The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1919-02-19

chOked with war material,
with roaring trucks and rushing cam
ions. Everywhere the refugees were
hurrying toward safety. carrying with
them their household effects, dragging
their cows behind their heavily loaded /
wagOns-sad, yet smiling and striving
to be brave. The last great German
drive was on. pounding relentlessly
forward toward Paris.
But in contrast to this picture was
another, that of great trucks crammed
with full-chested, steel-muscled men.
fastening to the front. Men from the
far-away We're these new warriors of
new vim and new ideas and new meth
obs OF fighting. Men who knew Ger
mahy only as a thing to be defeated
who never had met Fear. who laughed
1T the horrors of the Huns. They were
United States marines.
But the odds were against them.
The Germans had started their rush
The swift-mOving hordes must be halt
ed. And more than that, halted by
body of men who must make up for
their inferiority in numbers by a su-
periority of fighting power. The trucks
churned on.
Children. standing by the roadway,
threw flowers to those marines and
cheered them. White-haired old wom-
en-, rocking atop the refugees carts.
called blessing to them. But would
they-these bronzed giants from over
SEASIDE able to achieve the impos-
sible? More than one wOndered-and
Eesitated to think Of the outcome.
A night in an open wheat field.
Then the great clash! And out Of the
great tangle of wars complex machin-
cry came message that was cleo
trical in its results. The weary
French took on new life. The British.
standing only few months before
with their backs to the wall, fretted
in a new anxiety to attack. The
whole great organization of civiliza-
ton, fighting there on the western
front, suddenly saw the dawn of a
| new day, and the brightness of new
| hope. For those United States ma
| rines had done the impossible. Fight
| ing against odds of nearly ten to one.
| the marines had turned back the
| enemy-and started the rearward
| rush toward Berlin that still is con-
| tinuing.
| They had proved that they were the
real supermen. Marines with as many
as ten and eleven bullet holes in
| them still fought forward. Others
ordered to the rear, obeyed, only to
| return without waiting to have their
ed swept on until the machine-gun
nests of the enemy We're captured
then died Still others. felled by the
enemy, forgot their own wounds that
they might ask of the wounds of some
comrade. or insist on not being given
aid until later-there We're comrades
who must be cared for first.
Why the Marine Is Fighter.
And why? Why should this body
of men-and remember, the total au
thorized strength of the United States
marine corps is only 75,OOO-be able
to accomplish so much? Why should
they be the real "Supermen" which
Germany believed it alone possessed
until Chateau Thierry and Belleal
wood and Bouresches? Why SHOULD
they be able to accomplish such deed
of heroism that the grateful Frencl
nation ordered the name of Belleal
wood changed to Bots de Ia BRIGADE
de Marines? The answer GENES il
two things-esprit de corps and Til
marine training.
There's never an idle second in tn
life of a marine. His training neve
ceaSeS-and, more than that, Their
never is a time when the belief is no