Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 214, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1917 — WHOLE FAMILIES ENLIST FOR WAR [ARTICLE]

WHOLE FAMILIES ENLIST FOR WAR

All Sons of These American Parents Serve With the Colors. ELDERS DOING THEIR SHARE Mother Gives Four Sons to Army Then Offers Herself to Red Cross and 18 Accepted—Patriotic * Women Give All. Savannah, Ga.—After contributing her share to the military establishment of the United States and doing her full part in the Liberty bond purchases and contributing to the Red Cross fund, Savannah now offers the country two families of four sons each, all of whom are serving with the colors. Bernard L. McDonald of the city health department, past sixty years of age, towers above all his sons. He is the father of 24 feet of men in Battery A, Chatham artillery. Hls four “boys" are Bill, Bob, Alex and BeeBee McDonald. Each is more than six feet in height and strong in proportion. They are all good soldiers. All four are noncommissioned officers. Bob is the youngest and the shortest, being a scant six feet. Bill, next

In youth, is the tallest, exceeding Bob in height by an inch and a half. Alex, the eldest, and Bee-Bee are just an inch shorter than Bill. Their father’s height Is six feet two inches, and the only reason that he is not with them Is that they will not let him enlist. Besides the disadvantage of hls age he has only one arm. All of these boys will accompany their battery to France. Spartan Sacrifice. The story of Mrs. A. -W. Cook is that, of Spartan sacrifice. Mrs. Cook has given four sens to her country, and she Is proud, not sad, at this opportunity for service, even though she is*dependent upon them for her support. The sons range In age from seventeen to twenty-five. They are Hurley, Frank, Le Roy and Calhoun Cook, all of whom are at the training camp at Fort McPherson. Frank ahd Hurley are privates in the First Georgia Infantry and Le Roy and Cal--houn are enlisted men In Battery A, Chatham artillery. Scarcely had the call to the colors been made when the four elder sons offered their services. A fifth son, Wallace Cook, aged fourteen years. Is eager for the time to come when he, too, may serve. Mrs. Cook says she hopes to be able to get along vfery well without her boys during their absence. At. any rate, she Is happy to make this sacrifice for the sake of her country. She has offered her personal services to the Savannah branch of the American Red Cross. Another noteworthy example of Georgia patriotism is that of Mrs. Esther Gaddis of Atlanta, who, after giving three sons to the colors and her daughter to the Red Cross, is preparing herself to go to the Charleston (S. C.) navy yard to run a sewing machine for Uncle Sam. Mrs. Caddis is nearly sixty. Offers Herself. Several weeks ago her youngest son, Dewey, nineteen, enlisted In the marines, and is now in training at Paris Island, S. C. Shortly thereafter Elmer Perkins, aged thirty-two, son of Mrs. Gaddis by her first husband, enlisted as a shipwright and now is in training at Portland, Ore. Joe Perkins, aged twenty-eight, has been in the navy four years. When Mrs. Gaddis wrote her daughter, Dorothy, a vaudeville actress, the girl did not take time to answer by mail, but telegraphed her mother immediately: “It seems to run in the family, so I applied today for enlistment in the American Red Cross.”