Norwich bulletin., 1919-04-15
REV. G. H. EWING WRITES
 OF EXPERIENCES IN FRANCE

REV. G. n. EWING WRI ES
 OF EXPERIENCES IN FRANCE Rev. George H. Ewing, formerly pas tor of the First Congregational church at Norwich Town. but now in France as Y. M. c. A. hut secretary in the Chinese department, has written The Bulletin from Riviere. near Arras, ences and observations there. which he calls Some hits from the field by the winners of the great game" The diligent Y. M. c. A. secretary in France finds little time for souvenir hunting, but he is quick to catch what comes to him on the fly. I want to bat some of these catches from this out field in France to the home base in the hope that some of you will like to possess them for yourselves.
 Away up here in this desolated vil- lage of northern France where foe has matched f0e in mortal combat these four years and more, I have been busy erecting hut and organizing work for a large company of Chinese laborers. I have discovered a blasted house once the private home of a French family and later the headquarters for squad of the British 9th field ambulance. The roof today is shot to pieces and the house is in ruins. While the civilian population was in flight and this will lage was given over to the brutalities of war some British Tommies bravely struggling against the awful loneli- ness cheered themselves by elrblazon- ing the walls of this house with lines of verse; There is substantial cellar. the resort Of the boys when the shells rained hardest, and one wag has scratched in the patchwork the appro- priate titles Poverty Hut or Pogwog Villa, and another informed the har- l ried public that this was the Dodgers ! Den. 1 During those days of trial and | hardship the necessary and varied op erations of a community were carried 1 on This forlorn. bullet pierced house was occupied, it seems. by a cobbler who thus facetiously advertised his bit of service:
 l A man lives here who does his best To save old soles from going west; ! H is work is good and all done free, For farther particulars please entree. : The stark and whitened walls of this hut have yielded me other finds for souvenirs. Over wonder are the lines ! of q soldier lad who would sing the praises of the chef who made life seem worth while when still it hung in the balance:
 There's no doubt about his cooking, it's
 O. K,
 He can serve it up in quite the ideal
 way;
 And it goes without,a question He can tickle ones digestion, You all know Sprozey Roberts, 9th ! F, A.
 But men are not all alike in this storm tossed group. There are those who would fain give vent to the bitter ness that tore their spirits. and they too, have their literary genius who has caused the following inscriptions to live. The first of these is playfully attributed to Dante: War is brought about by bloated fools
 who mean to take no part in it ' and the second stands above the sou briquet of Cynicus as follows: Trey practiced all the arts in hell, Then served them out to every corps And said: The game you know full Il we'll,
 Then fight. ye fools-and someone
 called this war.
 In the absence of Longfellow, an- l fellow gives us from these same grin pages the bright and cheerful lines that speak of woeful loneliness and its sweet relief and solace in An Ode to 6 Friend:
 You have cheered me up when fairly down and out, When wearied by those marches kilo:
 long,
 , You have made my life anew,
 Chased away that feeling blue. , Turned my weakness to the stronges of the strong. Your friendship shall never once for.
 get,
 No matter what the future holds ir
 view;
 Like summer memories dear,
 I shall ever feel thee near
 With that welcome which alone car
 come from you.
 And so when Gabriel sounds the fna
 trump
 know the place wherein I'm sure tc l dwell,
 Yet I'll be happy and content,
 With my pal of good intent,
 It's a cert I'll meet Machonochie 1T
 hell!
 Still another souvenir of the war has dropped into my hands in the line. ascribed to Rudyard Kipling whici were doubtless scraWled on the crun. bling plaster by some mothers loneh and homesick son. and whether or no original they speakingly illustrate tn, spirit that held him through those try. ing days in it's clutch:
 With apologies to the late Ton Hood:-
 Oh, just to see my native fields.
 To be at rest-away from strife. To live again those good old days,
 I'd give at least ten years of life. To see the stream where once I fished
 The waterfall which fed it,
 To know that I was free again,
 The government could have m,
 credit.
 To gaze upon the sun- kissed foam.
 To hear no more, You've got t
 stick it."
 I'd pay Lloyd George a yearly screw:
 Roll on, the day I get my ticket!
 But most striking of all for it breezy rhymes, it's raciness of the soi it's evident origin on the spot, are tbes verses, signed by J. Waugh Young, St F. A., home address Whitley Bay: I've done bit of tramping up in Bel