The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-01-06

Z toINCS anu 6afSIi IA 40
I Y. NJ. c. A. huts One first night or.
dinarily Is enough for any good show.
but this entertainment could not wait
single day longer and condensed its
entire run of 1900 nights into one
hilarious evening in 1900 huts.
The nights entertainment was d.
vided into three parts-"The Christ
mas Minstrels,' "Mistletoe n d
Onions" a one-act play, and Christ
vided by the y. NJ c A., the minstrel
show and play being written by
Tom" Cushing. of the Red Triangle
entertainment department, and the
. films We're shown by the motion pic
ture bureau of the :Y."
The Onions in "Mistletoe and
Onions" symbolizes the extreme
measure suggested to a soldier in
France in his efforts to work W a
few tears of self-pity over having to
be far from his home on this memoir
able Christmas Eve, and the denou-
nlent of the comedy revealed the Man
of Mystery as none other than Santa
Claus himself ready to distribute to
the assembled soldiers the presents
provided by the Y. NJ C. a.
Soldier talent put on the minstrel
shows and plays in the 1.500-plv first
night. enarting the Santas. the sol
tjGE Ciifl dCiPES, lie ILIliie E4NdS anu
Aunt Marys and girls hack there, as
wen as tie Brudder Bones and Tam
boes Y. NJ. c. A entertainment de-
partmert coaches rehearsed the men,
furnished the book OF the plays, the
costumes, scenery and make-ups, as
wa as the huts for the productions.
At late hour hundreds Of thou
scr Is of happy soldiers poured out
II the huts shouting the closing song
10
Guerre.. pronounced Say la Gair,"
and made easy to remember because
it progresses to tho tune of George
NJ Cohan's over There" AS follows;
"Cest Ia guerre, c'est In guerre.
They declare--everywhere 'Cest la
guerre'
If the plum hing's leaking: If rats are
squeaking and Fords are creak-
ing--'c'est In guerre.'
They all swear-'C'eSt la Cuerre,'
Night and day. come what may
'C'est la guerre'
When it's over-this war is over
Then let's hope they'll s'op-all this
saying 'C'est la guerre."
martial strain permeated the
entire show. conceived for and given
by soldiers. In fact, in the minstrel
first part an end man boasts that his
"brothah" was in the army three days
and they made him field marshal.
To ircredulous outcries by the entire
company, he censored this, changing
the field" to court"
The suffering song, Xxx katy"
which was drilled into the army, re-
turned in the minstrel show in n song
Of chattering teeth and cold weather,
substantially as follows:
&C colder constantly colder,
l am slowly t-t-turnin g into ice.
A good f-f-fighter oughter have cool
ness,
But they needn't keep him c-c-cool
on ice"
brother who was no natural fighter.
but "a forced draft soldier" who was
that slouchy that he didn't stand at
attention when a general came whiZz-
ing up in an automobile and got out.
''Th> general SEE real fierce. Did
you see any car come up just now?'
Nah brothah seq Yes, Boss The
General seq Did you notice any stars
on the windshield?' Nah brothah
SEE Umhuh, Boss Well. sea the
general do you know what them
stars mean?' Nah brothah seq Yes
sub. All reckon that some one In yo'
family is in the service
All the digs at the Y NJ. c. A are
included In this farce, just to show
that the ~" is big enough to put on
a joke at its own expense.
Fatty tries to induce the glooms
to hurry over TO the ''Y'' show. to
" ftcif @tfum's reptile that they are,
afraid to catch ''Y. NJ. c. A.-itis.''
It's a kind of Pollyanna disease
that you get at the " on nights like
this. Getting happy when there's
nothing to be happy about. Cele-
brating Christmas when there's no
Christmas to celebrate. Havin' din
ner without any food It's a dry jag
and we don't want It."
Charlie" also complains about the
free writing paper given-out- at tho
~ saying:
They only give you two sheets
What good is that? My girl needs
five pages before she is satisfied. She
says love never could get into two
pages Its insuftin', she says. teff
her to blame the Y"
The poor old "Y" could afford to
permit ese glooms to voice the
vpical complaints of the discomfort
/. for few minutes later. when the
Mysterious Stranger revealed himself
is Santa Claus. he stepped to the edge
of the 1900 stages and for the Red
Triangle presented each soldier with
two packages of cigarettes, a can of
tobacco, a package OF gum and two
large scakes of chocolate, wishing
them all "A Merry Christmas"