Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1918-11-14
as hosp..abie as an other lucky PEE

as hosp.iabie as an other lucky pec-
PIE who live in huts!
Then in h.story-thefe was King Al
fred, you remember. who baked cakes
in a hut and burned them. and has
come 10 Us as a fascinating example
I of kingly careiessness. and TO balance
that We are told of "A king and queen
who ate Americap buekwheat cakes
the other day with our own boys IN
our own Eagle hut in London!
And now the hut is the soldiers
home, K is there that he writes his
letters. plays games. is entertained.
buys his chocolate and cigarettes. at
tends church services.
/ For Heavens sake, why pamper
them?' asks a snug old gentleman.
who RACES il his reading lamp isn't
right, who grulables and growls il his
egg isn't soft. who plays golf and mo
tors ard dimes and sups as eomplacent-
~ as II the whole world were not torn
BY war--"Why pamper them? What
do they need OF chocolate or cigar
cites? | never smoked a cigarette in
my life, and | hate chocolate. And
singing psalms won't help them any.
Why don't they fight il out like men,
and let the money be used for arms
and equipment? | haven't any sym
! pathy with all this sentimental s!uSh
about the Home following them. Let
them harden up a bit"
When | hear a mar talk Ike that
know he has never smelled powder or
faced a gun. 1t is the little things that
count in a soldiers life, | came very
Young to the knowledge Of that, for
my father fought through the four
years Of the Civil War, and the stories
OF my childhood were. therefore, those
OF war; nor of its horror-my father
kept the tales of tragedy for all OLDER
audience; he gave to me- the homfly
de.ails--what the soldiers atc, what
they wore, where they slept, the songs
they sang, their jokes--the funny ola
Jokes that lose their point now as We
listen.
Thus I learned that in a soldiers
lexicon there are two very important
words food and fun" ! found II
very hard at first 10 picture my dig
'rified father in his frock coat and tor
hat as making flapjacks or digging q
pit in which beans were TO be baked
and which | was assured tasted better
than any beans in the whole wide
world when eaten with hardtack ant
molasses-sweetened coffee. II was only
by getting out old pictures that saw
him at last thin and hoyish III a shat
BIZ uniform, and looking more llkt
somebody's younger brother than any
body's father!
! d5 4ktFFI VI ~ WY go "
the fact that war was a high ant
solemn adventure, and l use :adven
ture' here in a rather limited sense
as the search fer The Grail was an ad
venture, or the C~rusades. Fighting
must. ! knew, have the justification O
unseltish purpose, Ny father held tina
it was not only right, it was the res
dilute and slrcng thing TO take up arm
for the relief of the oppressed a ba'
tie for ones owIF freedom, or the free
dom Of another was a righteous cause
!, i remember that he came home on
night with blood on his cuffs. He ha
happened upon a big brute beating
cripple. It was the brute's blood tina
: that was on my fathers cuffs. An
! the cripple, because Of my father, ha
gone unframed. 1t was a lesson
never forgot, l remembered it indee
when Belgium was invaded by tn
! Hum
Because OF my father, and the thing
7 he told me Of that other war, ! kav
come, perhaps, more easily to an III
Outstanding Of the present conilic
and the part our men play, than thos
to whom war Is q thing new and fires.
: and who see in it only battlefields an
the dead and dying.
y A friend of mine said to me IL