Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-03-22
EIGHTY ATTEND
BANQUET GIVEN
RETURNED BOYS
Welcome Home Dinner Last Night
ct Masonic Temple Is a Com
plete Success.
EXPERIENCES ARE TOLD OF
Getting Into Gas Mask and Method
Of Operation Explained by
Soldiers.

Returned Rock Island soldiers
and sailors, 80 of them, were for
maIIy welcomed to their home town
last evening at the third welcome
home banquet rendered them by
the Red Cross at the Masonic tenn
pie. This group included the larg-
est number Of overseas men who
have been feted by the city, and a
large group were members Of the
F'ifty-fourth ammunition train,
which was largely made up OF Rock
Island men. There were also
number Of navy men present last
night.
The l1onored boys were first
served a banquet, to which they
did justice. Cigars, cigarets and
candy were also given each man,
and after they had Toasted ON the
good meal served by the Red Cross
canteen, O. program was given. Be-
tween the courses the boys Joined
IN singing war songs, camp style,
which made the hall ring.
W. L. Franks, chairman OF the
welcome home committee, acted as
toastmaster, and introduced the
speakers for the evening. after the
honored guests and their friends
and relatives who had gathered
for the program had joined In
singing "Mr. Zip, Zip, Zip" I'll
Liza Jane" The Rose of No Mans
Land" Soup" Katy" and
"snliiea," with parodIss on some of
these. The first number announc-
ed by MIR. Franks was given by the
Welcome Home quartet, which is
composed of Mrs. Mae Richards
AHgEzhaII TFInFyJ
Wilson and i. u. Wood. They inn
mediataly won the company with
"The Boys Are Coming Home" and
were called back to give an en-
core. They responded with I'm
Summertime"
w. B. Mcintyre when announe-
ed was greeted with cheers and
shouts by the returned men, Sun
shine Billy" as he WIS introduced,
gave a short talk, which, with his
5nimitable humor, brought out the
thought of tho homeland, and what
the men had done, and had been
willing to do for this land. He
said In part:
'"This is ono Of the most terrific
hours In time, 1t ID we'll that we
Tecensecrate ourselves In the ser
vice to do what we can still do for
this country. You don't want to
hear about war tonight, SO l am
not going to talk much about it,
God still governs in the world,
and you boys have been the in
stFument In His hand, Out of this
strife. for which you were willing
to shed your blood, will come the
brotherhood of man, If there is
any sacrifice which will weld to-
gether 1t is that of blood, Pray to
this God, Pray that peace will
come, And we know that unless
God sits at the peace table and
His spirit walks through the halls
OF congress-, there will be no last
iEg peace, And that Is what is
coming. ! greet you with giadness
tonight, you who have come back
with a stronger faith to do your
task. And If peace on earth is for
na, the God of love that filters
through your heart will bring it
about, We are all with you. There
il to be no more gloom But have
faith Ia you, and it is the boys in
this great war who will be the spe-
eifie instrument for everlasting
peaea, if you have to fight for it
ageinl"
A minute of silent prayer was
held, the entire audience standing,
payiHg reverence to the boys who
have not come back from the fight,
rs had those who were being hon
eFed by the city,
Tells Of Many Thrills,
YeomaA Carl Nice OF Milan, who
possibly had as many thrilling ex-
peTienees as any local boy during
the war, was the next speaker,
Nice was in the service of the Unit
ed States navy from April 10, 1917,
TO Feb, Z, 1919, and his experiences
on the oceon ca a transport con-
Toy were most narrowing, 1t was
the old case of the captain going
out with brown hair and coming
back grey and old, Nice told a
part OF his story as follows;
81 was with the first convoy which
escorted General Pershing across
the Atlantic, and landed in France
with the first OF the American Elk
peditionary forces, And you all
know that there we're very few of
those boys who went over at that
time who have come back or will
come back.
eleven trips across the ocen and
back is my record I have travel
cd some 10000 miles in all, and
was III France, Scotland, England,
ireland, Wales and the northern
countries. We witnessed many
submarine attacks, for our ship
vas attacked by six. Maybe that
was because our ship was number
IL, but didn't mind this for did
not discover It until after the sixth
trip across. We were in the con-
voy which was escorting the Tus-
cania when 1t was sunk, and I saw
with my own eyes the torpedo hit
the ship, and the men jump over
board in an effort to save them
selves. You all know the story, so
I need lot repeat 1t.
During my sea life we were in
four storms, which I would call
storms. You boys here know what
1t Is to be seasick, and we did dur
ing these. I was sick for Is DAYS
on my first trip, and 1 know what
1t is, too. After spending Fourth
of July. 1917, at st. Nazaire, France,
and let me say that l have never
seen a celebration of the day
which equals that one in France,
We started on the return trip, when
we ran into the last storm. We
were two days out when we hit it
and we were four days in 1t. The
captain. who had been in the navy
fer 16 years, and who had been
through many storms, said he had
never seen or heard of one to