The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-02-28
WHEN THE BOYS COME HOME
Concluded from First Page)
The Eve of Death

heard one speak of it. That was
that, with the possibility of death al
ways present, they had no. stomach
for beastliness. With their days pos
sibly numbered, they did not want to
fill those that remained with unclean
ness. They viii carry this habit of
cleanness home with them. / have
heard many former rounder de-
clare himself done with skylarking.
Of course there was slight drinking
when we struck a village, and the
things the A. E. F. decided about
drinking will make trouble for the
bone-dry prohibitionists. The great
majority contented themselves with
the French method; they sat and talk
ed In the cafes, slipping meanwhile
their glasses of vim rouge or vim
blanc or watery beer-beverages so
light they did not intoxicate unless
one drank a barrelful. In France
people do not stand at bar and slug
themselves with raw whisky. / have
seen only one drunken Frenchman in
eight months, and he was a poilu
whom American soldiers with mis-
guided good-fellowship had treated
far beyond his capacity. Most of the
returning soldiers are taking with
them desire for the placid, pleasant
way of imbibing light drinks, and
they will chafe at prohibition. / am
not concerned here with the question
OF whether the hght-beverage plan
would be successful in America.
1t is not very long ago that some
American mothers were watching
their sons go away with secret fore
holdings that they. would come back
brutalized by the things they would
have to see and do. 1t has worked
liar gentleness among front-line SOL
diers. 1t sounds ridiculous, but it is
SO. This characteristic is so general
that a man in uniform back of the
lines who is FOSTERING and ''hard-
boiled" invited the belief of soldiers
who observe him that he never has
been under fire.
After the men had seen a comrade
toward whom they had. a grudge
smashed by shell, or stretched out
by sniper's bullet, they felt regret
time we set out for the line we knew
some. of US were not coming back,
ard you can't quarrel with man
when you know both of you are about
tc face death. Besides. the Germans
gave us all the fighting we needed.
Most combat organizations became
big families, after an ordeal or so on
the firing line. The attitude of offic-
erS was that of indulgent parents
sternness seldom was necessary. Nom
CONS forgot how to rebuke private IS
failings and jollied and joked instead.
When we were advancing and the
kitchens could not find US, men shared
their last swallow of water and broke
their last box of hard-tack together,
at times whens Providence alone knew
when they would get more. Believe
me, strong bond develops among
men who have lain quivering in the
same shell hole under boche bar
rage. And to see a comrade lying
dead brings all the pity and solemnity
and gentleness in a mans character
to the surface.
| cannot resist the impulse to SET
down here that the soft-spoken, even
the effeminate-appearing, man usu-
ally proved to be much more courag.
eous in battle than the man. who used
TO clean up a poolroom with his fists
The sort of nerve that supports g
man in saloon brawl is of no value
against machine gun. know g
| thin-legged lieutenant, two years age
a ioor-walker in 10-cent store, who
twice has won the Croix de Guerre
and saw a dreamy-eyed lad, who
made the boys gasp when he first en-
listed by saying grace at mess, win &
citation on the Marine by walking un
concernedly through vicious machine
gun fire to keep connection between
us and a neighboring company. Tha
was on the day our hardest" guy, /:
man with an iron jaw and bull
voice, played he had been gassed AM
went to the rear. Youecannot tell ;
brave man by his looks
War indeed is a recrudescence. o
all that is savage i'm the race, but i
produced little, if any. savagery il
the American soldier. The American
soldier, however bitterly he fought
was IN the war to stamp out Savag
cry, and he did not forget it. Man,
OF these soldiers who are going HON
killed men-Germans-and know the
killed them. There was. strangely
. nothing brutalizing in that expe1
fence. Somehow we did not regar
J those figures in greenish gray, wit
their ugly scuttle-shaped helmets, a
human beings. When they cam
pouring into our trenches in mid
night raid, their shapes, dimly out
lined in the darkness, seemed those c
obscene beasts. There was no time I
|. consider the ethics of the affai
There was time, only to kill Or di
And even after daylight came an
with the excitement of the fightin
gone we saw those men we had kille
IN grisly distinctness, there was n
horror and no remore- For the An
erican soldier war was a terribl