World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Young Men's Christian Associations
Now can you measure just what a big warm hut means to these men as a
home, far away from home? The red triangle at the entrance gleams
across the whole camp and stands for the three things the soldier most
needs.
It stands, in the first place, as a pledge for supplying the _physical
need_ of these hungry, lonely, and fiercely tempted men. A dry
shelter, a warm fire, a cheerfully lighted room, the bursts of song,
and the hum of conversation make the men forget the wind and rain and
mud outside. Supper and a hot cup of coffee satisfy their hunger. On
the notice-board is the announcement of the outdoor sports, football
tournaments, and the games, where the thirty thousand men of the
division will compete in open contest on the coming Saturday, under the
direction of the Y M C A. Whatever the soldier needs for his physical
life, whether it is to eat or to sleep, a bed in London, a cool drink
in the thirsty desert, or hot coffee in the trenches, it is furnished
for him by the Association.
The hut also provides for the soldier's _intellectual_ and social
needs. The piano and the phonograph, the billiard tables, draughts and
chess boards, tables for games, library, and reading room keep him
busy; and the concerts, stimulating lectures, moving pictures,
educational classes, and debating societies provide him with
recreational and mental employment.
The far deeper _moral and spiritual needs_ of the soldier are also met.
As the evening draws to a close, one sees the secretary in his military
uniform stand up on the table; hats are off and heads are bowed at the
call for evening prayers, which are held here every night. On Sunday
the parade services of the different denominations take place in turn
in the Association hut. Weekly voluntary religious meetings are also
held. At one end of the building is the "quiet room," where groups of
Christian soldiers can meet for Bible classes or for prayer. At
regular intervals evangelistic meetings are held. On our last night at
this hut, on a Sunday evening, twelve hundred men gathered to listen to
the Christian message.
Of the three bars of the triangle, it is this which stands at the top,
which unites the other two and which is the dominating factor of the
whole. And yet nowhere is religion forced down the throats of the men.
Rather it is the aim to make it the unconscious atmosphere of the whole
hut. It is a striking fact, to which every soldier will testify, that
while the language of the barrack room and beer canteen is often
reeking with the profane and the obscene, the whole tone of the
Association hut is entirely different. As one soldier says: "You don't
realize the enormous difference of atmosphere between this and any
other place where soldiers congregate. A man simply does not talk bad
language and filth here; he learns to control himself." Thus the
threefold work of the Association stands for the whole man and for the
whole manhood of the nation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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