God return you safe to me; To Columbia--Liberty; ’Tis my prayer, my hope for you, Boy in khaki, boy in blue. TWO VIEWPOINTS AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR OF THE VIGILANTES Permission to reproduce in this book. A German soldier in his journal wrote: He was a French Boy Scout--a little lad No bigger than my Hansel. He refused To tell if any of his countrymen Were hidden thereabout. Fifty yards on We ran into an ambush. Well, of course We shot him--little fool! Poor little fool! Thinking himself a hero as he stood Facing our guns, so little and so young Against the sunny vineyard-green, I thought What wasted courage! for the child was brave, Fool as he was. The pity ... Here there came A sudden shrapnel, and the writing stopped.... _Did I write that? O God--did I write that? Mine--they were mine, the folly and the waste. Now the keen edge of death has cut away The eyelids of my soul and I must bear The perfect understanding of the dead. Now that I know myself as I am known, How shall my soul endure Eternity? God, God, if there be pity left for me, Send to my son the child that I despised A messenger to burn into his soul While still he lives, the truth I died to learn!_ DESTROYERS “KLAXON” IN BLACKWOODS MAGAZINE Through the dark night And the fury of battle Pass the destroyers in showers of spray. As the Wolf-pack to the flank of the cattle, We shall close in on them--shadows of gray. In from ahead, Through shell-flashes red, We shall come down to them, after the Day, Whistle and crash Of salvo and volley Round us and into us as we attack Light on our target they’ll flash in their folly, Splitting our ears with shrapnel-crack. Fire as they will, We’ll come to them still, Roar as they may at us--Back--Go Back! White though the sea To the shell-splashes foaming, We shall be there at the death of the Hun. Only we pray for a star in the gloaming (Light for torpedoes and none for a gun). Lord--of Thy Grace Make it a race, Over the sea with the night to run. NINETEEN-SEVENTEEN SUSAN HOOKER WHITMAN IN THE KANSAS CITY STAR