Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-05-19
NO. 40
YORK'S own STORY
Book by Worlds Greatest Private
Soldier.
LOVES SERVICE and IS STILL SERVING
Modest Recital of Wonderful Military
Feat-Strong Believer in ProVi-
dence Of God and Christian-Get-
ting Much Help for His People.

dence of God and Christian-Get-
ting Much Help for His People.
Literary Digest.
AS York fought there was prayer
on his lips. we are told in Sergeant
York and His People" by Sam X.
Cowan (Funk and Wagnalls). He
prayed to God to spare him and to
have mercy on those he was compelled
to kill. In his own happy phrase,
Yorks rifle killed "a-plenty" for he
hailed from Pail NAH, tiny village
in the mountains of Tennessee, where
every boy learns to shoot. 1t Is the
land of the Long Hunters" AS Mr..
Cowan informs us a carving on a
tree near Pail Mall reads: I'D. Boon
CILLED n BAR ON Tree in The
YEAR 1860"
"Our contemporary ancestors" these
mountain people have been called, for
their way of life has changed little
since the first settlers entered the APP
palachian country in Revolution
cry times. Says Mr. Cowan:
The mountaineer of today is the
transplanted colonist of the eighteenth
century; he is the backwondsman of
the days of Andrew Jackson: his life
has the hospitality the genuineness
and simplicity of the pioneer. 1t has
been said of the residents of the Cum
berland Mountains that they are the
purest Anglo Saxons to be found to-
day, and not even England can pro-
duce so clear a strain.
Sergeant York and His People" Is
not a war book. 1t is a Mountain
book. 1t traces "the molding Of a
man." as Mr.. Cowan puts it, and one
notes with curious interest the very
striking part that religion played in
the moldins-religion and another
sentiment as strong. When York was
drafted,
He sent note to Oracle, telling her
his little blue card" had come, and
he asked her TO meet him at the
church-which always stands open by
the roadside. AS they walked toward
her home they arranged to meet the
next morning under the birch trees,
when she would leave to Garry" the
cows to the pasture. 1t was there she
promised to marry hirn-when he re-
turned from the war.
Men at the store saw Alvin come
| 1. n
not escape some banterings over the
success or failure of his early morning
tryst
Jest left it to her. he is said to
have frankly confessed; "she can
have me for the takin' when l git
back"
He and his mother were alone in
their home for several hours. When
he left he stopped at the Brooks porch,
where relatives and neighbors had as
scmblcd AS he walked away he turn
ed, Unexpectedly, up the path toward
the rock on the mountainside. 1t is
now known he went there TO kneel
alone in prayer.
When he came down to the store,
to the men waiting for him, he spoke
with an assured faith he had not
shown before.
81 know, nov, that Ill be back" he
told them.
But, while this is not a war book,
it nevertheless tells the story of York's
superb feat of daring and marksman-
ship at "York's HILL" as the people
of France have named the scene of his
exploit in the Argonne Forest And,
naturally, Mr.. Cowan tells the story
of events leading up to 1t
In a small red, cloth memorandum
book, intended for no eyes but his
own, Sergeant York wrote the title,
"a History of Places Where | Have
Been" 1t became instead a history Of
and consumate hero during the
World war. The little volume, now
broken backed and worn, was always
with HMM camp, aboard the trans
port, and at the front. Though care
less of grammar, now and then, and
sometimes even of spelling, it has the
interest that attaches always to
hero's own words.
He reached Camp Gordon, near At
lanta, Ga, on the night of November
16, 1917, and his diary relates:
81 was placed in the 21st training
battalion. Then | was called the first
morning of my army life to police up
in the yard all the old cigarette butts,
and ! thought that was pretty hard
as | didn't smoke. But I did 1t just
the same"
Later on, he wrote:
81 stayed there and done squads
right and squads left until the first
of February, 1913, and then was
sent to Company G, 32S Inf. send Div"
This, so Mr. Cowan explains, was
the famous All-American Division, in
which every state in the union was
| represented as well as all the Allied
countries. How happy York's life at
| Camp Gordon was may be judged
| from his notes: