The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-06-13
SPRUCEVILLES FOR
SOLDIER BOYS

/ After all, said Aunt Marthy
when she had finished with the Louvre
and the Tomb of Napoleon, there
isn't any place like Spruceville.
And there isn't whether the Spruce
vile be New York, or Smiths Cor
ners, Chicago or Slabtown-on-the
Pike.
Down in Texas the editor Of San
Antonio daily has remembered that
And in program of pure, inspira
Itional joy he is bringing all the Local
soldier boys and their particular
Sprucevilles together.
In this way. Since the boys can't
60 back to Spruceville-in fact they
can't go any further from their neigh
boring camps than San Antonio-he
is just bringing Spruceville to them
by means of Home Folks Column"
And nothing could be easier. The
truth is that almost all the Texas
Sprucevilles are in San Antonio al
ready. Or, to be more accurate, they
are represented by leading citizens OF
by humber people who left those
hometown Sprucevilles 10 or 20 OF
80 years ago, when they were boys
or girls. For them also-though they
haven't often ventured to say so right
out loud-there isn't any place like
Spruceville-that is, their own
Spruceville. And the editor of that
Home Folks Column is affording them
the chance, and the soldier boys the
chance to send in their present San
Antonio or camp addresses, to meet
up each Sprucevillian with his fel.
lows of like honor in their birth, and
then to have evening after evening,
right there in San Antonio, filled with
good, rich, satisfying Spruceville talk
! RES ana SpruceVIile ak
! For the soldier boy though, it
means much more than talk. For him
it means invitation to eat home cook.
ing and turkey with chestnuts,
cheese-cake and floating island of
! the kind you can learn to make only
/ by being born in Spruceville. And
once he Is in touch with one good
homefolks family, he is simply passed
along to the next and the next and
the next until in the end there are
at least six waiting to make him eat
and help him talk Spruceville on
every liberty day he has.
/ There is on San Antonio Aunt
Marthy, with a huge house and no
family, who, when she had had the
pleasure of feeding her first home boy
in years, simply told him, next time,
/. to bring every, other one there was.
For of course-though something may
have to remind you of it and make
you realize it anew-just as there is
no place like Spruceville, so there are
no people, or soldier boys, like the
ones who come from there.
Now Aunt Marthy's house is open
every Sunday And when she is able
to form at least some approximate
idea of HON many she is going to "sit
down" that day she lets swing in
with her and help get dinner-the
best you can get in San Antonio,-
and then, when they've eaten it, help
clear away.
No Longer Homesick
Funny? Well, you can write fun
about it. But it isn't really funny. 1t
comes from too deep down for that.
1t is something which, for the time,
banishes all the longing and lone.
someness and inconsistencies of the
soldier boy.
And you see there are so many
thousands of him, so many tens Of
thousands. who have never been awav
from Spruceville before. In this
great benumbing war business it is
bridging the step for him with human
kindness and kinship and love. 1t is
making it easier for him, oh, vastly
easier, to take hold of himself for the
big, long, unseen step that is still to
come.
Moreover, we've only told a part of
1t. There are some things which, in
astory that even begins with a laugh.
can't be told at ALL There's this. for
choice. One letter to that Home
Folks Column came from a boy who
was ill, very ill., in a San Antonio
hospital. The letter was written bv
his nurse, He, too wanted some one
from Spruceville. And very soon
that Spruceville person came-came
and stayed and talked Spruceville
with him for most of the night. 1t
'sSNJae-esee pa-ssssf,s.-e~sss@~~s.a