The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1917-11-12

test, and wanted to see it. thought
knew about where it was. ! figured
1t to be near the end of the great
magnet-shaped camp, whose two tips
reach toward the Long Island Rail-
road station, and gently draw the
rockies into its arms as they get off
the train.
/ started off for this show. I re-
member that got on an undercooked
thoroughfare known as Upton Boule-
ward. This interesting street, where
visible, is so winding that it gently
kisses itself on the back Of the neck.
So did l, almost. Pretty soon l got
lost l asked soldier the nearest
way to the nearest Y. M. C. A. Sol
der shrugged his shoulders and re-
piled, mo spick English" l asked an
other soldier. He looked at me visit
! fully, as though he envied me my
knowledge of the well-known Ameri-
can speech. He replied, sadly, Me
Greek-a boy" l tried one more. and
he replied at top speed-but /
couldn't understand him. having very
little Slovak and less Esthonian. And
| then / began to see what my friend
Humphrey Nichols, over in the Intelli-
gence Department, meant when he
said-not sneeringly, but just with
gentle irony-"This ought to be call
ed the Foreign Legion"
| Great Scott, think of 1t! A divis-
ion of American troops, many of
whom can't speak a word of English
I was told that there is one man in
camp who has been tried with every
language known to the interpreters,
and they haven't struck his favorite
yet. There's a captain who has if
teen men in his company who can't
understand our tongue There's a
major who was told that he would
command battalion of negro troops
and it's said that when his fellow
| officers jollied him little, he replied
| That's all right fellows, go to it
But I'll have only native Americans
in the crowd, and | won't have tc
teach them the manual in seventeen
languages, either
But-and here is the kicker of my
little divergence-the Y. NJ. C. A. is
already at work with these young
Americans. 1t has English classes
for them as well as French classes
| for others. Simply invaluable is this
service. Think Of the cumbersome
system that the government Itself
would have to inauguraate to do this
fundamental work!
But to get back to that show.
stumbled finally INTO the rear dool
of green building. 1t wasn't the
one was looking for. But the seeth
ing animation in, around and through
1t made me gasp. On the side oppo
site the desk was a great and grow
pile of post packages. The post Of
fee department will not collect these
packages, but the Y. NJ. c.. A. hal
been doing 1t right along There was
a clamoring crowd Of healthy, noisy
youths shouting for postcards, enve
lopes, stamps, information, every
thing
| Writing paper and envelopes are
supplied-all they need, but no waste
Ito the men free. In a few more
weeks it is going to take 100000 en-
velopes and 100000 sheets of paper
weekly to handle these requests Thi.
will run into money-and-but wait
I'm coming to the DELEGATE matter
later. Anyway you see what GU
boys would be up against If 1t were
not for these services the Y NJ G
A. is rendering. A place to meet,
plce to write, place for wife anC
mother and sister to come, place 70
song and story and mutual admiration