The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1918-06-22
u.s.. TROOPS SING
BEFORE BATTLES
True Stuff in Average American
Appears When He Goes
. Into Action.
Heart And MOTIVES
Yankee Drops All Foolishness and
Horseplay Before He Goes Into
Battle-Courage and Deter
mination in Every Face.

With the American Army in France.
The true stuff that is in the aver
age American soldier comes to the
surface just before he goes into bat
tie.
The hour comes when he suddenly
quits all foolishness and horseplay
with his fellows and settles down to a
lot of sober thinking.
Far from being the rough, careless
fellow hat his life back of the lines
might often indicate, he stands out as
a young mar with clean heart and mo-
tives, fully alive to the dangers he is
going into, but possessing a high pa
triotism and courage and a determine
ton to see the thing through regard
less of the cost to himself.
Americas interests will always be
safe in the hands of such young men.
No Faltering Displayed.
They have felt, before the command
to go forward was given, that their
names would likely figure in the casu-
atty lists within avery few days.
But there was no faltering. Never
in my life have | seen such nobility OF
~countenance. On every face there ap-
peared the light of an iron resolve,
writes C. c. Lyon in the Chicago Post.
A soldier can be judged by the songs
he sings.
The Y. NJ. c. A. has done a most
valuable work, through its musicians
and entertainers, in breaking the ter
rible tension that must necessarily
hang over the army just before a big
engagement.
Every evening Y. NJ. G. A. song lead
ers went from battalion to battalion,
assembling the boys and having them
join in songs.
l went out several evenings with a
young fellow named Nee, who in civil
life is a professional song director.
Nearly every soldier had been pro-
vided with one of the Y. M. G. AS
soldiers song Sheets" containing
some So soldier songs. In the list
we're "Cuddle Up a Little Closer" u
Wish I Had a Girl" "Oh, You Beauti-
full Doll" ooh, My Darling Clemen-
tine" OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES" and 9th
ers of similar mushiness.
But not once did | hear a soldier
call for one of these songs. They were
popular stuff in the care-free. rollick-
ing days back in the rest camps, but
the boys had no heart for them as they
waited, within earshot of the big guns
to go into action.
When Director Nee would say:
"What'll we sing, fellows? Name it,"
calls would go up on all sides for
"Keep the Home Fires Burning" "Sil-
yer Threads Among the Gold"
"There's a Long, Long Trail" "My
Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean," Little
Gray Home in the West" and my Old
Kentucky Home"
Fighting for Home.
"Boys whose thoughts go back, thou
sands OF miles across the ocean to
their mothers and their s~weethearts,
can generally be depended upon in a
PINCH" a colonel said to me one even
ing, as he stood on the outskirts of the
crowd listening to the singing.
"These boys think they have to
show a rough exterior to one another
in the army, but at rock bottom,
they're pure gold" he added.
Letter-writing increased three-fold
among the boys after they reached the
threshold of the big battle. The boys
have no illusions as to what they're
getting into. They're determined that
it shall be said of them, if they die,
that they gave a good account of them
selves.