The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1918-06-05
comes-what is it then that makes
men brave? I-F

comes-what is it then that makes
men brave? l-F
And into this channel l led the
conversation with the wounded Vir-
ginian. He Is q scholarly chap, a
graduate Of George Washington uni
versity, my own alma mater. and per-
haps this fact induced his volubility.
Read that" he exclaimed, and put
into my hands copy OF Earnest
Blacks poems opened at this verse,
which was marked:
"Pain and wounds and death may pass
me BY .5E
Escape from these is not the boon, o
Lord, for which ! pray,
For having put the rim within my
lips
do not ask to take the cup away,
But that the heart that Thou hast CIV
en- mo ytsqf& SPttesssssss s9-. - o,
May in the hour Of danger never fail,
And that the will to stand and do my
part
May ever DER my will to live prevail"
This was the last line of the poem
underscored:
"And grant. o Lord. that I may play
the man."
perhaps here's a better explana-
ton Of why men stand and fight"
said he, turning to- the table by the
side of his cot to number of books
supplied by the Y. M. C: A. He
handed me a volume of 1.-The
Rhymes of Red Cross Man." by
Robert w. Service. Read that" he
directed, pointing to a verse. Read
it out, for l like to hear it'-and l
read:
$50 stand, my son; look gritty,
And just 'um little ditty,
And only be afraid to be afraid!
Just 'oId yer rifle steady.
And ave yer bay'nt ready,
For thaa's the way good soldier men
10 made.
And If you as to die, +
As It sometimes 'appens, why,
Far better die 'ero than a skunk;
A.doin' Of yer bit,
And so-to ELL with Il,
There amt no bIoomin' funk, funk,
funk"
Not Afraid Of aoehes
"You mean," said I, and he took
the words out of my mouth.
Il mean we fear nothing but fear.
The boys are not afraid to die;
they're not afraid of the boche:
they're only afraid they'll be afraid.
That's the way it was with me. had
thought it all out, and LQuit thinking
about getting wounded or getting
killed, or fighting hand to hand. I
only wondered whether my nerve
would hold Dr. not"
And when did you learn that it
would "D
"Oh, Immediately the fight began.
First thing l knew the fight was on.
The boches were coming. We were
ordered to fire. The boys all around
me were fighting. I knew that l was
all right. l would have died rather
than showed fear-and was not
afraid. never was so happy in my
life, happy because knew l was
not afraid"
"And how about the freedom of the
world, and making the world safe for
democracy We're you thinking of
such things at the moment?"
"Oh, no. That had all been set
tied beforehand. Our nation had set
tied that. The private has his prob
lens as we'll as the commanding ON
Ger, and he can only settle one thing
at time. You've settled a lot of
things before the shooting begins. The
only thing you can think Of then is
the fight, how to defend yourself and
lick the fellows in front of you."
"And these problems of the pri.
vate, what are they?" inquired.
Problem Of the Private.
"Well the first problem with me
was whether the United States ought
to get in or not. At first thought it
was an ordinary European row that
was none of our business. Then l
recalled that at college there were
half dozen German students who
were always boasting Of Germany.
We had a debate on the Monroe doc
trine and these fellows had attacked
it. I recalled that they had arranged
the debate, selected the sub. .ect and
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