Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-08-16

BRITISH ARE GRITTY
Their Admirable Behavior Attested by
AN American Correspondent,

. TL.t GFNEE&
The steadiness OF the Britisher co.,
tinues to win my admiration as Z
travel about over his domain seeing
his everyday life under all sorts Of
circumstances and conditions. I have
seen the children. at play on the
streets. have seen them in the quiet
of their homes, and in the under
ground stations in London seeking
shelter with their mothers from the
terrible air raids that have something
Of the characteristics Of lightning
few bolts, fewer hits, but complete
demolition whenever and whatever
they hit. I have studied the British
woman in the midst Of domestic cares,
in the ammunition shops and in pub
kinds of transportation. And the male
OF the species I have watched in the
house of commons, in the foreign Of
flee. In business, in military and naval
service, as a raw recruit, as a wound
ed veteran, in high command, and
under rigid discipline. All Of them
(every man. oma and child with
out exception, as far as my observa-
ton goes) manifest an inner serenity,
an unconscious ~self-control, a SUBJ
lime confidence that compels ones
admiration n renews ones own
faith in their indomitable spirit. You
find 1t wherever you go and in what,
ever QlrectlOn you look.
All this is particularly true In the
religious life Of the nation in so far
as I have been able to measure 1t in
less than a months time. There are
fewer meetings, no doubt, the absence
Of young men from the service is Of
course painfully evident, and organ
izations for regular religious, work of
all kinds are short-handed, but the
work itself is not allowed to slacken,
| and fNooS v1roC ~ 1Y4o+ <s11 i~ rvfkA
of the extraordinary drain on the
purse caused by war conditions. I
hear not the slightest note. of dis
couragement or WEAKNESS, no moan
ing or bitterness among church, peo-
Pile. 1t is a wonderful record after
nearly four years Of such fiery test
ing.
But because the Britisher will not
show it, do not think that he has no
capacity for deep feeling. I heard q
high officer of the finest grain and
greatest self-possession say calmly
and deliberately that he could never
again as long as he lived, shake
hands with a German. He was q
deeply religious man both technically
and vitality, n his reason for taking
such a position was based entirely IN
spiritual considerations. And an
American E~piscopalian minister who
was participating in the conversation
approved the officers attitude heart
Since writing the preceding para
graphs I have spent days with the
the western front. After taking tea
with a general in his dugout IN the
midst of the awful d%esolation beyond;
Ypres, n after crawling into a half
demolished "pill-box" Of German
construction (now used by his enc
mics for shelter from miscellaneous
bombs), to hold conversation with a
couple of "Tommies," and after
watching the British soldier in all
kinds of active service I am bound to
declare hat he seems I've more i'm
perturbable than the E~nglishman al
home. Whether he is in the most
advanced dressing station at zonne-
beke giving the wounded first aid
treatment, or standing by his battery
any moment to fire, or building roads
to the tune Of resound1ng guns, or
digging a now trench in a field OF
mud filled with the dead and every
conceivable sort of military wreck
age, (and I have seen him under all
these and many other trying condi-
tions), he is apparently Is uncon-,
cerned as when you see him TN Lon,
don, sauntering down Piccadilly Cir
Gus. In fact il. is proverbial among
war correspondents that the further
you get away from London and the
nearer the fighting line you approach,
the less you see of excited belliger-
ency. In the midst of a most desolate
and loathsome landscape of Flanders
mud, just behind the trenches, in q
little improvised shelter that would
never be noticed by a shell or a bomb
making a direct hit, with h big guns,
booming on both sides of the line II
saw Tommy Atkins singing a lively
ditty and chatting his comrades over
losing their foothold in the slipperys
ooze. Can you beat it? For nearly
four years the Germans have BEEN
trying to, and they have not yet found
out how to do it.-Northwestern
Christian Advocate.
Most of the Hun generals are too
puffy and pussy to run as fast as the
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