Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-12-17
fBy Marian Bonsan Davis.)

The war lays It's hand upon US InlS
Christmas.
The Ginning carols may seem al
most lost amid the blasting of. the
guns. The candles in the windows of
our homes will shed their little beams
flame. We will celebrate Christ's birth
day singing ".... and on, earth peace,
goodwill toward men," while we
urge our sons to train their minds and
their bodies for the killing of their
brothers. But the Red Cross a taught
those Of US who have suffered. to see
double: and it will be a Red Cross
Christmas this year, wherever Ameri-
cans are grouped together.
This is what I mean by seeing dou-
BILE: there are ver 100000 members
of the American Red Cross and the
campaign drive now opening should
result in over $4,000, 900. That doesn't
seem big, for we have become used
to larger figures. But the woman off in
some lonely place, far from the in
SEPARATION of her Chapter, making with
her work-worn hands things to keep
our soldiers and sailors warm the
dressings that will help the healing
of some wounds-that. n woman
seems great. She is the spirit of the
Red Cross.
.1110 wal 4O110 u v4VVSVVVSVSV 60A0
erous as It was, has q way Of turning
round and seeming small. Twice that
sum was spent in this country last year
for candy. We have learned to talk
and think in billions. But one cent
can buy enough iodine to disinfect a
wound-and the disinfection of that
wound may save a human life.
And, after experience with the
wounded. there comes the time when
w e,nav -s~H{hA h4~po~.4f <ha ohot$op-
ed flesh. the beauty of the spirit
1t is a strange holiday for Us Amer
leans. with Jul new excitements and
our new emotions; our new soldiers
in c~antonments or foreign trenches,
AND III new sailors on mined. seas;
reports of our first dead, and our let
tiers from the front; our fears and
u elations; and the occasional flash
of vision Of hundreds Of thousands Of
boys and men in khaki in miles upon
miles of army barracks.
Many Of them, too, are aching with
new tenderness.
1t is the time Of times. in our new
puzzlement" Inc need, to sing the
Christmas carols of glad prophecy.
The city chimes and village organs,
singers going from door to door, will
chime and peal and carol as they
never have before. the Christmas
SAOo0d6S "a 6OOu IlulH6S dlIU GREAT 10Y
which shall be to all people.
We owe 1t to our men to sing it
with full hearts. so that the spirit of
it will reach their battleships and
their camps. They must never forget
the happiness of this Christmas, the
last, doubtless, before they go across
to offer-all they have. Il
The Red Cross is trying, and ex-
poets to send every man in training a
Christmas parcel of Christmassy
things as a symbol to show him how
much We care, and the things we
cannot say in words. The boys in their
barracks will be celebrating, swapping
presents, Joking and singing, adding a
Christmas song to the familiar round
OF swinging choruses. But before an
other Christmas perhaps a million
more young soldiers will have follow
ed them overseas.
Some Of them, until the day they
put on the uniform. knew only school
fun n homo love. Their stockings
were darned. their favorite things to
eat were cooked, every minute Of their
holidays planned, their young hopes
regarded with yearning eagerness by
their families. Some Of them were
born seemingly to be knocked around.
n have the hard and lonely end of
things. Both are going abroad togeth-
er now, serving the colors, defending
u lives with the offer Of their own.
There viii be a day when one OF
49, ~ RI D. fF