The War Romance of the Salvation Army Part 36

EXTRACT FROM LETTER.

"Away up front where things break hard and rough for us, and we are hungry and want something hot, we can usually find it in some old partly destroyed building, which has been organized into a shack by--well, guess --the Salvation Army.

"They are the soldier's friend. They make no display or show of any kind, but they are fast winning a warm corner in the heart of everyone."

"I feel it is my duty to drop you a few lines to let you know how the boys over here appreciate what the Salvation Army is doing for them. It is a second home to us. There is always a cheerful welcome awaiting us there and _I have yet to meet a sour-faced cleric behind the counter_. One Salvation Army worker has his home in a cellar, located close to the front-line trenches. He cheerfully carries on his wonderful work amid the flying of sh.e.l.ls and in danger of gas. He is one fine fellow, always greeting you with a smile. He serves the boys with hot coffee every day, free of charge, and many times he has divided his own bread with the tired and hungry boys returning from the trenches. In the evening he serves coffee and doughnuts at a small price. Say, who wouldn't be willing to fight after feasting on that?

"In the many rest camps you will find the Salvation Army girls. They are located so close to the front-line trenches that they have to wear their gas masks in the slung position, and they also have their tin hats ready to put on. The girls certainly are a fine, jolly bunch, and when it comes to baking pies and doughnuts they are hard to beat. The boys line up a half hour before time so as to be sure they get their share. I had the pleasure of talking to a mother and her daughter and they told me they had sold out everything they had to the boys with the exception of some salmon and sardines on which they were living--salmon for dinner and sardines for supper. They stood it all with big smiles and those smiles made me smile when I thought of my troubles.

"In the trenches the boys become affected with body lice, known as cooties. A good hot bath is the only real cure for them. While on the way to a bath-house a Salvation Army worker overtook us. He was riding in a Ford which had seen better days. The springs on it were about all in and it made a noise like someone calling for mercy. The Salvation Army worker pulled up in front of us and with a broad smile on his face said: "Room for half a ton!" We did not need a second invitation and we soon had poor Henry loaded down. I thought sure it would give out, but the worker only laughed about it and kept on feeding the machine more gas as we cheered until it started away with us.

"I want to tell you what the Salvation Army does for the moral side of the soldier. The American soldier needs the guidance of G.o.d over here more than he ever did in his whole life. Away from home and in a foreign land in every corner, one must have Divine guidance to keep him on the narrow path of life. If it was not for the _workers of G.o.d over here the boys would gradually break away and then I'm afraid we would not have the right kind of fighters to hold up our end_. Of course, prayers alone won't satisfy the appet.i.te of the American soldier, and the Salvation Army girls get around that by baking for the boys. They believe in satisfying the cravings of the stomach as well as the craving of the soul and mind. I always enjoy the sermons at the Salvation Army. A good, every-day sermon is always appreciated. The Salvation Army helps you along in their good old way, and they don't believe in preaching all day on what you should do and what you shouldn't do. The girls are a fine bunch of singers and their singing is enjoyed very much by all of the boys. It is a treat to see an American girl so close to the front and a still better treat to listen to one sing.

"The Salvation Army does much good work in keeping the boys in the right spirit so that they are glad to go back to the trenches when their turn comes. There is no Salvation Army hut on this front. I often wish there was one on every front. I believe the Salvation Army does not get its full credit over in the States. Perhaps the people over there do not understand the full meaning of the work it is doing over here. I want the Salvation Army to know that it has all of the boys over here back of it and we want to keep up the good work. We will go through h.e.l.l, if necessary, because we know the folks back home are back of us. We want the Salvation Army to feel the same way. The _boys over here are really back of it and we want you to continue your good work_."

"There is just one thing more I wish to speak of, and that is the little old Salvation Army. You will never see me, nor any of the other boys over here, laugh at their street services in the future, and if I see anyone else doing that little thing that person is due for a busted head! I haven't seen where they are raising a tenth the money some of the other societies are, but they are the topnotchers of them all as the soldiers'

friend, and their handouts always come at the right time. Some of those girls work as hard as we do."

