The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1919-03-07


Honey from the orner Of the firebay.
WELL, what with this bloomin' war on
and blokes goin' west by the thou
sands, q pacifst or conscientious objec-
tor Is one Of two things, he's either q
blInkin' coward or a bloody pro-Ger-
man. But It's funny the way some o
them blighters, with their West n
ideas back In Bllghty, changes their
minds when they gets out here In the
mud, and gets their first glimpse of a
wooden cross. It's either a FIRM
squad UP against a wall, a bloomin'
V. G. Victoria Crosse or a rest in
peace sign over their nappers for
them. A strange thing 1T is, but true;
those blokes never go through the
trenches In an ordinary way like we
do; It's q case Of extremes, no in-be-
tween stuff.
"Next time you're on a burial party,
take q look at the third cross from the
left In the fourth row as you enter
the cemetery. You know that path
that leads through the orchard just Off
the entrance of that big r. e. (Royal
Englneers) dugout; well, under that
cross rests a bloke who back in Blighty
professed to be a pacifist. He wouldn't
blinkin' well volunteer, not likely they
had to draft him, an when they did he
refused to fight, so they stuck him In
the N. G. G. (n~oncombatant corps) and
handed him a pick and shovel and put
him to repairin' roads and diggin'
graves. Well, 1t didn't take long be-
fore he was properly fed up with his
job, and he threw down the pick and
shovel and grabbed up a rifle an bayo-
net. Oh, yes, he clicked 1t all right
and went west. In fact he was buried
In one o. the graves he helped to dig.
/ suppose some o. those college officers
called 1t the iron Of fate or some 9TH
er blinkin' high-sounding phrase. but
we knows that it was only common
ordinary luck, cause we all knows that
If you're going to get it, You'll get 1t,
no matter If you're a gentleman's son
or a bloomin' chimney sweep.
"This blighter I'm telling about was
In my platoon when / vas In @ COM
pany, an he used to give me the prop
err pip with his arguments against
fighting and the likes O. that.
'"The first time I met him was in st.
Armand; our bat was In the rest bill
let's awaitin' a new draft before going
up the line again. You see we had
clicked 1t pretty rough at Fromelles,
an a platoon looked like a blinkin'
squad when 1t lined up for parade. I
was playing house in that estaminet
right across from that bashed-in
church on the corner when his labor
battalion came through and took oyer
billets just opposite from the esta-
minet. / vas sitting near q window
and watched them pass. A sorrier
bunch of specimens Of men I EVE
saw: 1t turned my blinkin' stomach to
look at them, what with their pasty
faces, s~tooped-over shoulders and
ltraggling gait. Right then and thereI
admired the Germans for their sys-
tenn of universal military training. If
England had of had a little more Of 1t
there never would have been a war
md right now we would be in Blighty
with wives and nlppers, instead Of
sitting here In these bloody bitches
waitin' for q shell to come over with
our name and number on 1t.
"After the labor battalion took Over
billets several OF them came into the
estaminet and sat ut a table near me.
They started to discuss the war and
voice their opinions about the top
hats at home. This bloke I'm a talkin'
about was the loudest of the bunch;
he seemed TO have a crouch on every
thing in general. I listened to him a
few minutes chucking his weight about
until 1t bloody well got on my nerves.
Chucking up my game Of house-and
I had paid half a franc for my board,
tool leaned over to him and said:
"'You must be one of those bloomin'
conscientious DIRECTORS we reads about
In the papers, one o. those blighters
who don't believe in fightin' but is
willing to sit back in Blighty and let
us blokes out here do your bloody
fightin' for you. while you gets q blink
in good screw Salary sitting on q
high stool in some Office
SIZE turned to me and answered:
It's the likes o. you who volunteered
for this war what keeps 1t goin'. If
you had all refused to go at first, there
wouldn't be any warp
IL couldn't see it his way at all, and
went right back at him with Yes, and
lie it wasn't for us volunteering, the
bloody German flag would now be- fly
ing yer Buckingham palace and King
George would be In the Tower of Ion
ion.'
He thought a minute or two and
answered: Well. what OF It; one flags
as good as another, and as for the
bloomIn' king what did he ever do snr
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