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Show MEN HI HIE FRONT ENCOURftGED ID SING Light-hearted Soldier Is aj Good Soldier in Opinion of General Pershing. Y. M. C A. IS HELPING Everything Possible Is Being Be-ing Done to Keep Spirits of "Sammies" Up. By DANIEL DILLON, International News Service Staff ' Correspondent. PARIS, Xov. 21 (by mail to Xew YorkV "Encourage the men to sin." is tlio order that headquarters has passed down the. line. A liM hearted soldier is a pood soldier, opines General Gen-eral Pershinc. "And keep 'em smiling" smil-ing" is another bit of advice that the old campaigners insistently preach. The ''non-com'' who can make two chuckles cachinate where only one snickered before is on his way to straps. In the recently organized entertainment entertain-ment department of the Y. M, C A. the army is finding a helpful auiiliarv in keeping Sammie s spirits at scratch. ' .1 err..-' ' Keynoids of New York, formerly for-merly chairman of the Bronx Society of Arts and Sciences, aided and abetted by Jack'-' Barker of Evanston, 111., a one-time member of the Glee club of Northwestern university, has taken on the job of teaching the American soldier sol-dier the musical scale. '"Close Harmony" Hour. In the various camps 7 p. m. has come to be known as "close harmony " or "swipes" hour. Then is when the men crowd into the Y. M. l A. huts, the "ivories start jangling" and "Old Black Joe" floats down the "Suwanee River" to the "Old Polks at Home." Every popular American song since the Spanish-American war. with its "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" down to the latest English En-glish annexed "Pack All Your Troubles Trou-bles in Your Old Kit Bag" is warbled with a diversity of tenors, seconds, thirds, even shortstops, and bassos that are bewildering in their range. Reynolds and Marker, with a merry crew of nightingale assistants, are endeavoring en-deavoring to direct and control these impromptu performances. They are ferreting out the men who have bad theatrical experience and putting them on as headliners and added attractions. A Princeton Triangle club quartette has been unearthed; a number of vaudeville vaude-ville stars, ranging from one well-known well-known twinkler to orbs of lesser brilliance, bril-liance, have been discovered, and one full-fledged . Shakesperian actor has been uncovered. All have been used to make grist for the musical mill. Great Artists Heard. But the Elaw & Erlangers of the Y. M. C. A. have not been content with developing the home market; they have gone afield and garnered the best to be had. L-ast week Mrs. SabLna John-ton, John-ton, the American opera singer, and Jean A'erd, the well-known pTench accompanist ac-companist for Pablo Casals, the world's greatest cellist, toured the Y. M. C. A. circuit and nightly gave performances, per-formances, free of charge, to the soldiers. sol-diers. Xext week Samuel Dushkina. pupil of Kreisler and Mrs. Seward, who is known to Sew Yorkers as having slaved the part of Edith Eandolph in '"'The Weavers." are booked as the big attractions, while Henry AYaletsky, a magician from the Paris stage, and Clitford Walker, the American vaude-villian, vaude-villian, will fill in between times. Each week sees some European or American artists doing their turn under un-der the big tent or in one of the commodious com-modious huts. The innovation has made a big hit with the troops. As one big Iowan with a touch ot homesickness home-sickness in his voice said at the close of an evening's entertainment as he walked billetward: "Gee, if they only nad had the Alpine yodlers and William Wil-liam Jennings Bryan on the bill tonight to-night it would have been just like the opera house back in good old Burlington." Bur-lington." Prizes Are Awarded. Following the set programme, prizes in the shape of boxes of cigarettes are offered for the best extemporaneous stunt put on by a soldier. The audience au-dience is the .judge and cries of "get the hook," ''bounce him," "fade away, brother," bring back memories of ye olden days of burlesque when "amateur night" was a recognized institution in-stitution throughout the width and breadth of the land. Revnolds, as befits an American impresario, im-presario, is enthusiastic over the outlook out-look for the season. "Our soldiers need entertainment just as much as thev need food and drink," he said. "And iust as they are the best victualed soldiers sol-diers in the world today, so they ought to be the best entertained, ami that's the mark we are shooting at. We expect ex-pect to develop our work along two well-defined lines. The first will embrace em-brace obtaining the very best professional profes-sional talent available to tour the camps and perform for the men. We have been agreeably surprised by the manner in which the highest-priced artists, art-ists, both American and continental, have volunteered for this work. We are now certain this place will be a complete com-plete success. "Coaches" Are Needed. "The second aim we have in mind will be more difficult in attaining. We want to get a number of musical and dramatic coaches who will organize skits, minstrel shows and vaudeville stunts of various kinds among the soldiers sol-diers themselves. This is the big thing. We want the men to amuse and entertain themselves as much as possible. pos-sible. "We want also to develop the pageant pa-geant and festival type of the drama so that we can get as many men as possible into the action. Scenes from American and French history will be staged. The men are brimming with tnlent and we are looking for bits of I'rench life' with its novel customs to be incorporated into plays and playlets that the men will put on. "A former dramatic critic of one of the New York papers has promised" to :et us up something that will reflect the spirit ot the American soldier brushing France for the first time. Another An-other soldier, formerly a society plav-wright plav-wright in Chicago, is doing us a comic skit that centers around a humorous dialogue between Sammy and a French poilu. ' |