The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1917-11-17
Campaign Comes to an End
on Monday
OUGHT TO BEAT LIMIT
Boys and Girls Have Been Enthusias-
tic and Adults Should Not Be
Left Behind.

L
had raised s70S6 of its quota of s1O,-
600 for the Red Triangle fund This
leaves $2914 yet to be raised here.
Monday is the last day.
More than 100 Bennington boys
have subscribed $40 each toward this
fund and now the girls are coming
| forward with equal enthusiasm. All
| that is needed is for the adult people
| to do their share and Bennington will
exceed its quota.
1t is a great work and Vermonters
should not fail to stand by the Yer
mont boys in the service. The fol-
lowing is from an article by Bruce
Barton. editor of Every Week
Yesterday | met a man who had
just landed from the western front,
and he told me the heartrending
/ story of the walking wounded
/ The wounded who have lost an
arm, or an eye. or part of the face.
but are still able to struggle back
from the front line trenches alone.
Go with me for moment to
France: want you to see what he
saw. l want you to know the truth.
|. 1t is the day before the big push
For weeks the army has known the
exact hour and moment when the
barrage would list and the men leap
out over the top"
The enemy has known it. too. his
preparations are as great and as
careful as ours.
1 On the day before the engineers
|, plant "a line OF painted white posts
few yards apart leading from the.
rear straight to the borders of Mo-
Mans Land afl e5R@'s, III.
Simple painted posts: what areI
they for? 9t Nis'H%a''
They are to guide the walking
wounded Eyes Blurred with blood
and suffering that might lose the
road can follow the trail Of those
painted posts; bodies too weak from
shell shock or gas to stand alone
can find there momentary support.
The trail OF the painted posts is
the trail of the walking wounded;
the trail of blood and misery and
pain.
Just before dawn the men file into
lHt lItn1nCo. oth6Ah6 %NCt
bit. Talking? Hardly word. Only
the silent, heavy tramp of men who
have written their last letters home.
They have faces carved out of stone.
They pass out of camp; they pass
the base hospitals; they pass the
canteen. And just before they reach
the front trench-at the very front.
under the fire of the guns them
selves-each man pauses for just a
second at a dugout eN
1t is the front line trench of the
Y M. c. A.
From it hand reaches out; in the
hand piece of chocolate for each
man to be eaten in case he falls
wounded in No Mans Land: a hearty
good luck and God bless you. 1t is
with this, the voice of the Y Nj. c. A.
secretary, ringing in their ears that
men so "oyer the top n.
An hour passes:l two hours. And
slowly. painfully, draggingly. they
come back The men who have lost
an arm, and the men who have lost
an eye, and then men who carry in
their shoulders or their abdomens or
their legs the enemy's bullets and
shell.
Bleeding, staggering men, following
the trail OF the painted posts.
And they stop at the Y. NJ. c. A.
dugout first 1t lies. nearest the guns.
I Nearer than the doctor or hospital.
| There every man get cup of hot
| tea if he wants it; there two order
lies stand with hypodermics in their
hand.
DO you want it?'' they demand of
each man who passes through
| And either he thrusts out his arm
/ to receive the soothing potion, or he
| shakes his head and passes on.
On along the way of painted posts
I to the hospitals and to rest.
! Sometimes the dugout is 'shelled,
and a Y. NJ. c. A. secretary loses his
life; two went out together on one
day recently.
: 1t is part of the game; they ask
for no sympathy; they ask not even
for pay; many OF them are working
for nothing at all
All they ask is for money to carry
on" To be able to stand just behind
the front with chocolate for the men
who are going "over the top" To
be able to stand there with hot tea
and morphin for the men who are
staggering back along the way of
painted posts.
Thirty-five million dollars--it Is a
lot of money. But you would not say
so II you stood beside the way of