Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-07-30
No Wonder Germany Quit
BRIGGS
NUMBER THIRTY-THREE.

"You never could tell what kind
OF man was going to turn out to be
a hero" said Major Frank c. Mahin,
of the Army Recruiting Station, 32o
Market street, Harrisburg. Before
we went over to France l frequently
heard men of aggressive, pugnacious
types talking about what they were
going to do to the Boche when they
got into action. l had often wonder
ed what type of man, If any, was
the true fighting man, so 1 watched
my men very closely when we got
| into action. The results of my OBJ
servations have been frequently COM
pared with those of other officers
and they agree absolutely. The big,
square jawed aggressive man of the
type the novelists use for their
heroes are. of all types, the poorest
fighters. Such men may be good
/ fist fighters, but as a general rule
they cannot or will not stand the
gaff of q real battle. Instead of
gallantly leading a charge, as pei
the novels, they are really back in
some nice deep dugout carefully
| keeping out of sight and danger. The
true fighting man is a most inoffen-
sive, quiet sort, the kind that you
scarsely realize is around, mild
hammered, avoiding trouble when
ever he decently can, but with very
steady, quiet eyes. Frequently your
hero is a man of slight physique,
quick and well-ballanced physically,
whose face in a great fight appears
to be suffused with ecstacy, with a
sort of glorifcation. that you can
not fight from any love of fighting,
hut he fights for principal that to
! him is far more sacred than life and
that calls for the last ounce of his
] strength and the last drop of his
blood. Further, there is no differ
ence in Valor shown by the different
races or by the different sections of
the country. About 80 per cent. of
men are brave, one per cent are
towards. The men whose ancestor
came over on the Mayfiower is not a
bit braver than the italian who
landed in this country in July, 1914,
or the Mexican who came over the
border last year. The percentage of
towards from Oregan is just the
same as that from Florida. The
| German is as brave as the French
man. and the Frenchman no braver
than the American. In all the
novels I have read there are not
more than three or four heroes who
are of the true fighting type. 1 will
never forget two boys in my battal-
| Ion who came from around Lam
caster. They were both small, very
| quiet fellows, one the cook for the
officers mess and the other the as
sistant cook and table waiter. During
the st. Mihiel offensive the Boche pot
peevish and put over a big counter
attack, also taking out their spite
by an intensive five-hour lombard
mcnt OF the small village in which
my battalion headquarters were To-
Gated. The headquarters were in a
concrete cellar under a large house
end the kitchen was on the ground
hcor. During the height of the
bombardment when the house was
being hit somewhere every few
seconds, a particularly big shell
burst upstairs an dI went up to see
what was left. I opened the door of
the kitchen and found the room
| f1lled with dust. AS the dust settled
l saw that an eight inch shell had
passed tharough the room and burs,
in the next room. blowing down
most OF the intervening wall: over
in one corner stood the waiter.
calmly washing dishes, and at tho
| stove was the cook stirring some-
thing in not. I asked him why he
didn't go down in the dugout and
his reason was that runners were
corning in every few minutes. tired
and very hungry and re was keepinC
some hot stew ready for them. The
walters excuse was that he inst
wanted to clean up the dishes after
the last men who had -acen. There
are your true fighting men. men who
had a duty to perform for their
fellow-men and nothing but death
would keep the miro, mperforming
that duty.