Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-11-09
What Noted Woman Novelist
Sdw in the First Line Trenches
And Back of the Battle Line

Last winter L was walking up a
grey London street Just off Tottenham
Court Road; grey buildings. grey sky,
but on the pavement, a stream of
glorious dusky-gold,-the uniform of
men In khaki. A group of. them
building on which was the sign of the
red triangle. They pulled off their
caps swung them in a wide circle,
and shouted: 81
rGood old Y. M! Good old~Y. M"
Their young faces. a moment be-
fore masked with that stole surface
born of trench life, now smoke
eloquently their appreciation, their
gratitude. They gave that grey Y.lM.
=: a. building the look q man gives
l., We'll, it is the a thing to
nome We have out there" one lad
repiled, when I said something of the
We discovered that we had been
born within a hundred miles Of each
other. and then he spoke to me free
~ as soldier boys back from the front
oIten do speakSto people whom thew
DO not expect to see again.
These blessed little -huts follow our
war lines wherever they go. They
come up under shell fire just as close
as the waroff1ce will let them. I can
never forget the first timeI got into
to sit there under fire the FIRST time.
and when our .seventy-two hours were
over I staggered out of the communi-
cation trench half stupefed. The first
thing I saw in a meadow Just up by
the road was a Young Mems Christi
an association field kitchen all ready
with hot coffee.
The soldiers! eyes filmed over in
misty "reminiscences and II guessed
when he saw the Y. M C. A. worker
quietly dipping up hot coffee and
handing out sandwiches. That peace
ful normal : occupation must have
helped bridge for him the chasm be-
tween the abnorm" lities of war and
the normalities of civilian life. ~
Yes. Ma'am," he continued. "Good
old Y. NJ. is about the last thing we
see going into the trenches and the
first thing we see coming out. Where
a a fellow be sure of hot food?
The Y. M. Where can he see a
cinema to take his mind off the
trenches? Lots of the Y. NJ. huts
have them. Where can he hear a lit
tile music? Good old Y. M. has
monographs. Biggest ldisappoint-
ment some of us had once was coming
back to a hut near billets to find that
a shell had gone bang through the
monograph. Does a fellow want a
quiet hour? He gets it in the Y.-M.
Does he want some one to talk to-?
Y. M. provides. I'm not pr but I do
say Lord bless 'em."
This young soldier was quite evil
IDENTIFY not pfous. rs he said, but his
look showed that out there in the
trenches he had been thinking of the
deep things of life. There were little
thoughtful lines. fresh-made, grooved
in his face. Therefore, it was not
nara to get him to sneak further of
him. ~
"I fused to Kind Of shrink from a.Y.
M. c. A. man-before the war, Il
mean. I had silly idea they'd. want
to talk to me about going to church.
and ask II I drank and smoked and
swore and If my feet otherwise took
hoid on hell. But they never talk re-
l1g1on to you unless you start in first.
What they do for you is give you
friendship and comfort. These Y. M.
G.. A. workers that go to France seem
to be chosen with a view to their. In
fuence over the boys. Well, they have
1T all right. Thew seem to know tust
what to say and do for us. I've known
a couple Of fellows that turned religi-
u Just because of the goodness Of
these y. NJ. c. A. people.
Sometimes" he went on slowly,
1--WE wonder If the people at home ,r-
ders+and just how hard 1T is for us
out here. It ISN'T that want to
rouse we fellows have our bit to
do; we know what It Ia and how TO
do it. But we need every reminder
we can get Of honey We need letters
and parcels from orr friends md We
need. hesa. Y NJ. G. A, huts ann 70.