Newspaper Page Text
Feb. 20.
SOLDIER VERSE, BETTER AND WORSE
THE GREAT ADVENTURE
There is not a thing accomplished
That doesn't have its cost
And a fight is never ended \
Until you’ve won or lost.
A battle’; never ended
Until you see them run
And you’ll never have that pleasure
Unless you get your Hun.
And as I said before old man,
There’s no pleasure without pain
And the only way to lick them
Is to buck right up and train.
The training is the hard part, boys,
I grant that much to you.
But if we had no training
Well, we would simply be through.
The whole great game we’re playing
now
From the start until the end
Is hard for every one of us
But it’s something we can’t mend.
We didn’t want this big fight, boys.
We didn’t yell for war,
But the kaiser kept on picking
Till every one got sore.
Now that -we’re sore, we’re mad clean
through,
We gave them every chance
So just to show them what we mean
We’re going from here to France.
We’re going to play the big game there
We’re only training here;
So buck up boys and do your best,
The time is very near.
The time is drawing very near
When you’r going to stand the test
And fight with men the whole world
Maims
To be better than the best.
You’re booked for the great adventure,
Your’e due in dear old France,
r- The world picked you to see it through
And turn the tide of chance.
—By George W. Kendrick McFillin,
Headquarters Co., 109th Inst.
‘ I FLA G~OFVHE _ F REE.”
Flag of our country,
Flag of the free;
Long may you wave
O’er the land and the sea! .
Death to the foe
Who dishonors thee!
Yes, we love dearly
Our red, white and blue.
May no foreign flag
E’er float above you.
Wave on forever.
O’er land and on sea!
Death to the foe
Who dishonors thee!
When our ships go out sailing
Upon the wide seas,
With the stars and stripes
Floating out on the breeze;
Let all nations honor
The flag of the free!
Death to the traitor
Who dishonors thee!
—Ella Netting Hoagland.
CHEER UP
Cheer up! now little mother.
Don’t let your heart grow sad
Some day he’ll travel homeward
That loved and missing lad.
There are, oh! so many others
Who like you must bear
’l*ne absence of a loved one
And are bowed with grief and care.
Some day within the future
(’Tis known to God alone)
The strife will sure be over
And will send our heroes home.
So cheer up! little mother
Don’t let your heart be sad.
May heaven protect and keep him
Your loved and missing lad.
—Anna M.
"the
When our boys get into action
In that land across the sea.
You will hear of deeds of valor
By the U. S. Infantree;
And while the battle is raging.
And the enemy turns to flee.
Don’t forget the gallant heroes
Os the Q. M. C.
As the Cavalry swings past us
The cheers ring upon the ear,
While the Artillery’s heavy thunder
Booms forth a message from the rear—
And we have that welcome feeling
That victory must be near;
The old Q. M.’s are toiling still
With never a thought of fear.
When at last the struggle is over.
And our land once more is free;
When the horrors of battle
Are only left in memory;
When they place the “Roll of Honor"
For all the world to see,
Who will think to give any glory
To the Q. M. C.
j—By Sergt. H. L. Richardson, Remount
Depot.
laTdsprites
(By Oswald Smith, Merlon, Pa.)
The nimble tanks indulge their pranks,
With gleeful might and main,
In leaps and lopes like antelopes
Cavorting ’cross the plain.
Through walls they race; from place to
place
They swiftly work their way.
And often face the killing pace
Os seven miles a day.
With smoothness born of parte well worn
Each playful, speedy runt
In far-flung crash proceeds to smash
AU records at the front.
Like hlppbpotami they trot
Across the trench-wired land,
And soon would win to Hun Berlin
If Tom the strain could stand.
TRENCH AND CAMP
Our Service Flags
Beneath the stars and stripes in France tonight,
Our soldier boys who lately marched away,
Are sleeping on their arms prepared to fight,
While ’neath our service flags we wait and pray.
