The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-11-12
yANKSDONTKNOW
HOW To RETREAT
Most Wonderful Boys in the
World, Say Woman Can
teen Workers.
WOUNDED ALWAYS CHEERFUL
Come Back From Battle Laughing and
Joking--Y. M. C.. A. Women Re-
. main Under Shell Fire to
Serve With Troops.

l. Paris.-"They can't retreat. They
are the most wonderful boys in the
world! !"
This vas the summary Of the A. IL.
e. that two American women, Mrs. Vim
cent Astor and Mrs. Henry Russell,
have just brought back from the
front, where they were the last women
to see the troops of the - division
as they went over the top and the
first to greet them as they marched
back again.
With gas masks over their arms
and helmets at hand Mrs. Astor and
Mrs. Russell laid a plank over two
boxes for a Y. M. G. A. canteen in a
wood just back of the trenches. Here
they watched the men march by into
battle and dropped cigarettes and
candy into their tin bonnets as they
marched back again, triumphant from
the big drive.
There was never such a return
from battle before, surely" Mrs. AS
tor and Mrs. Russell said, on their
return to Paris. "The boys came back
joking; they came back laughing.
Those who had been wounded seemed
to be just as happy and just as sure
of victory as the others.
Wounded Are Cheerful.
"sHere's where / get a dimple out
Of this one boy who had been wound
ed In the face and who had lost all his
teeth said to us. And that Is the way
they all were. When you went up to
a boy who lay so still that you feared
he was dead, you would find a cigar
cite waving between his teeth and a
grin on his face
As the men marched back past the
%impromptu Y. M. G. A. canteen they
gave Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Russell
souvenirs OF the battlefield.
The two have now In their posses
sion such mementos as a German belt,
a cap, an indelible pencil formerly
used by a Hun and any amount of
German money.
"One boy who had an Iron Cross
said that he had bargained with q
wounded German for It," Mrs. AstoI
related. "He told us that he had of
fered the German a drink of water
and to lift him up where the Red
Cross stretcher bearers could see him
more easily In exchange for the Iron
Cross. He got it."
Mrs. Russell said that she had
talked with one man who said that he
had see a German woman behind Q
machine gun, but that most of the
information on the subject had beer
secondhand and vague enough tc
make n doubt the report.
Fury Of Battle Upon Them.
IL asked him how he would treat
such a woman IL he captured her ant
he replied that he would shoot hel
without hesitation" she said. 'Tht
fury Of the battle was still upon The
men when they came back. We fount
very little disposition among them tt
sympathize with the skamerad' crlers
They had a ferocity about them wher
they came back that they hadnt hat
when they went over the top, and 1
new courage and self-assurance."
In one of the villages near the from
Mrs. Russell and Mrs. Astor met tire,
Y. M. @. A. women who had remained
under shell fire to serve the troops un
til they We're moved back by the gen
erals orders. The three were Mrs
Clara Simmons, Miss Elizabeth Drot
and Mrs. Oril Il. Henthorne.
Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Russell expec
to be stationed at a Y. M. G. A. can
teen at the front within a few weeks
Some n suggested that such an ad
vanced position was extremely dan
gerous In case our troops should re
treat and the Germans should follow
sour boys don't retreat" said Mrs
AstOr. "They can't retreat. The,
donst Imam homu