The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-30

persons. When a couple of bootleg
gers came into the neighborhoed and
began selling whisky to boys. a posse
was organized and the bootleggers dis
appeared. The law was not invoked.
Next to his personal freedom, the
thing that a mountain man takes most
seriously is his religion. He believes
in the Bible as the source of truth,
and as a guide for human conduct.
In these regions the church is
place of sincere worship, a place of
social gathering, and an emotional ex-
perience. No doubt in all remote re-
gions the church takes somewhat the
place that the theater, the movie, the
parade and other similar stimulants
of emotion take in cities. That is
one reason why the camp meeting,
with its wild crowd emotionalism, is
found in all back-woods sections. 1t
also probably explains in part the ap-
peal of such sects as the Holiness
church.
York's father vas a Methodist, and
was brought up a Methodist, but
he and his mother and sisters became
converts to the Holiness church. The
belief of this church seems to be that
if a mortal neither does wrong nor
thinks wrong, he is already, in effect,
an angel, and may taste on earth
something of the bliss of heaven. At
it's meetings there are brief readings
from the Scripture, then periods of
silent meditation, then shouting of
great joy, as the full glory of their
triumph over sin Ind trouble bursts
upon the congregation all at once.
These alternate periods of silent medt-
tation and frenzied rejoicing often eX-
tend far into the night, and throw
the congregation into state of re-
ligious ecstasy.
: York took his new faith seriously.
1t satisfied some craving of his nature.
He still carried arms. He was still
prepared to fight when need arose.
But when he heard of the war and
the draft law, he realized that he faced
a great crisis. He believed in fighting
for the right, but he did not see how,
as an angel on earth, he could kill a
fellow man who had never as an in
dividual done him any harm.
York and his mother went to S. Z.
Frogge, a merchant and farmer living
near them, who was their representa-
tive in the state legislature, and begged
that Frogge try to obtain an exemp-
ton for York. The young man said
that he could never kill in war.
Frogge, of course, could do nothing.
A few days later York left for the
first time in his life the little clearing
and the cabin and the wild woodlands
which had heretofore been all the
world to him. ~
He took his convictions against war
with him mistaken. As soon as he
reached camp, he said that he was will
ing to drill, but not to fight. He made
his position perfectly clear TO the cap
tain of his company.
In having this captain, York was
fortunate. If he had been imprisoned,
hazed or mistreated as other con-
almost certainly have spent the period
of the war in prison. But this captain
was a man of insight. He saw that
York had in him the making of a fine
soldier, and he also saw that York was
| a conscientious objector by sincere re-
ligious conviction.
This captain had been something of
a Bible student himself. He now re-
| freshed himself on the Scripture,
called York to him, and set out to
| convert him to war by the Good Book.
1t Is said that the argument lasted far
| into the night, that it was audible at
quite distance, and that Biblical
quotations Numbered BACK and forth
| like big guns in a battle. But when
| the pale dawn came, one mountain
man was convinced that his God COM
manded him to go forth and slay Ger
mans.
| When he went home on a furlo,
Corporal York, late conscientious OBJ
| jector. WAS a soldier thru and thru. A
| hunter and marksman by training, he
was fascinated by modern military
arms. The machine gun, with its
| deadly sweep and play, the vicious
army automatic, the military rifle
with its wonderful range and flat
| trajectory, now held his heart as the
Greed of Holiness on earth had held
| it before.
There is nothing more to tell about
Corporal York except that when
he performed his wonderful feat OF
shooting twenty-four Germans and
| capturing one hundred and thirty-two
| of them, he did not take the prisoners
| back to his own battalion, but to an
other. Nor did he report what he had
done. His exploit was discovered and
verified by accident. He did not bat
| tie for glory; he battled for the Lord.