The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-02-27
Mrs. Echols of Board of Education Makes Stirring
 Appeal for Soldier Boys
S1O,597 TOTAL FOR
 FIRST TWO DAYS
Dr. Edmonds Speaks of Good Work of Knights of Columbus and the Young Mems Christian Asso-
 citation at Army Camps

Smith called the forces to attention at
 the noon day luncheon In the ballroom
 of the Tutwiler yesterday and after the reports of the different generals were | summed up s3297 more was added to the cheer fund of our soldier boys. While every one was in high state of
 martial enthusiasm the field marshal in- trodueed Mrs. D. A. Echols of the board of education as one of the guests of the luncheon.
 In one of the most touching speeches that has been heard at any meeting of the Knights of Columbus, Mrs Echols told of how the war had gradually come I to her.
 When the war was first declared" said Mrs. Echols, it seemed far away, Fthat it could ever reach us here to- day. I went to the first Red Cross
 meeting and did my bit. Gave a little
 money and came home thinking that
 I had about done my share.
 TINY BLUE STARS
 ''Then there were more meetings of
 the Red Cross and one by one I saw |
 on their breasts I began to notice little
 pins with tiny blue stars on them. Then
 came more meetings and with each
 meeting mere stars. Then I began to
 realize that the war was coming home
 to us. For every star on the breast of one of those women, a loved one had gone out of her life-maybe never to re- | turn. It was brother here, son there, and a sweetheart everywhere.
 l "No longer was the war being waged | in Washington by soldiers of our imag- ble war of all times was taking for it's game the very blood of our lives, the hope of our prayers. Our own flesh and blood, your boy, and would could say my boy, but your boy has gone that
 my girl will not suffer the fate of our Belgian and French daughters. And for l that reason I pray the harder for their safe return.
 CURSE OF THE HUN "But my friends continued Mrs. Echols, mot only have these boys gone
 with high hopes and firm resolutions but they have made the greatest sacri- [ have left, and then please try and real 1 ize just what they are going into. asked an English lady once who had been there and seen with her eyes, the scenes you and I daily read of, if they were really as bad as they were told With peculiar calm look, she answer l ed: If you think of the worse thing you have ever seen, then multiply that | by the worse thing that you have ever dreamed-no, that's not even enough. cannot begin to describe the conditions. l for no matter how bad I picture them, | it will not convey the terrific suffering and sacrifice that is being shown every minute in the countries that have felt | the curse of the Hun.'
 l Tn the office of the Womens Coun- l cil of Defense there came a poor coun- | try woman. Her clothes were of the 1 crudest fashion made by hands that | knew no ease. Heavy, coarse stitches, every one made no doubt by .the light | of a dim lamp. In one arm she car-
 ried many bundles, in the other a baby l hung limp. Without any introductory re-
 marks the woman set her baby on the 1 floor, still holding to the bundles, and ! reached somewhere and handed me a silver dollar. We ain't got nothing
 much to give, mann; we ain't got much i to eat but I been saving this money for l to give for my share to win this war. l It's my last dollar but I still can work
 and I want to know that my baby will be safe and I am willing to give all I have to help.
 A LONG, LONG WAY l "That was a poor country woman. l She knew little of the ways of the world but she was old in the ways of l the heart My friends, 8 dollar to that poor country woman meant more to her | in financial way than many hundreds l to you and me, but she gave 1t all
 that her baby might be free. There would not be any need of Knights of Columbus drive to raise s25,000 if the spirit, and I must say foresight, of that
 woman was afloat in the land today. Every man, woman and child in the l United States would vie with each oth- CT to see just what they could give if they only would think. That woman knew almost by intuition just what was going to happen to each and every one of us here in America today if we do
 not win this war, and we have not won | it yet by long, long ways. and she was willing to give all she had to ward off that awful calamity.
 l You who think that you are safe in this country and need have no fear of | the Germans had better begin to take stock of just what is keeping these
 heart crushing fiends from getting their 1 death clutcheS on you. IL IS the walls made by the living lives of boys. whom
 the world calls soldiers, but they are the l same bosy that were at their mothers | sides just yesterday. Can you do enough l to help that thin line? Can we give enough so that line can rest and recup- crate? No matter how long that line may hold and no matter how strong I that line may be, if 1t is not backed up l by the folks at home its going one day to give way, and you know the results. l There is no cause in the country today that needs our earnest support more than those which make easier the life of our soldier boys and l know that the Knights of Columbus are doing every
 thing in their power to make the life of every boy brighter
 FRIENDLY FEELING
 pr. H. M Edmunds. one of the most
 beloved as well as one of the most patriotic ministers that has ever graced
 the pulpit in Alabama. was the next | speaker.
 He told of a dinner he attended in Tuscaloosa the other evening; at his side was major iii the army. 1T wanted to find out first what the men in the army thought of the Knights of Colum- bus work" said the doctor, 'sso asked the major how 1t compared with the Y. M. c. A. We'll said the major 1t ranks with the Y. M. c. A. in every l way. Of course. the Y. M. c. A. has more buildings than the Knights ot Columbus. but the buildings of both ars filled to overflowing and the men are simply carried away with the spirit thai prevails in their huts On every side