The states-graphic. (Brownsville, Tenn.) 1???-1984, 1918-04-12
SOLDIER BOY
WRITES HOME
Letter from Carlton Coleman Who is
Now Stationed at Camp Jackson,
Written to His Mother Here.

We are having big times here now.
We have some kind of meeting at the
mess hall every night almost.
They have started on our Y. NJ. C.
A. building. The war department APP
propriated $4,000 for the material
provided the major would furnish the
labor. You know we have a special
bunch of soldiers here who do all the
carpenter work and they are going to
put the building up. So we are going
to have an extra nice Y building, for
you know the labor would amount to
quite a good deal if it were done by
contractors.
Last Friday night we had the honor
Of having Madame Grace Rhieldappher
the noted American soprano, over here
to the remount to sing for US. She was
simply grand. She is not at all arts
tocratic, as her name implies, but in
stead, she is very democratic.
The Y men sent special invitations
to 35 young ladies in Columbia, that
have been coming out here and enter
tanning US. They came and we had a
dandy time. After the madame had
finished her program we served ice
cream and cakes, and had jolly hour
talking and playing the piano and
singing.
The benches at our tables are very
| announcement for ladies to get on so
Bagby had some chairs brought in
for the madame and her party, but
she insisted on sitting on the same
benches and eating at the same tables
that we soldier boys are used to. She
laughed and talked with US all. Those
who didn't go to her, she went to them.
Mother, she told us the story of why
she gave up all her concert work and
went out into the army camps to sing
for the soldier boys, and it's not diff
ferent from the story Of sacrifice that
all you dear, big hearted mothers are
making all over this wide land of ours.
AS / remember, this is the story as
she told it:
Last June she was sitting in her
dining room in her home in Philadel-
phia when her Oldest son, Billy Rhiel-
dappher, came into the room and laid
in her lap the afternoon paper. She
instantly saw this headline: "New
Defenders of the Flag" Under this
caption was the name Billy Hhiel-
dappher. He had enlisted that day
to fight for his country. She said that
she felt that she. couldn't give up her
boy yet she went into her room, and
alone with her God, she came to the
great truth for beautiful peace life
and she knew that it was well and that
her boy must 60, fo- his country need
ed him. So she went back to Billy
land told him that be would never see
Ia tear in her eye so long SIS he fougng
FOR his country's cause. And she told
him that she was going to cancel all
her contracts and 60 out into the ar
my camps and sing for the soldier boys
And today Billy Rhieldappher is in
France with the American forces. And
she went on and told us lots of things
he had written her since he has been
across. She is going to sing all this
year in the camps here in the U. S.
and next spring she sails for France
and shall, with her sweet, beautiful
voice sing new hope into the tired SOL
diers over there. She didn't try to
magnify her sacrifice, but instead, she
said she was only doing what the moth
ers all over this land were doing
giving up all for their country. Moth
er, she is a queen and she won the
heart of every boy at the remount.
The remount adopted her as our "yic-
tory mother"