New-York tribune., 1918-09-10
Marine Volunteers Eagerly
Await Word They re Wanted

Several thousand young men through
out the country have been waiting with
oagerness since August to learn
whether The ban on voluntary enlist
ment will be lifted. Thcy.arc the men
to whom the message of Bcllcau Wood
and Chateau Thierry was irresistible,
the men who enrolled by hundreds daily
III the United States Marine Corps in
New York alone. to be duly enlisted if
the volunteer system survived.
The average daily number of appli-
cants at the Marine Corps recruiting
station at "a East Twenty-third Street
has been more than two hundred. Gen
orally they were husky, scrappy lot
War has not lowered the standard of
fitness set by the marines, as is shown
by the fact that one day recently out
OF 295 applicants only forty passed the
examination.
For the most part they are young
men; that is the impression made by
the crowd that clusters thickly in the
ante-room where applications arc made
out and stretches in a long line through
the doorway, through the hall, down the
STAIRS and sometimes out into Twenty
third Street-young fellows responding
to the yell of the gang that "therc's a
scrap on"
Gray Heads in Line, Too
There are gray heads in the line
now and then, too, and other men with
lines of responsibility in their faces
There are college students, "prcp'
school boys, business men, tailors and
'longshoremcn and perhaps, once in a
while, thug or Il gunman. There arc
all creeds, all classes, all ages. Reck-
oning from the individual the crowd
deties analysis; as whole it is char
acterized by youth, vigor. purpose and
courtesy most extraordinary.
Let boy of eighteen, accompanied
by his mother, enter the office of a
dean Of any college where sub-fresh
anen are gathered for matriculaton
and suppose that the dean turns aside
from the first corners to listen to a
somewhat detailed account of the
youths aspirations as related by his
mother. There is going to be whisper
ing and snickering among those sub
freshmen, and the unhappily conveyed
youth will get baptism of scorn that
may embitter his entire college career
An Example in Courtesy
Something similar occurred the other
day at "a East Twenty third Street
and the effect was most enlightenng
A gray-haired woman in black, fol
lowed by a boy of eighteen, pushed
her way through the doorway past the
waiting line and stood somewhat be
wildered, in the midst of the crowd
of men. Even before embarrassing at.
newcomers 81 stocky youth in a ragged
jumper jerked the sleeve of a marine
who was almost hidden by a knot OF
applicants.
"Hey, sarge" he whispered hoarse
ly, "there's lady waitin'"
At the whisper the knot of men dis
solved magically and its members re
NAMED as far in the background as the
various other knots of men permitted d
while the woman in black related tina
she came from Trenton, that sh,
was a friend of President Wilson ant
! that it was her son whom she hat
brought. The boy was in his last yea.
+ in a preparatory school, she said bu
school had no more interest for him
he was bound to enlist. She hat
! thought OF the Naval Reserve Force
but that didn't suit her son, who ha,
insisted on trying the marines first.
Pride in the Service
With the utter conviction of
marine and in language suited to hi
auditor. though he had to pause ono
in while for word the marine CAV
her his opinion of the Naval Reserv
Force, adding as cincher
81 certainly couldn't advise him t.