The Mountainair independent., 1918-08-01

support the Red Cross and number
of other things, but don't forget the
rY. M. c. A. fol. the "Y" is dear to
| the heart of the soldier and. affords
him a great deal of the pleasure he
gets in his leisure time. You will
probably think me a, chronic kicker
or better fitted to preach than any
thing else from the little sermon I
have given, but folks I'm simply
.elling you shoulder to shoulder what
We men in uniform think of these
Aings. We are giving all we have.
myself have given up all plans that
had made, have left home when ]
I'm needed badly and if necessary |
will give my life gladly. Surely the
people back home can do more sac
rificing. Few people have sacrificed
until it has hurt as the soldier boys
have done, but they will before the
war is over. No one ought to think
of doing more than come out even, in
these times.
You are no doubt interested in
knowing just what I have done,
where | have been and all about me
since l left home last October. l ar
rived at Camp Custer which is locat-
ed near Battle Creek, Michigan on
the evening of October 9th. Quite a
few men whom | found out were go
ing to the same battalion, arrived at
the same time I did 1t was inter
esting to study them, too, and won
der just what kind of a soldier each
one would make and what my rela-
tions with them might be before the
war was over. One man in particu-
lar took my attention. He wore old
black trousers, red sweater, cap
and a mustache all over his face
He was my companion as we walked
from the railway station to the Inter
urban station. With all due respect
to blacksmiths, | must tell you that |
Immediately picked him out as fol-
lower of that trade. | hardly know
why. But it turned out that he be-
came our company blacksmith. |
later found out he had other qualifi-
l,
bar tender, but it happened that we
had no opening for bar tenders in our
company.
| we'll remember our first meal on
mess kit that night for we had fri
ed onions and | had never been able
to eat fried onions before But had
decided that ! wouldn't let anything
get the best of me in the army and
indulged In the few weeks that fol-
lowed | lealhed that onions are deem
ed quite necessary to make a soldier
strong" for we had them on an ave-
rage about twice day | was sur
prised to find the meals that we had,
good variety of food and plenty of it,
We had fine meals all the time | was
at Custer-at Thanksgiving and Xmas
real hanquets.
The next day after arriving the
Lieut.. who commanded our company
calledme out and questioned me as
to what | had done in civil life and if
| thought ] could handle the company
of seventy-fve men and drill them.
| told him | thought | could and was
anxious to try. and he Immediately
appointed me First Sergeant of the
company. ! hardly knew what to do
as I didn't know any more about the
army then the men did, not as much
as two or three of them who had seen
four years service but knew it was
my chance and what it meant ii hes
itated. The first sergeant is the right
hand man of the captain and acts as
hts foreman | had hard time of it
but the men didn't know that / was
as ignorant of things as they were,-
made them think | knew it all, and
got away with it, ! drilled and in
structed them through the day and
studied at night what | was to give
them the next day and picked up
everything could about my duties.
had a fine man as commander. |
worked hard for him and he in turn
backed me up and everything went
off nicely. The men of my company
were mostly from Illinois, Wisconsin
and Indiana. There were auto driv-
ers, mechanics and telegraphers for
the most part and fine bunch of
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