The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-06-01

had the slightest bit of military train
ing until November of 1917. when he
was drafted and sent to the Eighty
second Division cantonment at Camp
Gordon, near Atlanta. York grew up
as all the other boys OF his district
grew up, wild and unframed, caring
little for law and less for order, a crack
shot with a rifle and q shotgun, for he
! began to shoot when he was a young
ster. So large was his family and so
little did the York farm produce the
Sergeant had to 60 to work when he
was very young: such education as he
has he picked up for himself. He
worked as a blacksmith and a farm
laborer. and to this sort OF thing he
owes the powerful muscles and the big
frame which made hiking over the
hard roads Of France mere child's play
for him. a
The wild. Oats He sowed.
| In his youth Sergeant York was bad,
sometimes he says he was downright
mean. He fought and he gambled and
he drank, mostly the terrible moon
shine whiskey of the Southern noun
tains. corn liquor that has a kick like
the hammer of Thor. Until about four
years ago Sergeant York drank and
fought and gambled and drank and
fought and gambled again, In spite Of
the urging of his mother TO quit and
join the church. Many a time his
mother followed him to the road that
| ran past the York shack, begging him
not to go to town ON his weekly
carouse. But he always went, and he
| usually came home drunk and very
disorderly. Several times he narrowly
escaped shooting somebody, because
when he went TO town he usually took
his rifle or his revolver with him.
fork's awakening came when his
father died in 1911, leaving him the
head of the family and responsible for
their welfare and support! But still he
did not change his habits very much;
he still went to town every Saturday
night and got drunk and fought and
gambled, but there were occasional pc
riods when he began to ask himself II
II, paid. and then again there were
times when he yielded to his mothers
persuasion and remained at home
Finally she succeeded in getting him
to go TO church. and at length he
Joined the Church OF Christ and Chris
tan Union. a religious sect that has
very strict tenets. one OF them being
the belief that II is wrong to kill even
In war. York went into his religious
duties as zealously as he had gone the
opposite direction. He became q re-
ligious Zealot, forsaking his erstwhile
companions, and from that day to this
he has never touched liquor and he
has never gambled and he has never
cursed.
scrupIes Against Killing.
And when the war came to America
York was a real conscientious objector.
He was not the sort that raves and
rants In public and ends by being
proved a coward; there was never a
question at any time or anywhere
about the sergeant's courage his
scruples against killing were religious
scruples. But when the draft took him
he went. because he was an American
first OF all and he hoped that he would
be given non combatant work. But in
stead he was assigned to a fighting
outfit, an infantry regiment, and then
began a time OF sore trial TO him. He
knew his duties to his country, but 4,
they confiicted grievously with his re-
ligious convictions. Fortunately York
had as officers of his company men
who had been born and reared in the
South. They knew the South and the
people OF the South; they knew York's
kind OF men as well as they knew
themselves. They respected his relig-
ious scruples. but they believed he
was wrong. For weeks they labored |
with him, quoting the Bible to prove |
that force was all right when properly |
employed and when employed in a |
righteous cause. York wavered, and |
finally he became convinced that he |
could kill and still be spiritually clean |
-..and the thing that convinced him |
was she reading of this excerpt from
the book OF Ezekiel:
son of man, speak to the children |
Of thy people, and say unto them,
When bring the sword upon a land, |
II the people of the land take a man
of their coasts and send him for their |
Waterman; II when he seeth the sword |
come upon the land he blow the |
trumpet and warn the people, then |
whatsoever heareth the sound of the |
trumpet and taketh not warning; and |