The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1918-10-04

Of Long voyage-Hear ILLUSTRATED
Lectures on the Ally Countries ant
Il Get Lessons In French Singing ON
Of tho Chief joys Of tho Trip.
BY WILLIAM a. SHEPHERD.
"When do we leave de sea and Gil
onto de ocean," asked wOrried-lOok'
ing negro soldier on a transport In
mid-Atlantic.
"Why, man, we're on de ocean now,
! jes ez much ez Wen ever be-" answer
ed his partner.
go on. Dis is too smooth for de
ocean. Dis Is de sea, tell you."
The next day the season Of CLASSY
seas had gone and a lively wind
whipped the Atlantic.
"Didn't. l tell you? Didn't I tell
youY said the negro soldier. II knew
sure we'd come to de ocean II we kept
on travelin'."
But it isn't only among the dark
boys in our army that ignorance Of the
ocean prevails. Not one in a thou
sand of the million and more Ameri-
can boys in France today ever crossed
the ocean; literally hundreds Of thou
sands Of them never saw either the At
lantic or the Pacific until they came
to the seacoast to take ship for the
war. Riding, crowded, in ship, on
8 strange ocean is no fun.
low to keep our hundreds of thou
sands of boys happy and well and as
comfortable as possible while they
are passing through the strange adj
venture of getting to France is task
that the army, the navy and the Y. Nj.
G. A. are working out. It's an I'M
blazed trail they are following, but
each day with new experiences and
new lessons brings them nearer to the
mark.
Days Drag Heavily.
Ten days on the ocean is heavy
drag on soldier morale. How to get
into those ten ocean days pep, fun,
laughter, music and lots Of play, as
well as lots of drill is no easy problem
to solve.
The army men realized, as soon as
we began transporting troops to
France, that midocean strains on the
men might injure their morale consid-
erably and, perhaps, undo much good
work that had been previously done in
the camps at morale-building.
The navy men, who supervise the
transport work, came to the same
realization both as regards the
troops they transported and their own
civilian or merchant marine crews.
And thus the Y. M. G. A. was invited
onto the ocean.
The "Y" had to pick it's way care
fully.
At first, so it appears, the work was
not without error
Being human institution, the 'Y"
had to find out, first, how not to do the
Job. For instance, on several ships
a happy-go-lucky type of secretary
tried the work. His wholesale good
his stories, which he had
trained himself to tell and which were
never Of the zippy sort that the men i:
had at their tongue ends,
and his attempts at breezy good cheer
all fell fat He found himself In dan
ger Of being considered as excess car
90. On the other hand, the Y. M. C. A.
who felt that he was a mis-
,ionary among lot of hayward boys
The ~" leaders have discovered by
his time, in the great war, that 'sY"
nan who isn't liked by all the men \
With whom he comes into contact had
,etter be called back home. c
And now, after several months of
the Y. M. G. A. has
earned that service to the boys and :
othing but the best of service is what
S needed to make their work efficient.
The secretary who goes on each troop c
hip to France keeps himself in the =
background and only men who can do
his are chosen for the work. The "Y" :
ervice may stand out but never the y
IAN who renders it.
For the first day or two the "Y" 0
ian on transport quietly makes his y
the novelty of being on
he ocean is claiming the full atten- :
on of the thousands of American r
Oys aboard and seasickness has not
it them.
Ready for the Show. =
About the second day out the young
en- are glad enough to read that, in
leir particular section of the stsip
lat evening, there is going to be
king match, or movie show.
ord gets around that a ~" man on r
,ard has brought a library Of the
test books with him and thousands
magazines. Punching bags appear =
re and there. "Where'd you get F,
ose checkers p the onlookers ask o.
team of checker players. They learn =
at the "Y" man is giving them out =,
all Corners and that he has chess
d dominoes, too, for the asking. A lie
adicine ball game, in which scores =
n play at once, is mysteriously be- ~
y on o. OF the decks. A notice is II,
sted up that some chap who got a y
cfsion in one of the boxing rings the r,
mt before challenges all corners; it
typewriter on Red Triangle sta az
merry. A checker champion gets the 40