The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1919-06-12
Soldier Evangelist
Saw Only Two
Men Drunk
SOLDIER EVANGELIST

SOLDIER EVANGELIST H"shl
ST. LOUIS, June 12,-Capt. Gypsy
Pat Smith, of the Northumberland
Fusileers, spoke at largely attend
ed service at the Union Methodist
Episcopal church of this city, Sun
day afternoon, this meeting being
under the auspices of the st. Louis
Church Federation. Rev. DR.. A, H.
Armstrong, secretary of the Church
Federation, presided, and Rev. How
ard Billman told of general plans for
summer work of the federation. Rev.
DR.. Benjamin Young and other min
listers sat on the rostrum.
Captain Smith, who took part in
the battle of the Somme, the second
battle of Ypres and other engage
ments, answered several popular ques-
tions concerning the men cover there"
and spoke first on the attitude of the
men in the ranks toward drink.
"There were 100000 to 100000
in the British army; the French army
had something similar, and the Bel
gian army perhaps 100000 in the
later days; the American army came
up to 1000 900; but Of all these men
at the front | saw only two men
drunk in all the time was in the
war, and these were exceptional cases.
Zone was an officer. This officer,
before the battle of the Somme, lost
his head and began drinking, and
when he went over was blind drunk
Twenty-three officers were killed that
day; he was one of the number.
"The other man | saw drunk was
sergeant. He and | were to go
across together and cut the German
wire, which is a bad job: soon
; discovered something was wrong, for
, he stood outside the German line.
waved his hands and shouted, chal-
l lenging all the Germans to come out
p and fight, that he would whip them
8 all. | could do nothing with him, so
4 | gave him some persuasion on the
back of his head and sent for another
4 man. who came out and we did the
4 work. This man would have been
). shot if | had told nhim, but he had
j. a wife and two children, and it was
d never known.
g "As to the rum ration which you
v have heard about, it was given only lr
q extreme cases. At the battle of the
v Somme, where 100000 British sol
4 diers were killed, the men had beer
!. standing over their knees in mud al
X the night before. A rum ration wa
t. handed out and l gave it to them a
medicine. They had no hot tea o
coffee. and this was to hearten then
up, for most of them were to di
within three hours. The amour
~ which over 500 meh got was on
- tablespoonful apiece.
h "Wicked exaggerations have bee
lie reported about the men drinking. |
E. Belfast a man said in public ths
y the men were doped, and that wa
ed why so many were killed. | took ths
ed man before the magistrate, who sal
to the worst he could do was to give hi
h. three months. Cant you have hi
n hanged?' said |. Such things al
rs a libel and a lie. Don't believe an
in one who says the men were doped
a is not true
RS Captain Smith told of instances /
on had seen of the Germans killing Bri
re ish wounded in No Mans Land. Nj
chine guns were aimed and set ft
gaps in the wire fence, in which
was known that the wounded me
would crawl home, after night. IT
result was that these gaps were a
most clogged with men with broke
- legs or arms who had been painful
~ crawling home from the battle, on
n to be killed just as they reached the
IS own lines.
n Opposed to this, Captain Smit
m said that the British showed humanit
of to their captives and even risked the
,p- own lives at times to bring succor
"a wounded Germans. Captain Smi
nd became impassioned as he paced bat
er and forth, declaring ne "1oved t!
Lord Jesus Christ, but he could ha'