Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1919-05-15
Camp g T ield
In Leave Area
- 4si ~ NIT

soldiers in leave areas in France,
was sent to this office by Miss Re-
becca Flint of Madison. Miss Flint
is the daughter of Professor and Mrs.
A. S. Flint, Of the astromical depart
ment in the Y. M. G.. A work over
seas. In the Dauphine leave area,
one of the largest in France, there
are about 5000 soldiers all the time,
constantly coming and going. They
come from localities farther north,
where they have not seen the sun for
80 days and haven't talked to a real
American girl since they went to
France. The duties of the young
ladies are varied, consisting of can
teen work and entertainment features
arranged by the Y. M. C. A
The letter which Private Langan
enclosed was signed "Silent Sufferer
U. S. M. c. and reads as follows:
l am not the guy who really won
but there are a lot of other birds in
this outfit who didn't get as for to-
ward Berlin as yours truly. Having
introduced myself to my enthusiastic
readers stand back and allow me to
begin.
My subject tonight will be few
words about the Y. M. G. A. Some of
the lads don't seem to like it, and
have started in to make the crowd
back home think it's false alarm.
Now, Ed you know that it's an easy
thing to scatter the vitriol here and
there, and there is a certain class of
young volunteers who would rather
do it than eat. I'm one Of those
people who like to aero a little my
self; it's habit | learned around the
scuttle but ask the COB what l mean)
but these vtriol boys are on the
wrong track this time. They are
citing isolated cases that have happe
ned during this year and a half, and
making a mountain out Of mole
hill. This puts the entire Y. M G.. A
on the witness stand in self-defense
and that is a thing that should not be.
Let's drop off few points, jibe and
look around. What do we see mate?
We see hundreds of men who
could have kept the home fires burn
ing in the U. S. A. and earned good
wage along with the slackers and
the genuine non-drafted men at any
number of good paying pce!t ons.
What did they do? They came 10
France and kept on the job morning,
noon and night every day of the week.
They kidded the brawny fighters N
the S. O. S. with movies candies,
cigarettes and decent words.
After you have done that about
5000 hours, more or less, you begin
TO get sick of it. Back in the S. o. 5
the transported on was available, and
the supplies came into the canteenS.
But up at the front, when you were
lucky to get clothes and chow, it
was pretty tough proposition, and
whatever did come up to the Y. M. c.
A. was nabbed by the guys on the
special details and various trains back
with division. Some of it did get up
to the front but not enough to create
q panic. But that wasn't the fault of
the Y. M. c. A, it was the inevitable
result of a constant forward move
ment in open warfare. ! suppose
some of our heroes wanted to get hot
chocolate dropped on advanced out-
posts by airplanes. It's too bad about
those kids
Since I've been up with machine
guns I've new or seen ANYTHING Ct
this chocolate ration that the O. M.
Corps serves our troops land | don't
expect to do so either. Nor do / feel
any anguish because the Y. NJ G.. A.
didn't feed me in fox-hole, especially
when | now whok had the monopoly
on available transportation.
There was lad named ! Wilbur
our battalion had been turned
down for the Army because he had
one eye. So he sought the lucrative
and luxurious life of the Y NJ G.. A. |
thus hoping to be of some service to |
his country When he found that it !
was impossible to drag chocolate bars |
and cigars over the top with machine .
guns, he gave first aid to the wounded |
under shell fire. He had the time of |
his young life, and no one had any
thing on Wilbur when it came to cour-t
age. The Boche winged him at Blanc !
Mont in Champagne, and he got q !,
BIZ ghty.
There were lots of Wilburs in the {
Y. NJ. G. A., if you start investigating.
| hate to see lot of crabs ignoring
them, too.
When we started on our marathon
via France, Belgium, Luxembourg and
Germany, we were lucky enough to
have our emergency rations keep up
with us. Then we settled in various
castles on the Rhine, and the crabs
began to scream for the Y. NJ. c.. A.
Where wa list? Ask the army about
that-ask why the trainloads of stores
were sidetracked SO that more import
ant things could come up. But now
Dur soldier boys are getting enough
candy to make each and everyone sick,
and enough cigarettes to totally de-