The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1918-05-26

French fronts, and a part of the Brit
ish front in France. After viewing
conditions on the allied battlefronts
Bishop Mcconnell says, II consider
the Centenary movement of our church
the most important and hopeful sug-
gestion thus far made for the worlds
reconstruction after the war" The
Methodist Episcopal Church is cele
brating the Centenary of Methodist
missions by framing a World Program
with the express purpose of conserv-
ing the results of the war.
Bishop Mcconnell describes the
morale of the American forces and
the conditions over there as follows:
When over in France l had the inn
preston that everything was going
all right said Bishop Mcconnell.
Since / landed in New York 1 was
told that everything had gone wrong.
that we had a miserable handful of
troops over there. badly provided for
and that we were not doing our part
well. 1 am very happy to be able to
say that If is true the people in France
don't know it.
IF you could stand as l have stood
at a seaport in France and greet
American soldiers. and if you could
see three converted Hamburg -Ameri-
can liners loaded as American trans
ports with sixteen thousand soldiers
on each ship, you might get the i'm
preston that something was happen
ing. >And IL you knew that this same
thing was occurring in two other
ports, you might well know that
America is really sending over her
troops. 1 was in twenty-eight differ
ent places speaking to American SOL
there were good many of them there.
and that all are being well taken
care of.
'T ate with the private soldiers. We
had beefsteak, potatoes, white bread
and butter, and coffee with sugar and
milk in 1t. For dessert there was rice
with raisins cooked in it. You
couldn't call that starvation, would
you?
f"Many people told me that the
American army was a detected army
Wished to go back home and that they
had no spirit. I looked for pessimism.
/ went one time to an evacuation hos
pital just back of the American Sec
tor. and asked, Please show me the
worst case you have here" They took
me to see McGonnigal AS his name
might imply, he was not a man TO
be bound down closely by military
procedure. They gave him hand
grenade, which requires quick action.
McGonnigal pulled the pin out and
then looked around for a place to
throw It. He landed In the hospital
with both arms gone and the rest of
, i'm badly damaged. I talked to him
and then asked. What would you like
most to see when you get well again.
He answered, well, If 1t could be ar
ranged before go back, I'd like
nothing better than another chance in
would think had everything that wealth
the trenches &sv
Later I went to a ruined village
and talked with some soldiers seated
around fire, their gas masks In po-
sition, all ready to go into the
trenches. I stopped to see what they
were talking about. Were they talk
ing about death and general desola-
ton? No, they were engaged in an
argument as to which is the best kind
of a woman to marry. the country
woman or the city woman.
zone night / was permitted to go to
a sort OF resting place for raiders
out of the trenches. a kind of
a combination OF earthen dugout and
wooden hut. 1 went up and began to
ak to the boys and they told me that
hey were blue. 1 asked If they were
'lomesick. They said. Not exactly
They told me that they had been over
n No Mans Land and couldn't catch
a German. All they had for their
heavy work was one German rifle and
a bundle of German newspapers, and
so the men were detected. But that
IS not the kind of pessimism that you
could charge up to the American
army.
Perhaps you think I am painting
this picture of war as all rosy, but it
IS not I heard only one band play
in France while I was there, and that
was a band of Scotch pipers. You see
this is not band playing war. II
never saw so many different kinds of
mud in my life. Nor have l ever felt
rain which had such T. penetra ting
kind of cold as over there, but all
those things are accepted as part of
war, and I heard no one complain
ing.
The American soldiers are bring
ing two things to the war. The first
is a quick wittedness. and the second
L spirit of good humor and a kind of |
lelpfulness that is going to be OF |
great benefit.
Wnen i was on the Br1tiSh mont /
me of the officers told me that II had /
,een the custom to send the young |
american artillery officers up to those
# the British soldiers who had had |
.rtillery training in actual battle. He I
aid. That is, we mapped out a care
III training which took six weeks
ut do you know that there has never
zen a man here vet who has not fin
shed that in ten days
After a raid on the front. north
rest OF Toul, a sermon was brought
ack OF the American lines. When he
lnally came to he began to wonder
that had happened to him for all his
uttons were gon. The Americans
ook him down to the evacuation hos
ita1 and gave him good medical at
ention. The men found out that he