Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-02-01
without a cutter and it was too much

lOT Inenl.
Have I told you that am a regu-
lar member of the staff of the Heavy
Artillery School? AS such 1 am now
taking my meals at the officers mess
and am meeting some of the finest
type of American men l ever knew.
They are all impressed with the Sc
robustness of their task. l told some
of them what my brother said in one
of his letters, that he prayed he
would not receive a commission II
he were not really fitted for it. They
told me that that was the sentiment
throughout the school.
Touching Address to Soldiers
! DIR. Anderson has been here. The
boys say, This man is prince" He
said to them, Boys, 1 am going to
take a message home to your dear
ones. Youcan make it whatever you
wish as long as you don't mention
names of places, but think what it
would mean to your mother, wife,
sister or sweetheart to have you tell
] them that you here and now recon-
I secrated yourself to God and that you
would not bow down when the music
plays. (This was the subject matter
of his wonderful sermon.) You re-
member when your mother taught
you to say, Now l lay me down to
sleep, 1 pray the Lord my soul to
keep, etc. Won't you tell her now
that you will say that prayer if no
other and that you will return to her
as pure as you left her? The effect
was tremendous. Over $50 messages
were handed to him and everybody
| came up to shake hands. DIR. Ander-
son says the messages were of the
most touching character. Most of
them promising not to bow down,
and asking for prayers for the Y. NJ.
| c. A. who sent such an inspiring
man to them. There will be an ac-
count of the meeting in the "Associa-
ton Men,"
French Keen For Baseball
| To-day two fine looking young
me If they could play that game
with little round ball and two
gloves" For the life of me I could
mt understand what they meant, but
after a little more explanation on
their part 1 found out that they
wanted nothing more or less than to
pass a baseball So 1 gave them a
ball and two gloves, and then, from
a distance watched the fun. They
were strong, athletic men and the
way they passed that ball they got
more exercise out of it than any two
Americans ever could. First of all
they stood at quite an ambitious dis
| tance from each other. Let us call
one A. the other B. A seemed to
realize that he had quite a task
ahead of him to get that ball down
to b. He made a few false starts
and then with what the boys would
call a real sissified motion he heaved
the ball more like a shotpu then
anything else. The ball landed half
way between the two. B made a
violent effort to stop it as it came
bouncing along. 1t came nearer his
nose than his hand and he scam
pered down the field after it, making
futile attempts to get it before it
came to a dead stop.
Now it was BIS turn to throw the
ball. He ran back much nearer A
than he had been at first, took a
good swing and sent the ball soar
ing way up in the air over AS head
A then ran after the ball and re-
turned, it, with but little better sue
cess than before. And so they passed
the elusive pill" back and FORTH
taking it as n matter of course that
they should miss it and have to chase
it. up. AS 1 say, they got lot of
exercise out of it.
An American soldier soon came
along and good d-naturedly attempted
to show them how it should really
1
at the way the American managed
to get the ball to their glove which
never held itand TO catch it if it came
anywhere near him, but the Amer
| lean began to put so much steam
into it that they seemed quite re-
lieved when he left them alone.
And so the game went on as at
first, only each time they returned
| the ball they approached each other
| In.1 a. .I
some business but a quarter of an
hour later I looked out and they
were still having the time of their
| lives. They were now almost on top
! of one another but their gloves
| seemed to have holes in them and
! they had no success in holding it.
1t is strange that baseball is so
little known over here. The French
however seem to like it. and may
be able to do fairly well, but, as
| everybody knows. it requires many
youth to get the knack of our great
American game. In rough football
the French are often more than a
match for the Americans: they are
clean, skillful, plucky boxers and
have more than held their own in
the bouts here in camp; but if we
want them to learn baseball we shall
nave 10 start tnem at IL IN the prl-
mary schools. If once established,
imagine the hit it would make in
France-the excitement at a game
in which everybody took sides sur
passes all Imagination. The only
drawback is that it would undoubt-
edly lead as it has in America to an
entirely new vocabulary and If the
French kept pace with the Ameri-
cans in this respect, the result would
be hopeless.
Big Thanksgiving Eats
The Y. NJ. c. A. had their dinner
Friday noon. The general and his
chief of staff were there. The girls
had a wonderful dinner for us-all
the regular Thanksgiving fiXings with
apple, mince and pumpkin pies. 1t
was just as fine as it could possibly
be. The major found out that DIR.
Cockett had made the mince pies
so he asked her for a saw to cut
the crust. DR.. Cockett reached
right into her pocket and brought
out great big knife, opened one
of the blades which turned out to be
perfectly good saw. The major
still insisted he couldn't cut through
the crust so DR.. Cockett went out
into the kitchen and re-appeared
with a big butchers cleaver. The
major seemed satisfied with that and
went around cutting everybody's pie
with it.