The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1918-11-14
Letter From
DR.. Robt. Yost
Ny Dear Mr.. Lancaster =

!
In regard to the "Y" work in the
camps, / have had but a short ex-
Eperience compared with others and it
is possible that some of my conclu-
sions might be revised a little later
Also owing to the fact that ever since
| have been there our work has been
seriously handi capped on account
of the "fiu." / have been unable to
see just how big it would be in normal
times. If / might condense my i'm
preston of the "Y" work would
say that it is greater than / had be-
lieved before | entered the field. It
is almost impossible to exakkerate the
meaning of the "Y" building to the
soldiers; not only in the carrying out
of big program that includes educa-
ton, the physical department. and
the social, as well as the religious.
But in the atmosphere created by the
"Y" organization / sometimes feel as
| watch the soldiers come and go, lis
tening to their remarks concerning
the meaning of the "Y' to them, that
the greatest thing they will take away
from the "hut" will be the memory
of the helpful, inspiring atmosphere
created by the building. You know
perfectly well that "Y" worker has
no chance if he is at all selfish in his
life. We are here simply to serve,
and it is not question of whether the
service seems to us big or insignif-
cant. The main thing is, that we
help the boys, in whatever way they
request. | never knew the posi-
bilities of friendly approach and
jolly word with the smile of cheer un-
til | have seen our "Y" fellows at
work among the soldiers, and the
beautiful thing about it to me is that
it is not professional on the part of
our workers, but absolutely sincere.
Any little service that is requested is
freely given, | have known one Of
our best secretaries to spend four
hours on some little errand that in
itself seemed very trifing, but when
considered in the light of the people
whom we served, it was very import
ant. There is rule among our sec
retaries that we are to drop ourselves
absolutely out of sight and work for
the boys whenever there is chance.
No doubt the rule is broken often,
but / think it is the observance of |
that rule that has created such
splendid atmosphere.
My own line of service, of course. |
is in the religious department, but
do just as much outside of that de-
partment. | have learned to wrap
packages, send express packages, par
eel post, write letters, send kilograms,
hunt up boys for mothers hundreds
Of miles away, send messages in the
interest of the boys to the mothers
and talk with the boys on every con-
,eivable subject. I already know all
about the love a*airs of several of
he boys, and Of course being an ex-
pert in that line, my services are very
valuable. But they understand that
hey can approach any one of us on
my subject and we meet them as
men. Quite frequently they will APP
oroach US on a purely religious sub
ect, and of course that opens the OPP
oortunity which we covet. One lad
,ame to me after a Sunday evening
service, saying, | never read my Bible
Until within the last week. / have
cad "a pages. want to ask you
! question-what is the unpardon-
lble sin? / told him he ought to be-
sin with something easy, but we sat
Town and talked it over and l think
lie felt in measure satisfied
Another lad asked me one day if
could prove to him from the Bible
hat if fellow called upon God in
that God would always hear
i'm? / mention these simply as illus
rations of the real serious thoughts
hat grab a fellows mind. Three
Joys came to me one evening with
his question:: Can a fellow keep his
life clean? OF course, | soon told