The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1917-06-11
SOLDIERS EXTRAORDINARY

/ saw all these fine warriors in
one day, during a drive of twenty
five miles, and it made me glad to
call myself Tennessean; it made
me proud of the people of this sec
ton Of the Old Volunteer state. l
have no doubt that the people of the
ether states are doing just as well
you understand; I'm telling you this
in order that you may know that
J astern Tennessee is trying hard to
do her bit
| Before l left town. I was the
parkway around the home of one
of our best men in Irish potatoes.
Yes, Irish potatoes instead of the us
Usual grass and prettily bordered
Gamma beds. More than that, there
were Irish potatoes in the flower
beds of that mans lawn. Also, he
rad had his back yard spaded up,
and that too, was filled with pota-
toes.
The man who was with me was a
Dollar-American. If you don't know
what that is, it's sort of cross be-
tween a polecat and hornets nest.
He said to me as we drove by:
N"Why, everybcdy's planting pota-
toes; they won't be worth SO cents
Per bushel"'
l hope to God they won't. Get me?
/ hope they won't be worth 20 cents
per bushel For it's hard to starve a
people or a family that has plenty
Of potatoes.
Leaving town, l saw half blind
rheumatic old man down on his
l.nees hoeing an arce-lot of potatoes.
:: know him; he is fairly well-to-do
he didn't have to do that, really. AS
l passed him on my way home, late
in the afternoon, he was still down
On his knees 80 that potato patch
and therefore serving the Almighty
and the American Flag to the ut
most of his ability. Man, woman,
whoever you are that reads this,
say to you here that that old man is
a ps,triotic and a soldier extraordi-
nary; and lesser men have worn a
colonel's shoulderstrap and been
banqueted as conquering heroes.
Down on his knees to hoe potatoes
It was finer, in this, our time of
desperation, with hellfire stalking
footloose over the world, than be-
ing down on his knees to pray.
Back in the hills, saw an old
granny-woman and her daughter
and her daughters two half-grown
daughters all at work in a field that
they had literally wrested from the
mountain wilderness. On inquiry,
learned that the younger woman's
husband was dead.
"We're a doin' all we can, shore"
the granny-woman told me, "acause
;he's a goin' to be War. l went
through wi one War, sonny; and
l know that menfolks CANT do much
good figntin' on a. empty STUN
mick. Accuse the belly and the
heart sonny, is closter than most O.
folks knows"
Amen and Amen, say l. And
again, Amen! I've been in the
trenches, and I've fought on an
empty stomach, and l tell you
know.
A few miles further on, saw the
wife of a railroad section foreman
cultivating part of the railroads
rignt-of-way. And less than two
,..iles from that point, / came upor
a remarkably pretty 15-year-old CIR
blowing off burrows for corn. Now
listen! She didn't have on Star
Spangled Banner hosiery, and she
didn't have an American flag tiet
to her mules head, and she didn't
have a metal edition of Old Glory
pinned to her elsewhere-but she
was blowing for corn. Get me? She
was soldier in her trench, doing
her bit.
! "Well need it," she told me
The's goin' to be War. It's al
right to trust in the Lord" she went
on, quoting from the inscription or
me monument to Kings Mountain
Men, "but it's also good thing t.
keep the gunpowder dry"
"Trust in the Lord, and keep the
powder dry" is a good motto fol
any nation.
When l think of women doing
their bit in times Of war, l like tt
think of them as Gods Brigade. Ant
Gods Brigade it certainly is. 1t j!
this that makes War so insufferable
Tor the shatter of the sword is al
ways a cross, and it always fall:
heaviest on the heart of women.
Mr.. and Mrs. VIM. Dreibholz ant
Il