The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-12-18
BY Marian sOnsaII Davis.

Inc war Iun0 OF S4UusVVVsVVVs BGu~
erous as it was, has way Of turn
ing round and seeming small. Twice
that sum was spent in this country
last wear for candy. We have learn
ed to talk and think in billions, But
one cent can buy enough iodine to
disinfect a wound-and the disinfec-
ton of that wound may save a hJl'
man life.
And. after experience with the
wounded, there comes the time wher
one sees in the horror OF the shat
tered flesh, the beauty of the spirit
1t is a strange holiday for u;
Americans, with our new excite
ments and our new emotions; ouI
new soldiers in cantonments OF
foreign trenches. and our new sail
ors on mined seas; reports OF oui
first dead, and our letters from tho
front; our fears and our Citations
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.
IL is the time OF times, in our new
puzzlement and need, to sing the
Christmas carols of glad prophecy
The city chimes and village organs
singers going from door to door, viii
chime and peal and carol as they
never have before, the Christmas
message of good tidings and great
joy which shall be to all people.
We owe it to our men to sing II
with full hearts, so that the spirit
OF ii will reach their battleships and
their camps. They must never for
get the happiness Of this Christmas,
the last, doubtless, before they so
across to offer-all they have.
The Red Cross is trying. and ex-
poets to send every man in train
ing q Christmas parcel of Christ
masy 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 cele-
brating, swapping presents, joking
and singing, adding a Christmas song
to the familiar round OF swinging
choruses. But before another Christ
mas perhaps a million more young
soldiers will have followed them
overseas.
Some of them, until the day they
put on the uniform, knew only school
fun and home 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, and have the hard
and lonely end of things. Both are
going abroad together now, serving
the colors, defending our lives with
the offer of their own.
There will be a day when one or
these boys will be hurt. Suddenly
his strong young body will be quite
helpless. He will be far away In q
different country. where they do not
speak his language, and no one or
home will be around him. But TX we
will have done our duty-his eyes
will see a Red Cross. it may be on
the Arm Of a surgeon and nurse. 1T
may be on the flag waving over the
hospital that can save his life.
To put Ii thereto send the Red
Cross to Elrope-that is making 1t
q Red Cross Christmas.
Our hands will tremble when we
place our Red Cross candle in the
window on Christmas Eve. And as
we start the flame glowing through
the cross, il will come to us anew
that the Red Cross message and the
Christmas message are the same.
While they flicker, while the
carolers sing and the chimes peal,
somewhere in Europe they win be
bringing in the wounded.
A train, with the Ried Cross paint
ed on the coaches, will be pulling
into some railroad station. Motor
ambulances in long lines with the
sign Of the Red Cross viii be waiting
for their human burdens. Men and
women with slxillful hands and the
right to wear the Red Cross brassard
win be ready for the stretchers.
AS we stand here the stretchers
are carried past us in a slow. pro-
cession. It is just sprinkling, just
a thimbleful OF the days harvest Of
two or three hum
bred. Yet the procession seems SO
long-it seems so unendingly long.
The faces are like the faces of our
men at home-here like our father
here like the man who lives across
the street-and here a slender boy
whose eyes we think we cannot stand
to see.
II Is all SO quiet as the stretchers
file by. The French officer Of high
rank with many medals, the peasant
the man who used 20 collect the
Carnage the bAe@A man AA0AAA @&@- =
who does not know why he Is called
from home to give his life, pass by
without a moan. Some are blind.
Sdne viii die. All are grievously
hurt.
Perhaps il Is the presence OF God
there where so many men are close
to death that makes the old scales
drop from our eyes. For among
these mutilated that is what hap
pens to us-the old values the old
conventions drop away forever. Each
crushed or broken body becomes SO
infinitely precious as we see It DOM
mated By spirit. This black man.
this blind boy have lifted us up.
with new sense We know That the
fhinna which are seen are LemperaI.