Lest We Forget: World War StoriesThompson, John G. (John Gilbert)
History
Lest We Forget: World War Stories
Thompson, John G. (John Gilbert)
Readers -- History; Readers -- World War, 1914-1918
Often before and always after the men go into battle, the "Y" workers
bring up great kettles of hot chocolate and a store of biscuit. This is
a godsend to the men who have been fighting for hours with little, if
anything, to eat.
Passing over the battlefield, the workers write down messages from
wounded and dying men, to be sent to their relatives. They learn all
they can about those who have been taken prisoners, and so bring
comfort to the people at home.
The secretaries send to the United States free of charge money from
the soldiers to their home folks. In one month, a million dollars was
brought to the Y.M.C.A. with the simple instructions that it be
delivered to addresses given by the soldiers. The controller of the New
York Life Insurance Company in France has had charge of this.
The association has nearly 400 motor trucks engaged in various kinds of
transport work. It aids greatly in caring for and entertaining the
soldiers, as many as 4000 of them at a time. It has opened many hotels
in France, four of them in Paris, and owns several factories for the
making of chocolate. It holds religious services for the men, providing
preachers of all the different faiths. So it, too, shares in the
godlike services of the Red Cross and Knights of Columbus.
Near the trenches and at training camps, other work has been done
similar to that of the Y.M.C.A. and Knights of Columbus, by the
Salvation Army. The soldier boys have especially enjoyed the doughnuts
and pies furnished them by this society.
It has, it is said, placed 153 comfort and refreshment huts at the
front in Europe, and is building many more. It maintains about 80
military homes, caring for about 100,000 men each week. It operates
nearly 50 ambulances. Over 700 of its members are devoting their lives
to war work in the trenches and at the camps. It was the first, it is
said, of the societies of mercy at the front, and spent for the work
mentioned $1,000,000, all made up of nickels and dimes of small givers,
before the society made any "drive" for funds.
Letters from officials, friends, and soldier boys tell what glorious
work these and other similar societies have done and are doing. They
bring a little touch of heaven into the very worst places and
conditions, and show the God in man.
IN FLANDERS FIELDS
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN MCCRAE.
THE WORLD WAR
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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