The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1917-10-19
HARD PART
Of BATTLE
FOR SAMMY
HOW A MAJORITY OF THE YOUNG
FELLOWS FEEL ABOUT LEAy-
ING HOME
GLAD ENOUGH TO FIGHT.
BUT THE BREAKING OF HOME
TIES WRENCHES THEIR HEART
STRINGS
GLAD ENOUGH TO FIGHT

All over the country Sammy is still
enroute for Somewhere, as he has beer
for weeks. But just now Some
where" that flexible wartime word
chiefly means the 16 cantonments ol
the United Staes. Toward these can
tonments our somewhat bewildered
Sammy of the new national army still
without uniform, without previous
military training, without even a very
definite idea of war except that he is
going to fight it, is speeding.
From Many Angles
Big -boned mountaineer of the south,
who will wear his new uniform when
he gets it about as comfortably as if
it were mustard plaster,-he is leav-
ing the home he has never been 10
miles away from before in his life
Ex-member of the "Gashouse" Gang,
raw recruit from 'HeIl's Kitchen" or
college junior from the silk-stocking
precincts,-he is pulling out of New
York for Yaphank. A slim French
youth in the northern states,-the pa
triotism of two lands is blazing up in
his eyes, as he gets on the train near
Fort Caribou. A dazed young Servian,
not yet six months in America,-he is
learning his first English words in the
chorus OF Kaiser Bill'' on the station
platform of a New England factory
town.
Sammy Away From Home
East and West, north and south, the
trains are footing Sammy away from
home. 1t isn't just one engine but
hundreds of them that are grumbling
their staccato warnings at him, as he
fingers for a last joke with "the
thousands of them, and of all ages,
whose tear-stained faces twist brave1y |
into smiles, as they wave goodbye. 1t |
isn't one Sammy, but whole army of |
him, who is going away with bravado,
promising gaily to come back and |
bring the kaiser along.
EIfeHuS Say UOOl Dye
There has been a lot of talk about
how the men in khaki pull out of the
station, to the flutter of handkerchiefs,
and the thrill of bands. Even with
out their uniforms, the drafted men
of the new national army have had
their share of attention. IT is quite
a different matter when the train is
few miles on its way, after the excite
ment of departure has died, and they
begin to realize that home is behind
them, and the war ahead. Nobody has
described the sensations of Sammy en-
route
How Does Sammy Fall?
Nobody ever will, either. The fact
is that nobody knows exactly how
Sammy feels about going away to
fight except Sammy, and he isn't tell
ing. But for the past few weeks rail
road Y. NJ C. A. secretaries have been :
with the men of the new
national army to cantonments all over
the United States. On more than $50
trains they have already been follow +.
ng the soldiers on wheels" as one
If them gratefully put it, to do what :
hey can to cheer his trip. AS nearly :
IS one man can know the heart of an :
ther, they know this drafted Sammy's :
they have seen him in that first tragic :
moment when he begins to realize :
hat his face is turned away from home
oward unknown danger. And they i,
eport that the average Sammy, no 7
natter what class or what part of the I
ountry he comes from, is more afraid !
f those first few hours on the train 4
han he is of the battlefield.
Sammy Homesfck and Human i
The stories of these ~ men, the !
My ones who have travelled in this !
ay with the soldiers to. the canton +
ents, begin where all the others leave i
Il. Says Sammy to the Public" is +
Il very we'll, but "Says Sammy to +
CONTINUED on Page - I.