The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-06-06

WILL WHIP HE'LL
THOUGH WOUNDED
SOLDIER IN HOSPITAL TELLS
EVANS OF SPIRIT THAT AMI
MATES YANKEES
WOUNDED AMERICANS DISPLAY COURAGE
Dominant Thought OF Every Mar Is
To Be A Full Man In Every
Emergency That Comes
BY H. c. EVANS
Copyright 1919

Somewhere in France was visit
ing one of our soldier boys who is con
valescing in the hospital. He is from
Virginia; a piece of shrapnel had torn
a hole in his side and broke a rib.
He is not seriously hurt, and will soon
return to his company.
We had been talking but a few min
utes until we were fast friends. It's
wonderful how quickly friendships are
formed here. An hour with a man
and you know him better than you
know your n%eighbor at home by whose
side you have lived for years. This
is due to the sudden change in the
environs that surround our lines. It's
a deadly parallel.
A few months ago in our quaint
homeland, now on foreign soil with
the world apparently collapsing about
us. There the peaceful ireside of the
home, now the din and roar of angry
cannon. There the happy commune
ty life, now the hardships of camp
and barracks.
Then the deep, settled currents of
life, now chaos-all common values
destroyed. Then the daily association
of friends and loved ones. Now
thrown into groups n masses Of
men whom you never met until yes
terday. Was there ever before such
a contrast? We have suddenly been
where civilization has reached it's
highest point in the history of the
world to an inferno where the air
seems vibrant with the shrieks of the
souls of murdered millions as they
take their flight from earth to the
judgment seat. Youth is cruciied.
Millions of mothers are weeping,
like Rachael, for their children. In
nocence, beauty, kindness, liberty, JUS
tice and truth have been struck across
the mouth by a mailed fist.
1t is not strange that in this new
and mysterious atmosphere men in
stantly interpret each other. They
are all citizens of dear old U. S. A.,
they are fighting under the same flag,
their interests are common, they are
thousands of miles from home on for
eign soil-all sufficient for the imme-
date meeting of minds in a common
brotherhood that has never been
matched by church, secret society or
any other organization of men.
have often marveled at the cour-
age of men on the battlefield and their
and patriots tell us that men fight and
die for a cause; that they love a prin-
ciple more than they love life. The
principle of Give me liberty or give
me death" has been fought for through
all the ages, but the men who have
fought for that principle have been
opposed by men who evidently did
not believe in it. Men have fought as
v~aliently to sustain slavery as they
have to destroy it. The Germans are
fighting as bravely today for monarchy
as the allies are for democracy. l
am not inquiring as to the causes of
war, but as to the particular thing
at the crucial moment of the charge
or the defense. when the impact of
armed soldiers against armed soldiers
comes-what is it then that makes
men brave?
And into this channel | led the con-
v~ersation with the wounded Virgin
ian. He is a scholarly chap, a grad
uate of George Washington universe
ty. my own alma mater, and perhaps
this fact induced his volubility. Read
that" he exclaimed and put into my
hands a copy of Ernest Blacks poems
opened at this verse, which vas
marked:
pain and mounds and death may
pass me by
Escape from these is not the boon, o
Lord, for which l pray,
For having put the rim within my
lips
l do not ask to take the cup away,
But that the heart that Thou hast
given me
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"
Continued on Page 4-Column 81