The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-07-25
Y. M.C.A. SERvEv>
ON FIGHTING FRONT
SPLENDID STORY OF THE GREAT
WORK BEING DONE FOR
FIGHTING YANKS
THE PREACHERS WORK As WELL As TALK
Harry Evans Tells OF The Life In
"Huts" And Many Ways In Which
Workers Help Out
BY II. C. EVANS
Copyright 1879

AT the FRONT WITH american AIHly
in France-If the people at home
knew just how the money they gave
last fall to the Y. M. c. A. is being
spent over here they would right now
begin saving their dimes and dollars
for the contribution that will be ask
ed for next fall. l recently left a
French Atlantic port where thousands
of our men are permanently station
ed. They are receiving and storing
the untold quantities of supplies that
come across the ocean and distribut-
ing them. Into this port come our
fighting men where they disembark
and entrain for the front.
To serve these permanent and tran
silent troops the Y. M. c. A. has erect
ed fourteen huts and as many more
within a radius of fifty miles. Over
one hundred "Y" men and women are
located in this area. Every group of
officers and men in this area is served
by the Y. M. c. A. 1t may be only a
few books and magazines, or a Vic
trola or piano for the small group.
Then the huts, varying in size as
the number of permanent men in the
camps vary. All over the area there's
a moving aravan Of movies, theatri-
cal troops, lecturers, preachers and
all sorts of entertainers. Special at
tention is given to athletics. In this
area alone ten thousand hours of the
boys time are consumed daily at the
athletic games and at the evening en-
tertainments. In addition there's the
canteen service and the occupancy of
the huts during the day when thous-
ands of letters are written home.
In the interior of France in the
training camps like conditions pre-
vail. AT one central point | found Dir.
w. S. Naylor of Lawrence college,
Appleton, Wis. About him he has
gathered some fifty strong fellows,
among them Professor Custer of the
same college, and a few M Dur
ing the English soldiers rest period
he can cross the channel in two or
three hours to home and mother. The
French soldier is within a few hours
of his home. But the American sol
der. There's no such thing as visit
ing home and mother and own coun
try for him. But please God, there's
two thousand DR.. MAYORS to whom
the boys go as c%onfidingly as chill
dren go to their parents.
Most inviting, indeed, are the "Y"
huts-whoever named them huts de-
serves to be court-martialed. To the
boys coming in from the muddy
trench or the barren barracks they
are as mansions. 1t was Lew Wal
lace who made his hero say to the
lady he loved: "a palace Is a hut
without you, the hut becomes a pal
ace with you" There is no such
thing as a hut, in the common accept
ance of the term, when presided over
by a kindly, Christian man or a sweet
faced
Some of DR.. MAYORS assistants in
vaded this territory before our SOL
diers came. With their own hands
they erected the buildings and made
all preparations for the coming of the
troops. On a cold day last winter
when the snow mantled the ground,
four men with picks and shovels, in
mud shoe-top deep, were digging a
trench around a Y. M. C. A. palace to
drain the water away from the build
ident National bank of Columbus, o.;
B. F. Farber, pastor Woodward Av-
enue church, Detroit, Mich; j. S.
Custer, professor of history, Law
renee college, Appleton, Wis, former
ly of Pella, Ia; H. j. Woods, profess
sor of Washburn college, Topeka,
Kan.
The Y. M. C. A. forces were
strengthened by DR.. w. l.. Stidges,
Methodist preacher of San Jose, Cal.
In this application he stated that he
could drive an automobile. Men with
this accomplishment were scarce when
the doctor arrived in France. A Unit.
ed States division had just gone into
the trenches. Stidges Joined the "Y'
forces there and for two months drove
an army truck from the supply base ! n
the rear to the "Y" canteens at the
trenches over roads that were con-
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