Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1931-11-13

ment to feed upon. Those raw bleed
ing nerves denied the accustomed
easement, collapsed and subject those
,unfortunates o a fate more awful
than death. Even now thirteen years
after, thousands of men are undergo
ing the sgonies> of ten thousand deaths
with not a visible sign of wound upon
the body. Nevertheless they are
wounded, they are victims of war,
never again to know peace until they
join that mighty host to whom the
Armistic meant nothing, in that land
of shadows where warriors hold con-
clave.
To the countless thousands of
soldiers who survived, to their loved
ones at home and to their children
who have since been born, Armistice
Day has come to mean more than any
other day Of the year. Significant be-
cause it is recognized and celebrated
by more than two thirds of the earths
population, Christian, and Turk,
Mohammeden and Jew, Buddhist,
Taoist and savage throughout the
world. In the heart of darkest Africa,
along the banks of the Amazon, in
the wild mountains of central Asia
where God is unknown, on the Bund
in Shanghai, on the slopes of the
volcanic Samoa and Solomon Islands,
wherever mankind is found there will
you find men who were directly
touched by the Armistice. Those sons
of far off places answered willingly
or unwillingly the call of the control
ing nation at war, for man power and
yet more man power, travelled thou
sands of miles across plain, mountain
and sea, to fight and die on the battle
fields of Europe, for a cause they knew
nothing of. Side by side on those fields
of terrific struggle, fought the sons
of England, France, China, Japan,
Portugal, the Americans North and
South, ebony sons of Africa, yellow
skinned men from the high Hima-
layas, dark skinned men with aquiline
noses from the burning sands of the
Sahara, tattooed men from the islands
of the South Pacific, Eskimos from
the frozen Notrh, semi-civilized
indians from the jungles of British
and French Guiana. All the races of
the earth fought with and against
each other. To lowliest of the worlds
peoples returned a son effected by
the Armistice. Today the world
celebrates that day with unity and
thanksgiving. To countless millions
Christmas means nothing more than
another day, to those same millions
Armistice Day means that day when
the world ceased to run red with the
blood of slaughtered men, when the
return of some beloved son was an
assured fact, delayed only by the
necessity of waiting for transport.
Now that the setting sun casts its
blood red light upon another ami
versary of Armistice Day, now hat
another year of peace and security
has passed into history, we who lived
those hectic days and nights in the
trenches of far away France, sit in
retrospect, travelling the highways of
memory, seeing again the flash of
guns, hearing the roar of cannon,
shiver again at the whisper of death
as shrapnel and bullets narrowly miss.
W. look again upon the face of our
departed comrades, to whom we had
grown closer than brothers shed a tear
for the untimely death of one we
held very dear. Once again we are
soldiers, once more our nerves twitch
and pain as they did in those days of
long ago.
Then, just as the burden of memory
becomes almost unbearable, the voice
of the dearest woman on earth, or the
most lovable child speaks; the swift
wings of memory retrace their flight,
we are again sitting by the freside,
safe, warm, content.
1t is then that a silent heartfelt
prayer is waited to Him on high. God
grant that war upon earth shall be