Evening star., 1919-04-06

10 save your country All your nag,
Enlistment Offices right over the Col
den Eagle clothing store"
Buzz was staring at him, OPEN
mouthed. His gaze was fixed. tense.
Suddenly he seemed to gather all his
muscles together as for spring. But
he only threw his cigarette into the
gutter, yawned deliberately and moved
away, "S'long!" he said, and was off.
II they had watched him they would
loungirg gait when he reached the
corner. They would have seen him
stand moment. sending quick
glance this way and that. then turn,
retrace his steps almost at run and
flight OF wooden stairs at the side OF
the Golden Eagle clothing store.
"A dingy room. A man seated at a
bare table: another, seated at the
rect on the sin, q pipe between his
teeth. Buzz. shambling, suddenly awk-
ward, stood in the door.
This the place where you enlist?"
The man at the table stood up. The
chair in front of the open window
came down on all fours.
Sure" said tho first man. whats
your name?" Buzz told him.
Meet sergt Keith. He's Cana
dian. Been through the whole game"
Five minutes later Buzz's fine white
torso rose above his trousers like n
great pillar Unconsciously his sag
giis shoulders We're straightened. His
stomach was held In. His chest jutted,
shelf like. His ribs showed through
the inkwhite flesh.
Get some of that pork off him." OBJ
served Sergt. Keith, land he'll do for
2 couple Of Fritzes before he's
Buzz, fumbling with his hat. put this
question, "When-when do go?" For
he had signed his name in his round.
boyish. sixth-grade scrawl.
Tomorrow. Now listen to these in
structions."
'T-tomorrow?" gasped Buzz.
He was still gasping as he reached
the street and struck out toward home.
Tomorrow! When the Kearney girl
again stepped out of the tree shadows
he stared at her as at something re-
mote and trivial.
will you meet me tomorrow night?
Will you, Buzz?"
"If I'm in this town tomorrow night
III meet you. Is that good enough?"'
Then he turned and went on toward
home. alone. The family was still UP.
The door was open to the warm May
night. Pa. shirt-sleeved. stocking
footed. asleep in his chair. Mas dress
open at the front Minnie. In an untidy
On this fiaccid group Buzz burst.
bomb like. He hung his hat on the
hook, wordlessly. The noise he made
woke his father, as he had meant that
stairway door. negligently. The eyes
Of the three were on him.
"Well he said. II guess you won't
be bothered with me much longer"
Ma Werner's head came up sharply
at that. What you done, ErnieT
Ma Werner rose at that, heavily.
"Ernie! You never!"
Pa Werner was wide awake now.
, Out Of his memory Of the old country,
, and soldier service there. he put his
question. "Did you sign to it?"
"Yeh."
"When you goin'"
Tomorrow"
Even Pa Werner gasped at that.
/, There was nothing dramatic about
Buzz's going. He seemed to be
whisked away. One moment he was
toned hour. in his best shirt and
!. trousers, his mother. only half under
standing even now. standing over him
;. with the coffee pot; the next he was
standing with his cheap shiny suit
. Ing on the depot platform. and Hefty
) Burke. the baggage man. was saying,
Where you goin'. Buzz?"
Coin to fight the Germans"
Mefty ars had Ya hGStsd S; hl%, hGsrsely: Yaaa'
WHO you callin' bluff. you! I'm
goin' to war. I'm tellin' you."
And thus BUZZ Werner went to war.
He was vague about Its locality. 1t
was somewhere in Europe. He was
pretty sure it was France. A line
from his fourth grade geography
came back to him. 1.-THE French" 1t
had said, 'are gay people. fond Of
dancing and light Wines" Well. that
sounded all right.
The things that happened to Buzz
Werner in the next twelve months
cannot be detailed here. Chicago
first. Buzz had never seen Chicago.
Now that he saw 1t he hardly be-
lieved it. Then came a camp--a
rough, temporary camp, compared to
which the present cantOnments are
luxurious. The United states govern
ment took Buzz Werner by the slack
OF the trousers and the slack Of the
mind, and holding him thus. shook
him into shape---and into submission.
And eventually--though 1t required
months-int0 an understanding of
why that submission was manly,
courageous and fine. But before he
learned that he had learned many
other things. He learned there was
little good in saying Jaw. g'wan!" to
clapped you into the guardhouse for
saying 1t. There was little point to
: throwing down your shovel and re:
fusing to shovel coal II they clapped
you into the guardhouse for doin =
1t, and made you shovel harder tha:i
ever when you came out. He learned
what 1t was to rise at dawn and go
; thud-thud- -thudding down q dirt road