The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1918-10-11
BY WILLIAM G. SHEPHERD.

OuIO QS OCSdu1 dShcO q WOhAiCA'1O '1OS@a-
ing negro soldier on q transport in
mid~Atlantic.
"Why, man, we're on de ocean now.
jes' ez much ez Wen ever be-" answer
ed lis partner.
go on. Dis is too smooth for de
ocean. Dis is de sea, tell you"
The next day the season Of CLASSY
seas had gone and a lively wind
whipped the Atlantic.
Didn't ! tell you? Didn't I tell
you" said the negro soldier. II knew
sure we'd come to de ocean IL we kept
on travelin'."
But it isn't only among the dark
boys in our army that ignorance of the
ocean prevails. Not one in thou
sand Of the million and more Ameri-
can boys in France today ever crossed
the ocean; literally hundreds Of thou
sands of them never saw either the At
lantic or the Pacific until they came
to the seacoast to take ship for the
war. Riding, crowded, in ship, on
strange ocean is no fun.
lew to keep our hundreds Of thou
sands of boys happy and well and as
comfortable as possible while they
are passing through the strange ad-
venture of getting to France is a task
that the army, the navy and the 7. NJ.
C. A. are working out. It's an un-
blazed trail they are following, but
each day with new experiences and
new lessons brings them nearer to the
mark.
Days Drag Heavily.
Ten days on the ocean is heavy
drag on soldier morale. How to get
into those ten ocean days pep, fun.
laughter, music and lots Of play, as
well as lots Of drill is no easy problem
to solve.
The army men realized, as soon as
we began transporting troops to
France, that midocean strains on the
men might injure their morale consid-
erably and, perhaps, undo much goe1
work that had been previously done In
the camps at morale-building.
The navy men, who supervise the
transport work, came to the same
realization both as regards the
troops they transported and their own
civilian or merchant marine crews.
And thus the Y. NJ C. A. was invited
onto the ocean.
The "Y" had to pick its way care
fully.
At first, SO it appears, the work was
not without error.
Being human institution, the W"
had to find out, first, how not to do the
Job. For instance, on several ships
happy-go-lucky type of secretary
trfed the work. Bis wholesale good
mornings" his stories, which he had
trained himself to tell and which were
never Of the zippy sort that the men
themselves had at their tongue ends,
and hts attempts at breezy good cheer
all fell fat. He found himself in dam
ger of being considered as excess car
90. On the other hand, the 7. M. G. A.
secretary who felt that he was mis-
sionary among lot Of wayward boys
found himself left out in the cold.
The "Y" leaders have discovered Dy
this time, in the great war, that "Y'
man who isn't liked by all the men
With whom he comes into contact had
better be called back home.
And now, after several months OF
experimenting, the 7. NJ. G. A. has
learned that service to the boys and
nothing but the best of service is what
is needed to make their work efficient.
The secretary who goes on each troop
ship to France keeps himself in the
background and only men who can do
this are chosen for the work. The ''Y''
service may stand ont but never the
man who renders it.
For the first day or two the syn
man on transport quietly makes his
preparations; the novelty of being on
the ocean is claiming the full atten-
IlOQ OIL Lie liOuSd1uS VI o4nSA1Se<A
boys aboard and seasickness has not
hit them.
Ready for the Show.
About the second day out the young
men are glad enough to read that, in
their particular section OF, the ship
that evening, there Is going to be a
boxing match, or a movie show.
Word gets around that Y" man on
board has brought a library Of the
latest books with him and thousands
of magazines. Punching bags appear
here and there. "Where'd you get
those checkers?" the onlookers ask Of
q team Of checker players. They learn
that the 'sY" man is giving them out
to all comers and that he has chess
and dominoes, too, for the asking. A
medicine ball game, in which scores
can play at once, is mysteriously be
gun on one of the decks. A notice is
posted up that sonte chap who got a
decision in one of the boxing rings the
night before challenges all comers; 1t
.:I4.n ~, Da5 .Pric noIo cfS.