Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-07-05

Story Of Sergeant Who Was Laid on
the Shelf as His Comrades Started
Across and Who is Now in Shape
70 Perform the Duties OF Real
Soldier,
(Passed by the Censoro

s.as duty. More than 500 were Ic''
behind when the "Old Hickory uiFls-
ion" went away because OF bad hearts
eyes. legs or other physical SNORT
cominps. "'Th. sick. lame and lazy
ponp" is the monaker that soldiers
have placed on the casual battalion. u
fits. except as 10 the lazy part. DE-
causc not man who IL so uniortu-
nate as to he placed In the battalion
is lazy. and every one OF them w"ui"
,,c u,.rfcc,ly willing to walk TO TN"
mont of cmharkation if they could. an"
II they w,r. promised trip across u
they did.
MANY of these fellows. though
,;,c,. recovered, were i'll with rIo!c "I
less serious diseases and troubles a'
the time their original outfits went
AWAY and for that reason were h''
bchind. 4 nuDibcr of them have re-
c,.r,lv bccn rc-cxamincd and dcclar-
ed fit for military service anywhere
and they will probably go away short
IL. Since the favored few or r''h'r'
the mcky few, have been notified thal
they will soon get into tn" hiG game
there has been a decided change III
their attitude and conduct generaii!'
They are i'm the highest OF spirits ana
good humor, whereas q couple Oh
,v,cks ago most of them were nj the
point where the division s'ockau'
vou,d have been as much like nome 10
them as anywhere else.
Having business over that way
.bou, a week ago. | spent an hour or
SO In the casual battalion among
friends of mine from out OF the lhir-
ticth who were in the base hospi'ai
when the 18th went away ana th're-
fore -. O. L." strapping big ser
peant whom knew well was lying on
his bunk with lost-dog expression
on his face and don't-givc-a-cuss
twist TO his mouth.
"Hcn OF a place for me to he in'
no remarked to me. Here l nave
bean in this army three years. fough.
1,ss and 1eas and NJ In
the itch and everything else down on
the border: then came home ana
guarded bridges all over North caro-
linn: then came down here to Camp
s,yier. and soldicred like n soldier
ever since last August. gruppihs
s,umus and drilling and cutting WOOD
and digging bitches and never com
plaining. Now here | am In the SIGN
lame and lazy gang with goo"
chance of dying right in Sewer.
"Wer, sarge" said |, joculariF'
am surprised to know that you shouiu
bc a fellow to dodge foreign service
That made him hot. and he raised
IN off his bunk. "Say. II diuh
know that you were a fellow who's al
woys kidding somebody, I'd bin you
for that. I'm just simply out ot Iuck'
ne explained.
II got n terrible sore throat about
n week before the old outfit went
AWAY and though hated to do H.
had to 20 to the hospital Inquired
surr that would he out in couple o'
days. They decided that must
have my tonsils cut out. G." Deleted
by the censor. ''')
.'Timc that was over with ana III!
,hro,t got to feeling Ike | go hawl
ont a buck In the old time STYLE
different doctor took look at me
and decided that there was some
thing wrong with one of my ears. 30
they cut some more CO" Dcleted 10y
the censor "O.
"To make n long story short. ex-
nected to stay there two days Dul
wound up by staying there nearly
two months. When | got out the old
crowd was gone somewhere and
was put in this crowd OF crippies.
and If this amt hard on border
man, Id like to know. Here | been
studying and planning for months
md months TO go over and have been
figuring lust how ] think | will do
and net. and now got no more
chance OF going than Paris restau-
rant man hns got OF going to heaven
speaking OF army blues. amt got
n right to die with 'em?"
listened sympathetically as | lis
tened to the tales Of woe Of the other
four men who were occupying the
tent with him. They reminded me OF
n gang Of buzzards who got there
after other buzzards had left and for
whom nothing remained but bones.
4 couple OF days ago 1t was neces-
sary for me TO be over on that side
OF the camp again and l looked in on
my friend, the sergeant. His face
was all flushed and excited as though
he had been experimenting with new
type OF machine gun or had received
n most interesting letter or some
thing.
"Say. lad" he said. 1.-The army Is all
right and q man Is blamed fool to
have the army blues. because you
never know what's coming next. a
bunch of US sick. lanes and lazies
we're examined this morning and
found fit to mop up with Fritz. The
dope is that we're going out some OF
these days soon."
He told the good news proudly and
grandly and as happily as though he
were a four year old boy about to get
his first pair Of trousers.
"Come on out to the canteen with
me-" ne said. as he slapped me on the
back. ''and let's drink dope on 1t.
Just think, lad. in another month or
SO I'll be drinking wine in France in
stead of dope here. BY the way. they
say that wine is awfully weak and
that It's sorter like your sisters kiss
-ain't got no kick. But that don't
matter: the main point Is that l am
going over to the big show and
don't care for nothing to drink or eat
either except trench waters and