Norwich bulletin., 1917-06-12
Views of the Vigilantes
SOLDIERS EXTRAORDINARY.
By HaPsburs Liebe of The VisIantes


 I saw all these fine warriors in one day, during a drive of twenty five miles, and it made me glad to call my self a TennesSean; it made me proud of the people of this section of the Old Volunteer State. I have no doubt that the people of the other States are doing just as we'll you understand: I'm telling you this in order that you may know that Eastern Tennessee is trying hard to do her bit.
 Before I left town. I saw the park way around the home of one of our best men in Irish potatoes. Yes, Irish potatoes instead of the usual grass and pretti1y -bordered canna beds. More than that there were Irish pota toes in the flower beds of that mans lawn. Also, he had had his back yard spaded up, and that too, was filled with potatoes.
 Do1lar-Anerican If you don't know what that it, it's a sort of cross be- tween a polecat and a hornets nest. He said to me as we drove by:
 ''Why, everybody's planting pota- toes; they won't be worth fifty cents per bushel!"
 I hope to God they won't. Get me? I hope they won't me worth twenty cents per bushel. For it's hard to starve people or a family that has plenty of potatoes.
 Leaving town, I saw a half blind, rheumatic old man down on his knees hoeing an acre-lot of potatoes. 1 know him: he is fairly wcll-to-do; he didn't have to do that, really. As I passed him on my way home, late in the aft ernoon. he was still down on his knees to that potato patch-and therefore serving the Almighty and the Ameri- can flag to the utmost of his ability. Man. woman, whoever you are that reads this, I say to you here that that old man is a patriot and a soldier eX- traordinary: and lesser men have 41sz -I,A T T been banqueted as conquering heroes. Down on his knees to hoe potatoes! It was finer. in this our time of despera- tion, with HelIffre stalking footloose over the world, than being down on his knees to pray.
 Back in the hills, l saw an old gran nywoman and her daughter and her daughters two halfgrown daughters all at work in field that they had literally wrested from the mountain wilderness. On inquiry, I learned that the younger woman's husband was dead.
 We're a doin' all we can, shore,' the grannywoman told me cause the $ goin' to be War. I went through wi enc War. sonny, and I know that men folks cain't do much good a fightin' on a empty stummick. Acause the belly and the heart, sonny, is closter akin than most O folks knows
 Amen and Amen. say I. And again. Ameni I've been in the trenches. and I've fought on an empty stomach, and I tell you I know.
 A few miles further on, I saw the wife of railroad section foreman cuitivating a part of the railroad s right of way. And less than two miles from that point, I came upon a re- rnarka b1y pretty fifteen -years-o old girl blowing off furrows for corn. Now listen. She didn't have on Star Spangled- Banner hosiery. and she did not have an American Flag tied to her mules head, and she didn't have a small metal edition of Old Glory pin ned to her anywhere-but she was blowing for corn. Get me? She was a soldier in her trench, doing her bit. Aye, nobiy doing her bit.
 well need it." she told me. "Thee goin to be a War. It's all right to trust in the Lord,'' she went on, quot ing from the inscription on the monu- ment to Kings Mountain Men, but it's also a good thing to keep the gun powder dry
 Trust in the Lord, and keep the powder dry" is a good motto for any nation.
 When I think of women doing their bit in times of war, I like to think of them as Gods Brigade. And Gods Bri- gade it certainly is. It is this that makes War so insuffera ble; for the shadow of the sword is always a cross. always a cross, and it always falls heaviest on the hearts of women.