Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1915-11-17
RELIGIOUS | j ACTIVITIES ] ];
AMONG !. THE ] / SOLDIERS. i J |. ! ] {
Mr.. AND MRS. NORTON DOING
EFFECTIVE WORK AMONG
SOLDIERS ss#
veRK Is>aPPRECIAIED By The !. HEA

May Take Up Work AMONG French <
& Soldiers: Later. in Winter; oppor.
tunities Are Numerous. .5:si
~ ~. II 4ond on, England, Oct. 20.
Y Ii, my last article. u told you some
thing of the impressiyeness OF the.
meetings We are holding nightly Tor
the soldiers in the, camps. think
I mentioned some ething OF the diff
culties also. One night q week or
so ago, we had alighted from the.
|street car at the right place, # but.
unfortunately In the dark Lane We
turned the wrong way, and landed In
the Middlesex Regiment Camp, 1n-
stead OF that Of the Northamptons.;
The eealxy discovering OR plight.
turned Us over to g Sergeant, and he.
al last ont OF stha goodness Of his
heart sent q saIdie1 Gufde with US
Ito pilot % acrOss the dark fields that
Y-hetWsan Vi and the Northamp-
ton Camp. It was an eerie Journey;
we passed by trenches sometimes,
fairly onto them before We saw them
stretched eight feet deep. at our
feet, and other times passing close
to what looked like xtbbeted figures,
and which were great sacks filled
with straw, and suspend ed from .
rope. upon which the soldiers prac-
tised bayoneting Germans Then OF
course there were tent ropes to
afuUblo over and = EOOdly amount
TOT mud, but, all we really minded was
beta9 late to our meeting. In this
sans camp 4. we held a second ser
Vice, last might, and we shan soon
forget thai, not only because Of the
wonderful ending when we saw SO
many men declaring themselves for
Christ, and doing, what my husband
calls Signing the War Roll OF the
King OF Kings, ~ but Also because OF
the painful beginning .51
5fr he men were In high spirits; part
" because it was pay night and
also because there Weresa large num-
Der of men present who were G. C,,,
that means Confined to Camp, be-
cause of insubCrd rdfnaticn. These men
all through the day and up to GER
tain hour Of night have to report
each half hour to the Serge cant. We
soon discovered that these men were,
as they expressed # il, IS on the Ser
geaat'a Staff as they could mot be
persuaded aeto be seated with the
lrest but collected neal the flap Of
Ithe tent. III III the ftsst s0aliad <x TIE
buS4estheys could holt t0 ma NJ their
report. III So we acco ted our
jmeating to III en-. ana had AN inter
missicn every half hOuf, {, when they
would ny; out, make their report,
them rush back again, when the meet
! ing would be resdrned 4
These meetings In the camps we
expect to continue up to shortly be;
fore Christmas, when We hope to
cross to France. We should have
been there long since. had it not
lbeen fer the fact that here are not
only the greatest possible opportuni-
ties OF reaching English speaking
soldiers wounded In the hospitals,
and recruits in the camps. but also
the unparalleled oportunity Of reach
ing the Belgian soldiers who come
there, on furlough from the trenches.
or course you know that these
men have NO homes any longer to go
to. and they are fortunate il they
know their relatives to be refugees
| In England. So when they are ut
terly worn out by thegstrain Of the
trenches, they are brought here by
the hundreds for q few days OF rest
and recuperation. We 60 aown to
meet their trains, taking French and
Flemish Gospels to distribute SH to
them. and many we come to know
and are able to interest them In TAX
| ing back the little books TO their
comrades in the trenches. They be-
come very enthusiastic in this work
and write US wonderful letters con-
cerning it. shall quote from few
Of them. s { 4. .s.s5 q VIZ :.
Quite often we have some of these
men for lunch with us, and not the
least pleasure we find in having
them, is In their very excellent ap-
pet,tes, sharpened by the rations OF
bread and coffee to which they are
accustomed In the trenches, Their
gratitude too. is touching, and the
nttle offerings they make TO us. A
few buttons or some cartridges, a
German bullet, or ring made from
aluminium, madeS quite ingenious
ly from the top OF q certain kind of
German shell. AS they come from
the train. though they present q
touching sight. They seem dazed
and as il their powers OF endurance
were about gone. - y doubt not
they are. N
i told you the story Pierre told us.
the little Belgian solder Of whm =
first wrote. He continues to write
to US regularly. and we always an
|swer. He tells US that he has to
march for four hours to the trenches,
carrying his heavy pack, So he says,
for, that reason, he cannot carry
more than fifty OF the little Cos
pels to the trenches at one time, but
begs us to send him that number.
He also thanks US so very much
for some chocolate we have sent
MIN, and says rather pitifully that
for fourteen months that he has been
in the army he has not been able to
communicate with his parents, and
the little money he brought from his
home in Brussels is quite gone, SO
that he, has nothing but his tiny
army pay of a penny Al day. He:
Says that he gets so, that he has no
app petite for the dry bread and cot.
fee; and he has no money .to buy
ANY extras. tSl3SS'
Our, little friend, Corporal Joseph,
is the humorous one among our Bel
gian friends. Amongst the sad let