The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1917-09-15
OUR BOYS ARE GOING AWAY

OUR BOYS ARE GOING AWAY
The long-expected order has come,
and tomorrow Company A will leave
its home town, its camp for six
weeks, and enter on that long road
that probably means the battlefelds
of Europe for all its members and the
graves of heroes for some.
How we will miss these boys who
have entered so closely into our home
lives for the last six weeks.
The town will seem deserted when
direction and see not one of their
khaki-clad forms anywhere.
We will miss their little marching
column, moving thru the streets to
drill twice a day. We will miss the
twos and threes and tours they tramp
ed by, for some of them were always
going somewhere or coming back We
will miss their punches at the street
corners, where with an art unknown
to civilians they could cluster by the
score and yet never be in anybody's
way.
We will miss the bugle calls-the
ringing reveille, the cheerful mess
calls, the solemnly beautiful notes of
taps, singing the town to sleep.
We do not think there ever was a
better behaved, more honest, courteous
set of boys. Their conduct has been
unequaled for the same number of
men. A hundred and forty of them
here for six weeks and not enough
bad behavior in the whole bunch to
notice.
However, it is not to be so much
wondered at when we consider the
| character of the men. The pick of
Marion and adjoining counties, clerks
and mechanics from the towns, young
! farmers from the country, they have
simply gone on being in the army the
same good boys they were at home.
And we have no doubt they will be
the same to Berlin and back.
The company and the Star have
been mighty good partners. The boys
know the Star is their friend, and it
should be, for they were the greatest
help in bringing back it's faith in
Americanism it had been taught to
| believe in.
It's belief had become mighty thin
| fifteen months ago. A long series of
humiliating incidents had about fore,
ed on it the opinion that America
was down to the level of China Uncle
Sam had turned the other cheek, and
turned it back, and turned it again,
| too many times to count, first to Mex
| leo, then to Germany, and then to
both. It had been decided that an
American abroad had no more rights
than dog, if he went into another
country to improve its waste places
| he was no better than thief, women
and children deserved to be murder
ed for going on British ships, Amer
lea was too proud to fight, peace was
best, even if we had to give up honor
to secure it, and so on thru the whole
sickening list, that the manhood of
the country would not brook today,
But the old American spirit was
only sleeping-it wasn't dead-and
after awhile it began to awaken. One
| night there was telegram, next day
bugle call, and then the vicinity of
Ocala's little armory was swarming
with the boys in olive-green. 1t hadn't
been any trouble to get them togeth-
er; as soon as they heard they We're
needed, they came; and others, in
spired by their example, came with
| OF IOllOWeQ Cnem-
They and their comrades in other
states were the sign of a reawaken-
ing spirit, the vanguard of the army
of over million men, and steadily
| growing, of today-the army that
will bring peace and safety to a tor
tured world before it will stack its
arms.
Looking at them, we felt that the
| America of Washington, jackson and
Scott, of Grant and Lee and Dewey
wasn't dead-that its real manhood
was only waiting the chance to assert
| itself, and that what a part of ouI
country had once done for a frag-
ment of mankind, our whole nation
would have the greatest share in do
ing for the whole world.
! They say we will never have ma
tional guard again-that its day OF
usefulness is past; that it can't com
pete with the machine-like methods OF
modern war. Perhaps not, but it has
done great things 1t has been made
up of the pick of Americas young
manhood, all of whom have gone into
it for the most soldierly of reasons
Its men didn't go into it either tc
make living, or because they could
not stay out. They volunteered be-
cause they loved the game. Thou
sands of them are boys in their teens
and could have kept out of the wal
until, perhaps, it was over. But nc
one who knows them thinks they ever
wanted to stay out, or have any idea
of getting out except by going
straight thru.
] Ocala's company is mighty good