The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-02-23

is Post Chaplain at Fort Smelling,
written the following very interesting
account of chaplain's activity, and
it's influence on the soldiers in an
army camp. Father Burns says:
l am writing this communication
in the form of a syncopated letter,
containing impressions of the Knights
of Columbus war work, based spe-
cifically on-that carried on at Fort
Smelling.
Corporal Derby Holmes, writing in
the New York Evening Post on the
habit and thought of the average man
at the front, has this to say: These
men have been taken from their
homes, amid customary vocations, by
their government; have been put in
uniform, trained and put in the field.
Their lives have been vastly simpli-
fed. . The soldier has two main
functions. He is expected to keep
whole and healthy and to kill the
other fellow. 1t is obvious, that the
lives of these men have been reduced
very nearly to the simplest and low
est terms of the primitive.
THE men like this. The contrast
between field life and the normal
peace-time existence is not so strong
with the farmer as it is with the city
man; but he too feels it agreeable on
the whole. | say agreeable. Almost
any healthy, unwounded man on
leave finds himself in very few
days bored to death and irked be-
yond endurance by the restrictions of
nearly forgotten civilization.
II remember a conversation l once
heard between one Coffee Byers and
his chum Taters' Smut They
thought they were safe from caves
droppers, and Coffee, just back from
six days leave, made a rather shame
faced confession of disloyalty to old
England. | was tucked away in a
shelter and heard it.
&c. 'Taters,' said Coffee,
'Blighty agent wot it was. Not hawf.
Too many 'ouses. Too blinl1in' many
busses. A cove agent safe. No fresh
air."
Taking the above as an epitomi-
zation of at least the Tommy's trench
attitude toward what the World War
is doing to him, | may say that over
here, not only is the soldiers life
simplified-if not with so great de-
gree of uninterrupted simplification
as is obtainable in shell-sWept sec
tors-but that same life is broadened,
enriched, often completely changed
intellectually and morally, as a re-
suit of the intensive training in
camp, as we'll as the accessories that
go with that training.
Our Training Camps.
The training camps, the National
cantonments of the National army in
its different branches, comprise, so
to speak, Uncle Sans inter-sectional,
National University. Leaving out of
the discussion the question of physi-
cal care and development, which for
illustration, at Fort Smelling, is of the
highest order, observation at this post
alone leads me to say. that from an
educational and religious viewpoint,
Is per cent of the men l have met,
are so many per cent better off for
having been called to the colors.
Without, for the practical purpose
of better understanding the case, con-
sidering religion as the big educa-
tional factor it is in reality, take a
glimpse of what is done for the men
in an. educational way at Fort Smell
ing.
Since the two regiments which
brigaded with the 36th Infantry, were
called away to Forts Sheridan and
Crook, and to Camp Benjamin Har-
rison, in the last week of November,
1917, / have been carrying on the
work at Fort Smelling, as X. G. Chap.
lain, through the agency of the
Army Y. M. G. A. incidentally, think
| that the harmonious cooperation OF
| both the Y. NJ. C.. A. and the K. of c.
at this post alone is not only sufi
Ecient proof of the fact that each or
ganization has it's field and is needed
but it is also proof how closely the
battle for democracy is bringing to
gether 1000 Americans of all creeds
at a time when the Catholic anC
non-C Catholic soldier march shoulder
to shoulder, bunk together, mess to
| gether, nay, die together for a com
mon cause.
At Increment No. /, namely, in the
/ building formerly designated Pos
Chapel, now used as the Y. M. G. A
/ headquarters, have worked regu
larly with Mr.. Keeler, formerly o
Pekin, China, now the head secretar!
of the Army "Y'' at Fort Smelling, an,
found him both affable and willing t
cooperate in any way suggested TO
the betterment of the men. Durini
Il the last month at this Increment, al
4 most every night, the men are give
!. chance to listen to instructions an
/ amusing talks from the Chaplains
Association, or from men on the oui