South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-07-11
Soldiers
Extraordinary
BY Hapshurg Liebe of the
NigiIantes.

saw all these fine warriors in
one day. during a drive of % miles,
and it made me GLAD 10 call myself
a TenneSsean; It made me proud Of
the people OF this section of the old
volunteer state. l have no doubt
that the people of the other states
are doinG Just as well. YOU under
stand; I'm telling YOU this in order
that YOU may know that eastern
Tennessee is trying hard 10 do her
bit.
Before / left town ] saw the park
way around the home of one of our
best men in white potatoes. Yes.
white potatoes instead of the usual
grass and prettily bordered cann2
beds. More than that there were
white potatoes in the flower beds
of that mans lawn. Also he had
had his back ward spaded up. aud
that. too was nlled with potatoes.
The man who was with me was a
Dollar American. If you don't
know what that is. it's a sort Of
cross between a polCcat and a nor
nets nest. He said TO me as We
drove by:
why everybody's planting pota-
toes; they won't be worth so cents
per bushel,"
hope to God they won't. Get
ne? ! hope they went he worth 20
cents per bushel For it's hard to
starve a people or a family that has
plenty of potatoes.
Leaving town, / saw a half blind,
rheGmatiC old man down on his
knees hoeing an acre lot of potatoes.
] know him; he is fairly well-to-
do: he didn't have TO do that. really
As I passed him on my way home
late in the afternoon, he was still
down on his knees 10 that potato
patch-and therefore serving the
Almighty and the American fas TO
the utmost Of his ability Man, wo-
man. whoever you are that reads
this. | say 10 YOU here that that old
man is a patriot ard a soldier ex-
traordinary; and lesser men have
worn a colonel's shoulderstraps and
been banqueted as cOnquering he
roes Down on his Knees 10 hoe pc
tatoesi IL was finer, in this our
time of desperation, with hellire
stalking footloose over the world
than being down on his knees TO
pray
Back in the hills I saw an old
granny and her daughter
and her daughters two halfgrown
daughters all at work IN a field that
they had literally wrested from the
mountain wilderness. on inquiry
I learned that the Younger woman's
husband was dead.
We're a doin' all we can, shore. -
the grannywoman told me, accuse
the's a yoin' 10 he war. I went
through wi one war. sonny. and !.
/ know that menfolks can't do muck
/ good a fghtin' on a empty STUN
mick. a cause the belly and the
heart. sonny. is closter akin than
most o. folks knows"
Amen and amen. say I. And
again. amen, I've been in q e
trenches and I've fought On an
empty stomach. and / tell YOU
kBow.
A few miles further on I saw the
wife Of a railroad section forems n
cultivating a pert of the railroad 5
risht-o f-way And less than two
miles from that point I came upon a
| remarkably pretty 15-year-old girl
blowing OF burrows for corn. New
listen, she didn't have or Star
Spangled- Banner hosiery. and she
didn't have an American flag tied 20
\ her mules head ard she didn't
have a small metal edition OF Old
Glory pinned 10 ner anywhere-bUt
4 she was plowing for corn. Get ne?
she was A soldier in her trench. de-
/ ing her Bit. Ave. nObly doing her
l bit.
Wen need it," she told me
! The's a goin' 20 be war. It's an
right 70 trust in the Lord. " she wen;
on. quoting from the inscription on
the monument 10 Kings mountain