Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-12-29
SMOKE FUND IS
GIVEN BIG BOOST
[Continucd from First Page. [

two years there, was severely
wounded and discharged and who
came home and won fame by his
book, cover the Top" talked to an
immense audience in Chestnut Street
Auditorium last evening. He told
thrilling tales of life in the trenches
as he saw it and took part in and
made an eloquent plea for funds to
buy smokes for soldiers.
Raises Fund For Smokes"
At the conclusion of his lecture
Mr. Empey offered at auction an
autograph copy of his book, over
the Top" the proceeds to go direct
ly to the soldiers tobacco fund. The
bidding was not at all brisk, the first
offer being $25 and the lecturer him
self Immediately jumping this price
to 500. Other bids were rendered
and Empey knocked the book down
to himself at $3.50. AS the audience
was leaving the hall, however, a
through Lesley McCreath, as
sured the lecturer that they would
take the book at $500. Others to-
day hearing of the plan to subscribe
to the fund through the purchase
of the autographed book have sent
Mr.. McCreath their checks and be-
fore he forwards to Mr.. Empey his
check for the total amount he will
be very glad to receive any further
contributions for the tobacco fund
This money is all utilized. every cent
of it, for the purchase of smokes"
for the soldiers at the front and Mr..
McCreath will be glad to forward
any additional contributions. There
are indications that several hundred
dollars more may be subscribed.
To Encourage EnIisting
I'm here to further enlisting,"
said the speaker. "All talk against
the British is pro-German. Britain
is our blood ally. We can't lick the
world by waving the American flag.
The war won't be over in a few
months. Perhaps there will be three
more years of it. And if any peace
is to be handed out, we, the allies,
will hand it out"
Speaking of the fact that this
country does not yet realize it is at
war, Sergeant Empey said that
Canada is an example of what we
shall have here before the conflict
ends-lame, halt, sick and blind
soldiers everywhere. IF you would
know what war means and what we
are escaping" he continued, "go to
France. See the ruined villages,
with everything in them smashed;
see the dark, still forms in the ruins;
see the newly-arriVed United States
soldiers out on the battlefield, where
the artillery guns are smashed by
shells, the dead horses, the bodies
of soldiers, muddy and bloody, scat
tered about and intermingled. See
the casualty list. There appears the
name of your own dear one. He gave
his all for those who stayed at home.
Go farther and see more graves;
more pineboard headstones, where
unknown" comes under the caption
of missing" The friends of him
whom sleeps beneath this slab will
never know when, where or how he
died"
"Do Your Bit
DO your bit if you want your boy
to come home with the firm of Me
and Gott' by the back of the neck"
was one of the lecturers striking
sentences. The American soldier
is afraid of nobody, but he can't
fight the insidious German agent
back home who is nullifying his ef-
forts at the front, and I'm out after
this type of German Americans"
The difference between the Ger
man officers and those of the Brit
ish, he said, ''is that the Germans
say: Go on boys, while the English
say, come fOn DOyS.
His graphic story of his own eX-
periences was told in an easy, mod
est manner that won his audience
He showed his audience
the various tools" used in trench
warfare, from loop of barbed wire
used to bring prisoners quietly from
enemy trenches, to trench knives
and "persuaders," which are long
clubs used in close quarters. He told
of his own varied experiences from
the time of the sinking of the IIusi-
tania, which prompted him to go to
England and enlist, to the time he
was wounded aud lay for three days
in a shellhole )in No Mans land,
5orely wounded, without water and
most of the time unconscious. He
was out WithNa detail of twenty men
on a trench raid when a Tommy
sneezed. A little later this same
chap in cutting a barbed wire made
such a Mise that the Germans were
aroused. Star shells were thrown
and the raiders stood out revealed be-
fore hundreds of German guns. They
started to run back to their own
but only three of them
ever got there. Empey was shot in
the face and twice through the
shoulder and as he fell he hurled a
bomb he had in his hand back into
the German trench. killing a num-
Der of the enemy. Then he stumbled
into a shellhole and was uncoi
scious. For three days he lay there,
until advancing British found him
and carried him off to a hospital.