The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-03-12

followed it up with frontal attack in
which movement he brought from its
camouflage a loving cup standing more
than a foot high and being of graceful
| lines. Mr.. jackson told General Edwards
| that the cup betokened the admiration,
esteem and love of the people of Barre
! for what he as commanding officer of
| the Goth division had done for the Yer
mont boys who helped to make up the
| original personnel of that division
Undoubtedly it was an unexpected at
| tack but General Edwards summoned his
reserve of poise and neatly parted by
telling the people of Barre how much he
should prize the cup as memento Of
the pleasant trip to Barre and the splen-
did reception given him, He said that
| he should take particular pleasure in
showing the cup to "the Mrs, who, by
| the way, seemed to be ever in his mind
during his stay in Barre, as more than
once a gentle reference was made to her.
| After General Edwards had taken close
/ observation of the trophy Of his visit TO
! Barre the cup was passed around the
| tables, and the general proceeded with
his talk
As in the evening address at the opera
| house his message was largely one Of
| high approval Of the Goth division, than
! which there is no better in France. He
said that in the Chateau Thierry drive
| the headquarters of the division had to
move three times in one day and he him
self had to ride 80 miles to keep up with
the push of the Yankee division, so eager
were they for the work in hand
! So eager were they to do their work
that they got the reputation among the
Boches of taking few prisoners; that is,
! of hopping up in the most expeditions
| fashion. Indeed, the Boches made a
| formal complaint that one German had
been killed after being taken prisoner.
A court martial was held on this case,
/ that of young Italian; but it was prov
en- that the young Italian soldier was
| thoroughly justified in his course, as the
! Boche who was killed was holding Up
| his hand and yelling "Kamerad" while
! at the same time he was holding a "po-
! tato masher,' the German hand grenade.
I ready to throw. General Edwards said
! he personally commended the young
/ Italian soldier for his good judgment.
! But to show the enemy that they could
| take prisoners, the Yankee division went
into the next battle and captured 1900
| Boches
As during the evening address at the
| opera house, General Edwards was
cheered repeatedly as he made telling
points in bringing out the soldierly quail.
| tiles of the New England boys who made
up the New England division. In fact,
so pleased were his auditors with his
clean.cut, mastery way of presenting
| facts that they were loath to have him
/ sit down.
The greetings of the state of Vermont
were brought by Harvey +. Goodell sec
rotary of civil and military affairs, to
/ Governor Clement, as also of the proceed
| ing executive, Governor Graham Mr.
Goodell related some of the incidents
which had happened in the executive Of
| flee during the period Of the war and he
| took occasion to touch upon the assid-
uous attention which Govern Graham
| had given to matters relating to the war.
The mention of Governor Graham's
name in this connection was the signal
! for General Edwards to Jump to his feet
and, begging the indulgence Of the party
| for speaking again, to assert with all
! positiveness that Governor Graham had
! lent him most valuable aid in solving
| the problems incident to the development
| of the 26th division. General Edwards
| said he wanted to say for Governor Ora
ham that no New England governor has
| been more solicitous after the welfare of
! the boys of the Goth division than had
| Governor Graham. The assertion was
given notable handclapping.
| e. L. Smith of Barre, introduced as a
veteran of the Civil war, had for the
sentiment of his toast: "If anyone at
| tempts to haul down the American flag,
shoot him on the spot" and in his usual
vigorous language he supported that sen
| timent. Mr.. Smith compared the battles
| of the Civil war with the battles of the
recent war and illustrated what differ
ence a little training does with troops,
referring to the fact that General Ed
wards division had not had the benefit
of six months training before being sent
/ into the front line and adding that the
! Vermonters who were sent into the sec
/ ond battle of Bull Run hadn't been away
I from home a month"; so, like all green
! troops. they broke under the strain and
went into rout. But they came back
after three months training, He felt
confident when the United States entered
the recent war that the Americans, given
chance to develop, would prove unbeat-
able, and such they were.
Captain S. c. Cushing of the Vermont
draft office said that the draft had taught
the people of the United States many
things, among which was that they have
tremendous task of Amercanization.
He referred to the fact that draft figures
of the country showed a total of more
than two millions of unnaturalized Rus
slams, Italians and Austrians. He said
that these men will become good Amer
leans when they catch the American
spirit, and to get that spirit into them
is a great problem to be met.
Professor H. R. Roberts, dean of Nor
WITCH university, remarked that the uni
versity folks were going to have General
Edwards with them on Thursday and
were going to pump him full of Nor
witch" then, but in the meantime he
would give some figures of what Norwich
has done in the war, the most salient
feature being that little Norwich bad PIT
men in active service, while a mournful