Os all the starry emblems ever made,
Os all the flags of history or song.
Alone these tell 6f manhood unafraid,
Each star speaks of one hero who has gone.
Each star is bright with meaning and intent
Each one a tale of sacrifice could tell,
Each point glows with the prayers of Mothers sent
To Him who rules and doeth all things well.
As surely as I pen these simple lines.
As certain as the ache within my heart,
I know that God no earnest prayer declines,
And that of every life lie is a part.
Oh! Service Flags, from sea to sea you reach.
In homes of every grade and circumstance,
Lessons of love and loyalty you teach,
And the cause of world wide liberty advance.
T. H. KENDALL, Aurora. 111.
A Warning To Slackers
Now you men who were not drafted and who wouldn’t volunteer
When you heard your country calling out in tones so loud and clear;
Just take this word of caution —if you ever get a chance—
" Don’t steal a soldier’s sweetheart while her boy is off in France.
"Just remember while you're staying there at home and at your ease
That her soldier boy is fighting in a land across the seas;
He is facing German legions with but a picture to remind him
Just bow the girl looks in the land he left back home behind him.
Though his faith is true and steadfast, oft times his thoughts will roam
To the girl he left behind him and the fellow back qt home;
Though he never doubts his sweetheart, he will always doubt the men,
So you better all behave yourselves 'till he comes home again.
For in the distant future he may come home to us
And if you've played him false he will start a little fuss;
So take' this bit of foobs advice—do not take a chance;
Don’t steal a soldier’s sweetheart while her boy is off in France.
PAT YOCUM.
From Yankakee, Be Gosh.
CONGRESSMAN FESS
ON LINCOLN
Congressman Simeon D. Fess, of
Ohio, says that in Oxford University,
England, they teach the finest English
taught or spoken in any place in the
world. There, mark you,in one of the
corriders of that great seat of learn
ing, is exhibited “one of the finest let
ters of condolence ever written in our
language,” written by Abram Lincoln,
and here is a part of it:
“Dear Madam; I have been shown
a statement of the adjutant general
of Massachusetts that you are the
mother of five sons who have died
gloriously on the field-of battle. I can
not refrain from tendering to you the
thanks of the republic they died to
save. I pray that our Heavenly Fath
er may assuage the anguish of your
bereavement and leave you only the
cherished memory of the loved and
lost, and the solemn pride that must
be yours to have laid so costly a sac
rifice on the altar of freedom.”
Gettysburg Speech.
Then go to the British Musuem,
where can be found books enough, if
put on a singl shelf, to reach forty
mils. Ask there for the finest short
speech in the English language and
you will be handed at once the splen
did piece of rhetoric, high mark of
literary appreciation and statesman
like delivery, uttered by Abraham
Lincoln at Gettysburg, November 19,
1863, beginning;
"Fourscore and seven years ago our
fathers brought forth on this continent
a new nation, conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the proposition that all
men are created equal.”
Addressing the House of Represen
tatives of the American Congress on a
special occasion, Representative Fess
said
“Who is this man, that he could
thus speak and write? Born in a hut
in Kentucky, at the age of seven he
accompanied his parents and sister in
to Indiana, where they lived one win
ter in an open camp with but three
sides to it? And yet without having
gone to school more than six months
aU--told, according to his own state
ment, here is a man, thus starting with
no convenience, who has reached a
plane, an ability to speak the English
language not rached by any of the
scholars of his day.
“Where is the secret? I think that it
might be found in the sort of books he
read.
“The one book with which he was
quite familiar was King James’s ver
sion of the Bible. I once heard Parks
Cadman, pastor of the greatest Con
gregational church in the world, say
that Abraham Lincoln’s verbal knowl
edge of the Bible was not equaled by
the theologians. I would not say that
upon my own authority, but cite it
upon his authority.
