The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-08-15
FIGHTING SPIRIT OF A YANKEE
Continued from Page y

aN DSti ~ Nht
making for the spring time. That
was the time-and the place-a cot
tage on Riverside Drive-and the girl
were waiting. There was soon to be
an increase of salary at the store.
Already a visit had been made to the
furniture store. There had beer some
discussion over the furnishings for
the bed rooms. He wanted everything
mahogany, the girl wanted white
enamel. That had been settled one
evening over the ice cream soda. He
hadn't tasted it for a month. He won
dered if the girl would wait for him.
She had already expressed her doubts
of his loyalty after he had met the
frivolous lasses of France. She
seemed more concerned about this
phase of the tragedy that had over
whelmed them than about the prob
ability of his getting wounded or
killed. He thought of all the pleas
ant details of life he was forced to
sacrifice, and was very, very sorry
for himself.
Young Smith did not realize that
the best blood of more than a dozen
nations that love liberty and justice
was being spilled while he was la
menting the loss of ice cream sodas
and the termination of his roamings
in the cleaning. In revolt against
the miraculous change that had
gripped him just as the portals of
life seemed opening to him he was a
poor soldier, disliked by officers and
men.
Soon his unpopularity became un-
b%earable. At the dance and the pic
mic, in the parlor games and in all
the activities of his particular social
group, he had held his own against
all Corners. What was the matter
now. These rough lads about him,
from the corr fields and the coal
mines, had little respect for HMM
fact he came to have little respect
for himself. Day by day his com
rades were doing the work of the
camp better than he was doing it.
Then n day the chaplain preached
to the boys in camp. Not much of
the sermon was remembered by him,
but there was something about the
good shepherd who giveth his life for
his sheep, and something about a
hireling who sees the wolf coming
and fleeth. There was also some
thing about a thief who zones to
chaplain had said about the thief and
the wolf that had come out Of Ger
many to steal and kill and destroy
and scatter the sheep? And the hire
ling who ied, Was it possible the
chaplain was right? Had Christ
meant it that way, Christ who had
said, blessed are the peacemakers? ?"
Yes, Christ had said, Il lay down my
life for the sheep" Does not that
mean He would fight the thief and
the wolf? And the hireling feeth
when the wolf comes. 'Hireling,
hireling.' thought young Smith, why
that's only another word for Stacker
or coward"
Thus the tempest-this boys mind
from day to day, the conflict between
his desire for the petty pleasantries
of life and his adherence of the hard
camp life and the horrors of war, the
conflict between his belief that
Christ was a n~on-combatant and this
new construction the chaplain had put
on the story of the good shepherd.
Strong men were never more sorely
perplexed over world problems, for it
was a world problem this weakling
was graphing with.
There is no night that lasts for
ever, and at last the long night of
life in the environments was done, and
the regiment entrained for the. place
of embarkation with young Smiths
problems still unsOlved. NOtwith-
standing the fact that he had in a
measure reached the point where he
could justify his strangely new en-
vironments, this justification was for
gotten when came the parting with
loved ones. So he sailed for France
dazed and bewildered and in a state
of revolt.
There had come to him, however,
in the latter months Of camp life a
new sensation. AS the soreness got
out of his muscles he found he could
flex them easily; that he could use
his arms like the piston rod of a Cor
liss engine; that his legs had the
strength of some great Colossus; that
he could run like a race horse and
never tire. Never had he known
cI,ch strength and health Such iOv Of