New Britain herald., 1918-08-10
A THROUGH he was a mere N lad---he didn't look a day over seventeen-he wore the
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 "A over seventeen-he wore the
 uniform of a sailor in tn, United States Navy. He had come into this little room, opening off the maip street of the dreary French poGt, with just a bit of a swagger.
 ~'Oes cigarettes" he said, and flung upon the counter a ffty-franc bill.
 What brand do you prefer?" asked She girl-behind-th -the-counter.
 Instantly, that faint hint of bra vado passed from the boyish face, leaving it clean and manly-glad, too, and yet wistful
 ''Gee!' he cried. You're an American, aren't you7 Great guns, but it's good to hear American talked in this town
 He drew out, as long as he dared, the details of his purchase. He went and bought some more cigarettes. He hung about the room, and thep bought still more. He ostentatiously pulled out 8 shining cigarette case from a pocket, and filled it.
 The clerk couldn't help a smile. SSYou must smoke a great deal" she said.
 The sailor blushed. Its not that" he confessed, "but--well, just to hear you talk Is like home! Y He 9umbled with the cigarette case.
 See that?" he said. "I got it to- day from my folks in Boston. That monogram-they're my initials. I guessed maybe they'd send me ciga- rettes, but I didn't expect the casa. As 1t WAS, the case came alone"
 ''It's very pretty" said the clerk.
 ''It's the first word I've had from home for three months" said the boy.
 They don't write?'
 ma1ls are all baIledup."
 @Still, you did get the case" m
 LETTERS, THE DEMAND
 Sure; but I'd rather had a letter than a hundred cigarette cases. Of course I'm glad 1 enlisted: but, gee, if the people at home knew how bad us fellows wanted letters. they'd write every day, even if they didn't have nothin' to say except Yours truly If they only knew !'
 
 our young seanaen in France: unfal- tering in his determination to do his duty, but unremittingly homesick. The room in which he revealed his heart was one of many such rooms where, daily, many of our enlisted men are mored to similar confessions 1; eheir one healthy substitute for home, the Y. N. c. A headquarters at 8 French port.
 These boys are the keepers-up of commerce, the food-bringers. the eieepless guides and guardians of OUT troops that cross the sea.
 '~The work of the Mosquito Fleet ts nothing short of wonderful" a French admiral recently declared. S'In the last report of two hundred and fifty ships conveyed. only three losses were reported: since the Mos quito Fleet came here, the s. O. $. calls due to mines and submarine at tacks have decreased fifty per cent" These results are achieved only by labor that is hard, dangerous, and without recorded praise. There are dave when men have to stand on watch for fourteen hours without re- lief; whole voyages when the gum crews have never moved more than five feet from their guns, snatching eleep on the rain-washed decks cruises when the men in the fire room and before the engines have never once been able to come up for a breath of fresh air.
 WITHOUT A WHiMpER.
 Yet all that is borne without a whimper. The sailors read, now and then, a stray home paper and see the accounts of cheering crowds bid ding Godspeed to this or that depart ing. regiment; they feel that all the public's heart is going out to the army. They don't at all realize their own devotion, and their attitude IS almost that of apology for not more .spectacu1arly serving their country. They will tell you that they are glad they jumped to the guns,' but every mail brings news of friends that stayed behind and have won commis- eions at the Reserve Officers Train ing Camps.
 And then the ship comes back to port, and there are liberty parties going ashore.
 The British sailor is given his drink ration the British '. M. c. A. serves light beer. 1t isn't thus with our men. At sea there obtains only the taut rule of fat virtue, and the man that goes ashore is his own master.
 Do you begin to see now the prob 1Au that our Y. M. c. A has to face
 Any American sailor man will get Aonesick after a week here, and it's just homesickness that's the matter with most of these kids: if they cant be cured of 1t, they'll DO some Shfng to forget it."
 To be homesick-and, if you re- member your first boarding school @a2s after your mother'd kissed you