“He knew Shakespeare, and in the
darkest hours of the life of the nation,
in the midst of great depression, often
when the Cabinet was in session, Mr.
Linciln would quote page after page
of Shakespear, until the scholarly
Seward would turn to him and say:
“Mr. President, our understanding
has been that you have never gone to
school, and yet you quote Shakespeare
as do not, and I am-regarded some
what as a Shakespearan scholar.”
“Buynan’s ‘Pilgrim Progress’ was
another book that he read. Feed a
growing mind upon the English of
these texts and you will have a choice
of English.”
The scholarly Congressman also
said: “I concede the speeches before
mentioned as a high rank of expres
sion, but I think that the high-water
mark was reached when, looking back
over four years of awful war, he said:
“ ‘Both read the same Bible and pray
to the same God, and each invokes His
aid against the other. The prayers of
both could not be answered fully. The
Almighty has His own purposes.”
secretary W range
The extension value of the Y. M. C. A.
was again demonstrated during the week
just passed,( when the 108th Field Ar
tillery was served on their range near
Riley’s pond, by Secretary Barton E.
Richards of Building 75.
Monday morning, February 11th, the
regiment left Camp Hancock for the range
and by 11:30 a. m., the barren hillside
north of Riley’s pond had been transform
ed intq a city of pup tents and picket
lines. Within an hour after the arrival of
the regiment, the Y. M. C. A. tent was
"on the job,” ready for business and from
that on until camp was broken Friday
morning, the fellows utilized every ad
vantage offered by the “Y” tent, from
postage stamps to scriptures. A battal
ion of the 103rd Engineers camped across
the pond from tlie artillery soon found
their way to the tent and between the
Engineers and Artillerymen the secretary
was kept busy from reville to taps.
Every day was a typical Southern one,
and the same chaps, who a few weeks ago
were complaining about the frigidity of
the Sunny South were sporting sunburnt
necks and faces, the second day on the
range. Riley’s pond proved an enticing
spot and every day found from ten to 40
fellows swimming.
Monday night. Sergeant Major Gering
er and his band entertained the regiment
with a concert that was much appreciated
and probably would have repeated the
performance Tuesday evening but for the
fact that just at supper time a severe rain
storm broke over the camp. Some of the
fellows were unfortunate enough®to have
their blankets soaked and spent the night
in the Y. M. C. A. tent. Wednesday night®
the band again performed, this time to
a crowd of about 300. Thursday night
proved to be another disastrous night for
entertainments as rain descended just
after supper, breaking up a soldier talent
entertainment that Chaplain McFetridge
had planned.
By actual count, 1,027 letters passed
through the Y. M. C. A. tent from Mon
day noon until Friday morning when
camp was broken. That the service was
appreciated was evidenced by the fact
that from supper time until taps the tent
was jammed with fellows writing on
whatever was available. This included
anything from the top of the desk (erst
while a packing box) to the back of the
secretary’s shovel.
A BOY’S THOUGHT
OF LINCOLN
Some days in school when teacher says,
“Jim, name tho Presidents,”
I up and commence,
And say them all, from Washington clear
through Buchanan, then
I have to stop and clear my throat—l
always have to when
I come to Abraham Lincoln’s name,
E’en though the teacher whispers,
“Shame!
Can’t you rememiy r, Jim?”
Can’t I remember him?
Why, hls my hero! That is why
I get choked up and want to cry!
Once ho was just as poor as I,
And homely, too, and tall and shy.
But he was brave and made his place,
Climbed to the top and freed a race.
When I think what he dared to do,
I just vow I’ll do something too!
The old army horse that had the let
ters “U. S.” engraved on his aft star
board quarter for 17 years had just died.
“What killed the old war-horse?” in
quired a captain.
“Sir, he accidentally saw a squad of
Motor Mechanics drilling,” explained a
sergeant.
