The daily banner., 1917-11-15

/ ued, there II stands waiting for You,
coffee steaming. bread sliced. AuG
if you have TO stop first at the ad-
vance dressing station, welt, some
; enc will bring YOU cup of coffee
from the stan, OF you'll ind it there
when the doctors get through with
you.
And Sunday in the trenches-in
billets you parade on a Sunday morn
ing. Then you're tolled off-the c.
OF L. men-Church OF England
march to service by Episcopal chap
lains. The r. C.'s. Catholics, have
their padores. But you cant parade
in the trenches-and there comes
your y. NJ. c. \. secretary-right in
the trenches, mind you, where Fritz
may land one any minute and send
Mr. Secretary TO kingdom come
along with the rest of uS-and he
goes from dugout to dugout, a kind
word, real word, to each little
group OF men. He doesn't carry
Bible-hc lives it, and the sullenest
looking fellow. the man VINO has
about decided that there is no God
in the trenches. listens.
And he comes again between
Sundays. Jack, he'd say, have you
written your mother this week? No?
Well, you write tonight
And you do-because if you say
you have no paper he hands it to
you. No stamps? He'll take your
letter out.
In biilets, where the big huts are,
during those days when you come
cut OF the trenches for rest-ah, !
that's when you live. You. stand in
line TO get into the Hut. There's !
nothing within reason you cant get !
at the Hut, from d mans welcome to |
creature comforts. There's a cafe !
,eria with food that doesn't taste like /
Army rationS. If you have the price !
you pay. If you're broke, you get it !
just the same. And no man lies to i
a Y. NJ. c. A. chap-you'd feel like :
q cad if you did, and your pals would !
send you to coventry if they caught |
you at the trick !
If you're worried about your peo-I
pie and you won't have time to hear |
before you go back to the trenches,
you tell the Y. NJ C. A. chap and he
writes to find out why your wife or
your sister has not written. Is any :
body sick? Do they need help? If
they do, he notifies the Y NJ. c. A
branch in your own town Why, a
7. NJ. c. A. man helped me to get
my passage home. The hospital peo-
pie are driven to death. When they
6urn you loose, there's another poor
devil waiting to take your place. The
city whirls around you-you can't
ind your way. Getting passage
nome looks like a gigantic task. Mo-
ney means nothing to your she'll
shocked brain, but there's always a
I. NJ. c. \. man, sound of body and
brain, honest and ready to send you
on your way. If your mother, your
wife, your best girl comes to you in
a hurry mean when you're in the
hospital, it's Y. NJ. c. A. man who
meets her and gets her TO you
straight
'Oh, what's the use, l can't tell
gs.su what they do for US. But l re-
pember once-I'd worn one pair of
seeks for twenty-eight days. I'd left
aly best pal in No Mans Land, his
i ghtless eyes staring up to a sky as
Id as the water in our trenches.
hostriis were filed with the
= uss-st s-ssf those who had died beforal
! We came to the front line. I sat in
dark that was thicker than black
london fog-and into our dugout,
short two men, came a Y. NJ. C. A.
man carrying an electric torch. He
stuck a piece of candle into the emp
~ hole in our table, and said, Jack,
this is just the night for you to write
&c, ,ae-nothing else doing. Then he
vent on. He had to-A lot of other
men were cursing in their dugouts in
hat street And l swear that as he
vent out, l caught the gleam of a
halo around his head. l wrote to
nother-but / didn't tell her about
he days job, the upturned face of
ny pal-the blackness in my dugout
and soul. You cant whine when
you write by a Y. NJ. c. A. candle" !"
| had gone to see Jack because
Jhought he could tell me the right
size for socks, the best things to send
IN comfort kits.
| came away to write to you about
Y. NJ c. A It's secretaries are
standing next to our boys, in billets
md in trenches. They are marching
with our brothers and sons, the men
we love-straight into the face of
Fritz. They can give what neither
surgeons nor Red Cross nurses, COM
rort kits nor Christmas boxes can
give-fellowship with man and God.
What are you doing to send more
7. NJ. c. A. secretaries to France, to
build more Y. NJ. c.. A. huts in the
camps at home and abroad?
What are you giving that your son
nay have sure, unfailing tie be-
| tWeen the trenches and you?
If you have not done your bit for
he Y. M. c. A, do it now. Go to
! your local branch and say-''Here
| am l. What can l do-what can l
| give for your men and your huts at
| he front?'
| The local men will organize you,
men or women, for the work.
And if you have no local branch,
] e rn11r town iS too small to SnnnOrt