The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-25
SANE Old BOYS!
Thirty Fifth Veterans Have
Changed Very Little.
Joke and Sing Like They Did
Z Before Leaving.
ANXIOUS TO REACH KANSAS
Patience Bevier Cole Tells of
New York Receptions.
Hundreds Have Visited Head
quarters in Gotham.
BY PATIENCE BEv1ER COLE.

BY PATIENCE BEVIER COLE.
New York, April 25s-Kansas may
| be impatient to get her heroes back,
but she can't be as impatient as the
heroes themselves are New York
Brest- homes best is the burden of
their song, and one and all they are
eager to be on heir way back to sunny
Kansas, which they will see at its love-
| lest season. tho one homesick lad
declared that the "old state would
! look darn good to him in blizzard or
duststorm!"
New York has been on her hood
/ behavior as to weather the last two
| or three days, and when 1 turned into
Fortieth street, where the Kansas
Welcome association has headqaur-
| tiers, said to myself that the welcom-
ers must have a lot of faith in sun
| flower loyalty, to expect anybody to
go indoors anywhere, to be welcomed,
when there was Fifth avenue just half
a block away; for if there is anything
more enchanting than spring in the
country, say somewhere in eastern
Kansas, it spring on Americas smart
est and most interesting thorofare. II
1 had been free to choose, I thought,
I'd surely have chosen Fifth avenue.
But upstairs, in the three great rooms
of what was the drawing-room floor
of an old New York mansion, 1 found
perfect mob of soldiers, sailors and
civilians. all Kansans or former Kan
sans, and all apparently having the
| time of thier lives exchanging Kansas
gossip, and unaware that the place was
| warm and crowded, while outside it
| was roomy and balmy. 1t was per-
| fectly obvious that not one of those
warriors bold cared a whoop about
seeing New York, but that what they
i fri 20 Z
City and points west. They are to a
man, as homesick as they can be.
They Are Same Old Boys.
Not that they are a forlorn looking
| outfit Far from it; Those boys of
the 35th, who were, crowding the Kan
| SaS headquarters on Monday, having
! landed on Saturday and Sunday, were
full of fun and nonsense as they were
when they went, and surely as we'll
groomed and trinity uniformed; they
| lock SO absurdly young and fresh
skinned and nochalant that it requires
| considerable mental effort to realize
| that these are veterans of the most
| terrible war in history. and that they
| have been in some of the most terrible
battles of that war. L had imagined
| that all our American troops would
| come home changed, sobered,. aged,
by the tragic experiences in which
they played so big part. Well, the
| change isn't apparent to the casual
| onlooker. No doubt most of them
have undergone an inner change, a
deepening of spiritual convictions, a
| hardening of courage and character,
a new reverence for right and justice
and fair play, a new hatred of tyranny
in any form Chat of the second lieu
tenant as we'll as the well known
1 kaiSer'S), a new vision of democracy
and cooperation. But outwardly the
returning heroes of the A. E. F. are
the same cheerful youngsters who
went away.
| Are Full of Jokes.
They joke so necessarily, gather
around the piano and sing so Justify,
i, that it's only when you see them later
turning over the papers on the read
| ing table and delightedly devouring
| one a week old from their particular
home towns, that you realize that I'M
der all the fun and fooling they are
| homesick 1 found a paper dated
April 15 for a nice, shy boy from In
| dependence, and the smile he gave me
| couldn't have been more grateful had
| L handed him a promotion. They beam
| ecstaticaIly if you can tell them that
| you have visited in their home town
| (e'en tho it was back in 1901 when
i they were still wearing knickerbock-
ers) and If you happened to go to
| school with their older brothers and
sisters they are as pleased as Punch
| They are so homesick for Kansas that
they'd rather crowd into those three
rooms and talk Kansas than, go out
! and look at the Woolworth building
And 1 don't blame them a bit For
| if anybody is enjoying the getting to-
gether of Kansans more than the uni