God Bless Our Boys
God bless them—the soldiers going to the
front,
Our husbands, our sons, and our broth
ers,
To fight that right may triumph o’er
might,
That the world may emerge from dark
ness to light:
And God bless the gallant, young lovers.
How splendid they look as they march in
the ranks.
So handsome, so stalwart, so human;
We force back the tears and smother our
We try to look happy and join in their
cheers—
But God knows the heart of a woman.
Great lads these of ours! So willing to go
To face the foe that is strong:
So steady of nerve, so anxious to serve
Their own glorious land. May they never
swerve
From duty, or stoop to the wrong.
’Tis noble to die in a righteous cause.
Where the demons of battle rave:
But to live and to win ’gainst temptation
and sin.
To keep himself pure and spotless with
in,
Is a task alone for the brave.
May these valleys resound again to your
tread,
May liberty shine, your hallowed brows
twine
With a chaplet of glory, and may the
Divine
Protect you and bless you forever.
—Ruth May Fox, Salt Lake. Utah.
(For Trench and Camp.)
AMERICAN FREEDOM
PAST AND PRESENT
(First Verse.)
I often stop and wonder why
Folks from all lands beneath the sky;
The perils of the deep forego—
Because they loved their freedom so.
(Chorus.)
Because they loved it so,
Because they loved it so,
They bled and died —yes—side by side,
Because they loved it so.
(Second Verse.)
Where Stars and Stripes wave in the air
With bouyant spirit there we’ll go
On mount or main we'll ne’er despair
Because Our Freedom we dove so.
(Chorus.)
Because we loved it so.
Because we loved it so,
We too will die —yes —side by side
Because we loved it so.
JOHN L. JONES,
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
QUARANTINED
By Nolan Harmon, Camp
Jackson
There’s carbolic in my coffee,
There’s bi-chlorlde in my soup;
A coal-oil rag’s around my neck,
For fear I’ll catch the croup.
They sterilize all water.
Dis-infect each army bean
And the whole N. A. cantonment.
Is under “rigid quarantine.”
In the morning I taste Dobell’s,
In the evening I hear "sprays,"
And the smell of dis-infectants.
Sickens all my army days;
Captains dose out antiseptic,
Rookies swallow liver pills.
And when pay day comes your money
Is all prophylactic
I’m a fumigated rookie,
In a dis-infected squad,
I clean my gun each morning,
With an antiseptic rod;
They sterilize the bullets
For my prophylactic gun;
With my hypodermic bayonet
Watch me make those Germans run!
Sure these germs of meningitis
Scare a soldier half to death,
■■An dthe dread of tonsilitis.
Almost takes a fellow’B breath;
"Sentry, what’s your general orders?”
Says the officer of the day—
“ Gargle six times with carbolic,—
On retiring—use the spray."
WHEN WkWHbOYS GO
MARCHING THRU BERLIN
Our vast nation now is throbbing
With tremendous preparation;
Our women folks are sobbing
Over countless separations;
Uncle Sam has stripped for action,
He is in this fight to win.
And his khaki boys are marching
Towards the gates of old Berlin.
We will see Old Glory waving
We will see our soldiers saving
Innocents from German lust;
We will hear our bugles calling
Far above the rabbles din
When our khaki boys go marching thru
Berlin.
To the sounds of bands and bugles
Will a million footsteps swing.
And countless Yankee Doodles
Will our happy soldiers sing.
Old Glory will be floating where
The German rag has been
When our khaki boys go marching thru
Berlin.
Then will Europe’s stricken mothers
Lift their streaming eyes above,
To behold their murdered babies
In the tender arms of love;
Heaven’s chorus will be sweeter
For those children will join in
When our khaki boys go marching thru
Berlin.
Would that we great thoughts could mus
ter,
And In rhythmical array
Add their music to the luster
Os that great and glorious day,
For Kaiserlsm will be dead
And freedom will begin
When our khaki boys go marching thru
Berlin.
—T. H. KENDALL, Aurora. 111.
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