"The Salvation Army over here is doing wonderful work. _They haven't any shows or music, but they certainly know what pleases the boys most_, and feed us with homemade apple pie or crullers, with lemonade--a great big piece of pie or three crullers, with a large cup of lemonade, for a franc (18-1/2 cents).

"These people are working like beavers, and the people in the States ought to give them plenty of credit and appreciate their wonderful help to the men over here." "We were in a bomb-proof semi-dugout, in the heart of a dense forest, within range of enemy guns, my Hebrew comrade and I. We were talking of the fate that brought us here--of the conditions as we left them at home. There was the thought of what 'might' happen if we were to return to America minus a limb or an eye; we were discussing the great economic and moral reform which is a certainty after the war, when through the air came the harmonious strumming of a guitar accompanying a sweet, feminine voice, and we heard:

Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom; Lead Thou me on; The night is dark and I am far from home, Lead Thou me on.

Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant scene-- One step enough for me.

"It was the Salvation Army! In a desert of human hearts, many of them wounded with heartache, these brave, brave servants of the Son of David came to cheer us up and make life more bearable.

"In our outfit are Greeks, Italians, Bohemians, Irish, Jews--all of them loyal Americans--and the Salvation Army serves each with an impartial self-sacrifice which should forever still the voices of critics who condemn sending Army la.s.sies over here.

"Those in the ranks are men. The Salvation Army women are admired--almost wors.h.i.+pped--but respected and safe. Men by the thousands would lay down their lives for the Salvationists, and not till after the war will the full results of this sacrifice by Salvation Army workers bear fruit. But now, with so many strong temptations to go the wrong way, here are n.o.ble girls roughing it, smiling at the hards.h.i.+ps, singing songs, making doughnuts for the doughboys, and always reminding us, even in danger, that it is not all of 'life to live,' bringing to us recollections of our mothers, sisters, and sweethearts, and if anyone questions, 'Is it worth while?' the answer is: 'A thousand times yes!' and I cannot refrain from sending my hearty thanks for all this service means to us.

"A few miles in back of us now, a half dozen Connecticut girls representing the Salvation Army are doing their bit to make things brighter for us, and say, maybe those girls cannot bake. Every day they furnish us with real homemade crullers and pies at a small cost, and their coffee, holy smoke! it makes me homesick to even write about it. The girls have their headquarters in an old tumble-down building and they must have some nerve, for the Boche keeps dropping sh.e.l.ls all around them day and night, and it would only take one of those sh.e.l.ls to blow the whole outfit into kingdom come."

In a letter from a private to his mother while he was lying wounded in the hospital, he says of the Salvation Army and Red Cross:

"Most emphatically let me say that they both are giving real service to the men here and both are worthy of any praise or help that can be given them. This is especially so of the Salvation Army, because it is not fully understood just what they are doing over here. They are the only ones that, regardless of sh.e.l.ls or gas, feed the boys in the trenches and bear home to them the realization of what G.o.d really is at the very moment when our brave lads are facing death. Their timely phrases about the Christ, handed out with their doughnuts and coffee, have turned many faltering souls back to the path and they will never forget it. 'Man's extremity is G.o.d's opportunity' surely holds good here. You may not realize or think it possible, but a large majority of the boys carry Bibles and there are often heated arguments over the different phrases.

"I have just turned my pockets inside out and the tambourine could hold no more, but it was all I had and I am still in debt to the Salvation Army.

"For hot coffee and cookies when I was s.h.i.+vering like an aspen, for b.u.t.tons and patches on my tattered uniform, for steering me clear of the camp followers; but more than all for the cheery words of solace for those 'gone West,' for the blessed face of a woman from the homeland in the midst of withering blight and desolation--for these I am indebted to the Salvation Army."

CABLEGRAM.

Paris, December 17, 1917.

Commander Miss E. Booth, 120 W. 14th Street, New York, N. Y.

Being a Private, I am one of the many thousands who enjoy the kindnesses and thoughtful recreation in the Salvation hut. The huts are always crowded when the boys are off duty, for 'tis there we find warmth of body and comrades.h.i.+p, pleasures in games and music, delight in the palatable refreshments, knowledge in reading periodicals, convenience in the writing material at our disposal, and other home-like touches for enjoyment. The courtesy and good-will of the hut workers, combined with these good things, makes the huts a resort of real comfort with the big thought of salvation in Christ predominating over all. Appreciation of these huts, and all they mean to the soldier in this terrible war, rises full in all our hearts.

