
vancement. Their daily work will be
taken into consideration, and if they
deserve promotion they will get it.
This is the program from top to bot
tom, officers and privates.”
The Surgeon General also endorses
the tests:
‘The purpose of these tests as out
lined by Major Yerkes is as follows:
(a) To aid in segregating and elimi
nating the mentally incompetent; (b)
to classify men according to (their
mental capacity; tc) to assist in se
lecting competent men for responsible
positions.
“In the opinion of this office these
reports indicate very definitely that
the desired .results have been achieved.
Scores of- drafted men mentally incom
petent, have been identified by the
psychological tests much earlier in
their military careers than would have
otherwise occurred. The classifica
tion of men according to mental abil
ity, as determined by these examina
tions, has corresponded, in ' general in
a very striking way With the estimates
previously made by officers familiar
with them, and many instances could
be mentioned where men selected for
responsible positions solely on their
psychological records had fully justi
fied that selection.
“The success of this work in a large
series of observatiorfs some 5,000 offi
cers and 80,000 men, makes it rea
sonably certain that similar results
may be expected if the system were
extended to include the entire enlisted
and drafted personnel and to all newly
appointed officers.”
School of Military Psychology-
A school of miliatry psychology will
be established at the medical officers’
training camp at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga.,
where about 50 phychologists will be
entered monthly for a minimum of two
months’ training in the subjects which
they should know for the practice of
their specialty under military condi
tions. On the staff of the command
ant of the medical officers’ training
camp fill be a senior instructor in
psychology detailed to the work by the
Surgeon General on recommendation
of Major Yerkes, head of the section
of phychology. General military and
physical instruction will be given the
student and in addition, much instruc
tion in military psychology as the or
ganization and administration of psy
chological examining, the practice of
group and individual examination
types 'of mental incompetents, ma
lingering and. its detection, etc.
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