The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-06-22
FUND FRIENDLIES'
RECALL WAR GIFTS
Yankee Veterans Pay Trib-
ute-to Thoughtfulness Of
Tobacco Donors.
HARDSHIP MADE LIGHT
mo Place American Soldiers
Went Smokes Didn't Fol-
\ low Them"
HaRDsHIP MADE LIGHT

m forget its Dement'S or inc donors OF
,bs fund Is to be found in q suggestion
nade by a recent caller at the ONCE
Of the fund. Said he:
"When I get homo and meet the other
fellows who are there already I am
going to suggest that we make a little
CLIQUE or society to be called by the
name of THE SUN Tobacco Fund Friend
lies or some such appellation and we
shall have regular or irregular meetings
where as we smoke the tobacco that
now comes easily wen recall the months
abroad when II It hadn't been for THE
Sun we should have had no tobacco
at all.
I'm serious about this" he added,
"for while there are bound to be many
reasons for the meetings OF the alumni
Of the great war / bet there will never
he one such meeting without reference
being made to this fund The boys like
to tell how they were situated when at
a critical moment along would come
some tobacco from the States. and what
ever the situation was or however des-
perate IL had seemed until the tobacco
arrived then II Immediately frightened
and we took hardships and dirt and mud
and blood as elements OF a big joke.
when the history of the war IL writ
ten l suppose not word will appear in
Il about what tobacco meant to the SOL
diers, but it will loom large in the I'M
written history, the "reminiscences and
anecdotes of the boys among themselves.
AT the present time when I meet a
soldier and We talk Of the various places
where we were, the fronts we were, on,
the billets we had. all the little things
that made up our lives for over a year
in foreign country. there is one thing
We always ask one another. It's this
question: When and where did you get
your first share of SUN fund tobacco?'
Fund Followed the Flag.
ITS perfectly marvellous to learn in
this way how ubiquitous your fund was.
There seems to have been no place
where American soldiers went that II
didn't follow them to their great Joy. 1
don't refer to the armistice. but to the
days when we had only landed in France
and when the sita of<16er various training
and concentration canpS was a dead
secret THE SUN Tobacco Fund bad to-
bacco and cigarettes for the boys at
Tours long before anybody except the
army people on this side of the water
knew there was an American camp SET
up there. 1t was true also of the vari-
Gus rest camps; no sooner had a con-
tlngent Of doughboys arrived at one than
the fund followed and distributed its
delights
Take my own case. There was no
rest camp in ours but We were shipped
straight over from Brest to the English
lines in the northwest. II was all done
IN hurry and we were in our pup tents
IN foreign land and within perfectly
good hearing of cannon before. We had
been in France twenty-fonr hours. That
was going some, but THE SUN Tobacco
Fund was there almost AS soon as we
were. At the very first real meal that
we had the mess sergeant handed out
cigarettes or smoking tobacco. gifts from
THE SUN Tobacco Fund. 1t knew we
were there and the distribution was not
merely hit or miss affair.
Now you can gee how 1t is. l like to
tell Of how we first got smokes from
THE SUN, so 1 tell 1t in the midst of
conversation about other features of the
war where of course il fits in well. Then
another fellow who has been listening
comes out with his anecdote of where the
fund first handed him smokes. and so 1t
goes until every one of US has told the
number Of times we were helped out by
this fund
The postal cards We sent back were
Rll right for the donors, they accounted
FOR the tobacco gifts, but these cards
didn't wipe our Indebtedness to the fund
on the slate. in our estimation. So we
like to continue to mention the fund and
give IL credit whenever and wherever
We can That will be one of the pleas
ATTEST duties of the World War
Alumni'"
Praises for Donors.
While this version of the history OF
me fund may be safely trusted to the
grateful veterans, the other half of IL
which deals with the collection Of funds
on this side of the water which makes
me successful continuance of the fund
hleE pleasant subject, is naturally In
the hands of the fund itself. This his
tory has been written daily and 1t con-
sntutes real chapter in the story of
war work. Nevertheless It Is humanity
possible that there are details OF this
work which nave escaped the sharp eyes
nave occasion justly to rebuke the fund
Tor reticence in the matter OF praise of
us donors and it has always felt genu
me pleasure in telling how their gifts
10 The fund were made.
\ fund donor, the Bowery Wynn-the
"dNs, has had the same attention paid
- us regular subscriptions as the others,
nut the fund likes to rehearse again its
activities AMI to renew it's thanks to the
representatives OF the Bowery Mission
whose latest contribution Is noted con-
,einporaneously. Charles II. Thompson
Is the representative referred to. He IL
evil war veteran and knowing what
looacco means 70 a fighting man as soon
ss THE SUN printed that The Sun Print
ing and Publishing Association had
made a contribution OF 81, 1000 TO a fund
~ oe called THE SUMS Tobacco Fund
,'F Our Soldiers in the Trenches" he
u'gan at once to collect money TO donate
10 MS fund from the members and
friends OF the Bowery Mission. This an
h'uncement and beginning OF the fund
vas made simultaneously on Friday,
June %, 1917.
The facts that the soldiers must have
tooacco and that the citizens at home
IVr whom they were fighting must sup
ply IT, struck right home to this old
solder and he didn't walt, but got right
~ On the ground floor with the Bowery
N'son'5 first contribution. By their
,,slarsty and generosity the Bowery
. " on has kept IN the foreground of
N' fund family ever since,
4, Meanwhile cards keep COMING from
m soldiers in the Army OF Occupation
"h.e1 show that the work OF the fund
~0a'inued to many persons surprise after
/