Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1918-01-09
PEOPLE WHO ARE LEFT
OUT OF THE ROLL CALL
Population Of the United States
Asked to Stand Up and
Be Counted.
BY GERALD STANLEY LEE.

had a friend once named Old BIZ
Spear. who was the curator and foundE
err of the John Quincy Adams Memorial
in Quincy. Mass. He conceived the
idea Of making the house into a me-
mortal and, with his genius as a col
lector Of old furniture, filed II with
things to see.
People came from everywhere. and
al twenty-five cents apiece they WEIR:
about to see the things Bill had col
lectcd and hear Bill talk.
Bill felt very superior to most col
lcctors. "Just collect rs." Bill said,
"colicct anything
Ill usually could size people up when
they came in the door. but when he
wasn't quite sure about people. and sus-
pco.ed he didn't want TO bother with
them very long. he used to take them up
TO the attic to size them up quick. He
would show them a bushel basketful OF
something they couldn't quite see, and
then he would wave his hand with "a
flourish and say in an impressive tone
az they stopped to lock closer. This Is
the Largest Collection Of Burnt Matches
IN the World!
Hundreds OF collectors didn't break a
smile. Bill said. and Just looked awed
Then Bill knew. OF course. that he
needn't bother to show them hts best
things.
Some of the people who are proposing
TO go out into the streets Red Cross
.i-t, Ill NNn a,,1 ftOr nm
everybody to join the Red Cross seem
TO think that the main thing there Is
to tell people about the Red Cross Is
that II they pay a dollar to belong they
will belong TO the Largest Collection OF
People Who Have Paid One Dollar in .he
World
felt a little superior to this at first
and began thinking how l wouldn't DO 1t.
But when | began thinking what the
biggest Collection Of People in the World
could do by just being the biggest and
by all wanting the same thing with
different one dollar. it became impress
sive
1t would even be impressive II forty
million people lin America all wanted the
same thing with the same Dollar!
All wanting the same thing would be p
nation praying-all the grown-up people
Of nation with their little half con
scious children round them--praying!
The dollar man Joined with. would
not be mere one dollar The dollar
would be a receipt to every man In
America that 5000. 500 other men or
women belonged to him. and that he be-
longed to them in getting what he want
cd for three million soldier boys and for
their children at home.
Forty million people-all the Grown-up
people In this country pick out three
million men and say to the three million
men they have picked out. You go and
die for us. you go and be saviors OF the
world and die on our crosses for us!"
Then what do the forty million do?
1t would be be something II we would
ali line up--the whole forty million OF
us to a man. with our little pallid insipid
speechless dollar bills in our hands from
Maine to California Christmas Week and
use our two dollar bills year as ballots.
stand up In line and be counted and
cable to the men, across the seas that
we vote one carfare once in two weeks
10 stand by them. to stand by the souls
and bodies of the children OF the men
who have made a standing offer to die
oy our crosses for us!
Who wants to be left out Of this line
by Christmas Eve?
What man would want to be stood up
IN a row Of those who are left out while
all Of the children OF the world file by
and look at him, while the little children
Of nine hundred thousand dead men in
England file by and look at him, or the
children OF the soldiers OF France giving
their lives to protect the ekyscrapers CT
New York?
AFor that matter 1t reed not take so
many children. What man who let HIM
self be left out would feel safe in his
ywn house with his own children climbing
up into his lap believing in him-safe
with his, own baby pulling on his face.
tabbing his small trustful fists In hia
eyes--if he let himself be left out?
or course. II seems little like q
mockery to cable over to France Christ
mas Eve that we give one carfare once
in two weeks to the children Of the men
we picked out to die for US, but 1t woxld
be start
Nobody needs to think 1t would be q
big thing Just to belong to the Red Cross
but it is going to be q big thing to he
left out.