CLINTON SPENCER, Private, Motor Action.

"I just used to love to listen to the Salvation Army at 6th and Penn Streets, but I never dreamed of seeing them over here. And when I first saw four girls cooking and baking all day I wondered what it was all about.

"But I didn't have long to find out, for that night I saw these same girls put on their gas masks at the alert and start for the trenches. Then I started to ask about them. I never spoke to the girls, but fellows who had been in the trenches told me that they came up under sh.e.l.l fire to give the boys pies or doughnuts or little cakes or cocoa or whatever they had made that day. I thought that great of the Salvation Army. And many a boy who got help through them has a warm spot in his heart for them.

"You can see by the paper I write on who gave it to us. It is Salvation Army paper. Altogether I say give three hearty cheers for the Salvation Army and the girls who risk their own lives to give our boys a little treat."

"I am going to crow about our real friends here--and it is the verdict of all the boys--it is the Salvation Army, Joe. _That is the boys' mother and father here. It is our home_. They have a treat for us boys every night--that is, cookies, doughnuts or pie--about 9 o'clock. But that is only a little of them. The big thing is the spirit--the feeling a boy gets of being home when he enters the hut and meets the la.s.sies and lads who call themselves the soldiers of Christ, and we are proud to call them brother soldiers. We think the world of them! So, Joe, whenever you get a chance to do the Salvation Army a good turn, by word or deed, do so, as thereby you will help us. When we get back we are going to be the Salvation Army's big friend, and you will see it become one of the United States' great organizations."

"My life as a soldier is not quite as easy as it was in Rochester, but still I am not going to give up my religion, and I am not ashamed to let the other fellows know that I belong to the Salvation Army. Sometimes they try to get me to smoke or go and have a gla.s.s of beer with them, but I tell them that I am a Salvationist. There are twenty fellows in a hut, so they used to make fun at me when I used to say my prayers. Once in awhile I used to have a _pair of shoes_ or a coat or something, thrown at me. I used to think what I could do to stop them throwing things at me, so I thought of a plan and waited. It was two or three nights before they threw anything again. One night, as I was saying my prayers, someone threw his shoes at me. After I got through I picked up the shoes and took out my shoe brushes and polished and cleaned the shoes thrown at me, and from that night to now I have never had a thing thrown at me. The fellow came to me in a little while and said he was sorry he had thrown them. There are four or five Salvationists in our company--one was a Captain in the States. The Salvation Army has three big huts here among the soldier boys.

We have some nice meetings here, and they have reading-rooms and writing and lunch-rooms, so I spend most of my time there."

LETTER OF COMMENDATION RE SALVATION ARMY.

U.S.S. Point Bonita, 15 October, 1918.

Miss Evangeline Booth, Commander, Care of Salvation Army Headquarters, 14th Street, New York City.

DEAR MISS BOOTH:--

We want to thank you for presenting our crew with an elegant phonograph and 25 records. We are all going to take up a collection and buy a lot of records and I guess we will be able to pa.s.s the time away when we are not on watch.

We have a few men in the crew who have made trips across on transports and they say that every soldier and sailor has praised the Salvation Army way- up-to-the-sky for all the many kindnesses shown them.

We also want to thank you for the kindness shown to one of our crew. The Major who gave us the present was the best yet and so was the gentleman who drove the auto about ten miles to our s.h.i.+p. That is the Salvation Army all over. During the war or in times of peace, your organization reaches the hearts of all.

We all would like to thank Mr. Leffingwell for his great kindness in helping us.

The undersigned all have the warmest sort of feeling for you and the Salvation Army.

Many, many thanks, from the s.h.i.+p's crew.

"I was down to the Salvation Army the other day helping them cook doughnuts and they sure did taste good, and the fellows fairly go crazy to get them, too. Anything that is homemade don't last long around here, and when they get candy or anything sweet there is a line about a block long.

"Notice the paper this is written on? Well, I can't say enough about them.