The War Romance of the Salvation Army — John Shaqi
The War Romance of the Salvation ArmyHill, Grace Livingston
History
The War Romance of the Salvation Army
Hill, Grace Livingston
World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Salvation Army
One big reason why the Salvation Army is able to carry on the great
machinery of its vast organization is that its people are trained to
obey without murmuring. Cheerfully and laboriously the men set to work.
Winter rains were setting in, with a chill and intensity never to be
forgotten by an American soldier. But wet to the skin day after day all
day long the Salvationists worked against time, trying to finish the
hut before the snow should arrive. And at last the hut was finished and
ready for occupancy. Such tireless devotion, such patient, cheerful
toil for their sake was not to be passed by nor forgotten by the
soldiers who watched and helped when they could. Day after day the
bonds between them and the Salvation Army grew stronger. Here were men
who did not have to, and yet who for the sake of helping them, came and
lived under the same conditions that they did, working even longer
hours than they, eating the same food, enduring the same privations,
and whose only pay was their expenses. At the first the Salvationists
took their places in the chow line with the rest, then little by little
men near the head of the line would give up their places to them,
quietly stepping to the rear of the line themselves. Finally, no matter
how long the line was the men with one consent insisted that their
unselfish friends should take the very head of the line whenever they
came and always be served first.
One day one of the Salvation Army men swathed in a big raincoat was
sitting in a Ford by the roadside in front of a Salvation Army hut,
waiting for his Colonel, when two soldiers stopped behind him to light
their cigarettes. It was just after sundown, and the man in the car
must have seemed like any soldier to the two as they chatted.
“Bunch of grafters, these Y.M.C.A. and Salvation Army outfits!”
grumbled one as he struck a match. “What good are the ‘Sallies’ in a
soldier camp?”
“Well, Buddy,” said the other somewhat excitedly, “there’s a whole lot
of us think the Salvation Army is about it in this man’s outfit. For a
rookie you sure are picking one good way to make yourself unpopular
_tout de suite!_ Better lay off that kind of talk until you kind of
find out what’s what. I didn’t have much use for them myself back in
the States, but here in France they’re real folks, believe me!”
So the feeling had grown everywhere as the huts multiplied. And the
huts proved altogether too small for the religious meetings, so that as
long as the weather permitted the services had to be held in the open
air. It was no unusual thing to see a thousand men gathered in the
twilight around two or three Salvation Army lassies, singing in sweet
wonderful volume the old, old hymns. The soldiers were no longer amused
spectators, bent on mischief; they were enthusiastic allies of the
organization that was theirs. The meeting was theirs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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