Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1918 — SERVICE THAT WINS THE SOLDIER HEART [ARTICLE]

SERVICE THAT WINS THE SOLDIER HEART

Fred Lockley, Y. M. C. A., Tells of the Gratitude of the Boys at the Front. •‘One of the discoveries men are making over here,” Fred Lockley, of the Y. M. C. A. and of Portland, Oregon, writes from London, “is that more pleasure can be had out of giving than getting. Many a man who has spent money freely in the old days to buy pleasure is finding that he gets more pleasure over here by the spending of one’s self in the service of others. “A few months ago I went out with a fellow Y. M. C. A. secretary to hunt up out-of-the-way detachments of troops. A stable guard here, a machine gun company there, a platoon somewhere else. We carried our goods in an automobile. We had plenty of writing paper and envelopes for free distribution, and chocolate, cookies, chewing tobacco and smoking tobacco, cigarettes, razor blades, tooth paste and things of that kind for sale. American war service workers were busy everywhere. We found Salvation Army lassies making doughnuts for the boys and K. of C. secretaries giving help. Books furnished by the American Library Association were to be seen on all sides. “Hearing firing at a distance, we drove down the road and found a score or so of men at machine gun practice. The officer gave the men half an hour recess to buy goods. “At another place we came in sight of a lieutenant drilling a platoon. I said to the lieutenant : ‘How soon before you dismiss the company? We have Y. M. C. A. goods for sale.’ “He said: ‘Right now. Sergeant, dismiss the company!’ “And ten seconds later the company was in line waiting to buy goods from our traveling ‘Y.’ Grateful is no name for it. The men can’t do enough to show their gratitude.”