Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-01-17
CHATEAU THIERRY
MASS HELD BY
ATLANTA PRIEST
F ather James Horton Meets
Ward Greene in Paris and
Tells of Experience in War
Zone With K. of C. y
By Ward Greene.
(The Journals Own Staff Corre-



day in a little cafe on the
Boulevard Capucines, Father
James Horton, of Atlanta, de-
scribed to me some of his eX-
periences since the day, exact
ly six months ago, when he be-
gan serving in France as a field
worker OF the Knights of Co.
lumbus.
Fed Atlanta men who have
come to France in auxiliaries to
the army are better known than
Father Horton. For years he
was at Marist college, where he
was prominent in the direction
of athletics and where he en-
deared himself to the heart of
his country over here.
I've seen a number of the
Atlanta boys he said, land L
want to say that the folks at
home have every reason to be
proud of them. But for that
matter, there's not a mother or
father who has a son in the
american army-that part of
the army anyway, with which
I've been in contact - who
shouldn't be proud that their
boy was here to play his part"
And then, with his blue eyes
flashing, he told how he minis
tered for months in a base hos
pital center at Limoges, where
wounded Americans were
brought straight from the fight
ing line, gassed, wounded, shell
shocked, inconceivably mangled
and manned, yet calling for
cigarettes and laughing at the
doctors who told them they
were going to die.
American Grit Won
at makes your heart bleed
and your blood boil he said
NO man can see what have
seen and ever think for a mo.
inent of a German peace. 1t was
that accomplishing grit of the
American soldier, that deter
mination to carry on no matter
what it cost him, that won the
war for US. Don't think for q
moment they wanted to fight.
The only soldiers i'll France who
were anxious to get to the
fighting line were the men who
hadn't been there. No man who
has been through it once wants
TO so back again.
But the point is that they go
back again, and again and again
and again. They were fed up
with fghting--those lads in the
hospital at Limoges--but L never
saw a man try to play possum'
or convince the doctors that he
cases where they went to the
patient discharged for able
bodied combat that did not go
back to the hell he knew was
before him without a word of
protest"
Fathe> Horton was at the bed
side of many a lad who knew
that he was going to die. And
they were not afraid to die, he
said, and the message they told
him to write home was always,
Tell them 1 was all right, just
tell them I was all right"
The nearest he came to the
fighting line was at Chateau
Thierry, which he entered but a
short time after the Germans had
withdrawn.
Holds First Mass
"They had taken with them
all but the sticks and stones. The
place was a shambles. But when
. the French refugees came troop
ing back, there was no weeping
-and wailing. Their homes were
in ruins, their possessions, We're
wiped out, ana the IOWH IlICId44S
stank with filth. Yet those stur-
dy little housewives merely held
UP their hands at the sight, let
out a burst of language, and then
went to work as busy as bees
cleaning up the refuse.
81 had the privilege Of hold
ing the first mass held in Cha
teau-Thierry after the Germans
left and the old church there was
reopened. SO thoroughly had the
Germans looted the town that
there were not even candles to be
had for the mass, and we had to
go ahead without them. That was
the only time I have seen French
women weep-when the old cure
of Chateau-Thierry thanked God
for the deliverance of their city
and declared that the American
soldiers were their saviours."
Father Horton is in Paris for
only a short time. He is plan
ming to leave for the states in
the next few days and will go di-
rectIy to Atlanta to resume his
old work at Marist college.
More stories by Ward Greene wi
follow soon. Watch for them.)