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Show FORMER UTAHN SUPERVISES ARMY T, t,U. ATHLETICS Elwood S. Brown, Former Local Physical Director, Direc-tor, Named to Important Post in France; Writes Friends of Work at the Front. 1 y LWOOD s. BROWN', well known In ILj Salt Lako as former physical dlrec-E dlrec-E tor of tho Y. M. C. A. here. Is now with the Y. M. C. A. In France and has been given tho Important position posi-tion of field supervisor or the physical work of the army Y. M. C. A. In ail France. Information as to the Important position to which Mr. Brown has been named is contained in a letter written by him ironi Paris, under date of May 12, to members of his family here. The letter contains some interesting information about the Y. M. e. A. work in the war zone. Mr. Brown, after leaving Salt Lake, went to Manila, P. I., and was secretary and physical director of the V. M. C. A. work in the Philippines for eight years. When the United stales entered the war he went to the front with the army Y. M. C. A. and has gained promotion to the top in his line of. work. Aid Red Cross. An interesting incident to the sojourn of Mr. Brown in the Philippines is that under the direction of Mrs. Brown ami her mother, Mrs. Powis, a woman's organization organ-ization was perfected for the making of drawn work, bv which they realized $100,000 for the 'Red Cross. It is reported. The letier from Mr. Brown relative to his work in France is as follows: Today is Mother's day, and from one end of France to the other, wherever members of the American expeditionary force are to be found, letters are being written by the hoys to those dear ones who bore them, and from those of whose own mothers moth-ers are gone, but into whose hearts, though helpfulness and love, some other mother has come, messages will be sent today Just as tender and true as if they were our very own. Visited Front. I have just returned from another trip to the front, and I wish it were possible for me to tell you where I ha e been, and what I have seen and done. You advise me to be brave, but not foolhardy, and 1 will try to follow your advice. My work takes me, on some occasions, into danger, but you may be sure that will take no unnecessary risks, as I hope you are sure that I will avoid no duties that I am expected to perform. I can say that T deeply regret that circumstances make it impossible for me to do my share as an armed man. I surely would like to have the joy of putting a few of these devilish Huns into hell, where they most certainly cer-tainly belong. I am not sure that I have told you what my new duties are. I have been promoted before really getting started on my first assignment, which you will remember was with Mr. Tener as supervisor of athletics for the First army corps. 1 have just been made associate to the chief secretary for physical education and assigned as general field supervisor of the physical physi-cal work for all of France. Work of "Y." Mr. De Groot, the great American playground organizer, heads the division divi-sion and will be the Paris man at headquarters, while 1 will be the tield man, going from city to city, camp to camp, and to the very front wherever wher-ever in France our men are fL-und. and this means literally hundreds of places. It is really very signal rec- ; ognition and I hope and pray for strength and ability to measure up to the great task that I have been asked to do. I wish I could tell you of the wonderful won-derful work the "Y" is doing in every line of service. The army lias come to count on it in a hundred ways. Brig-a-lier-General Castner told me recently recent-ly that the army regards the "Y" as a definite factor in winning the war, just a j? it counts men and guns. We servo the men absolutely everywhere every-where they go and in ways that mean comfort, encouragement, education, help in times of moral strain, in physical physi-cal recreation, in social recreation and many other ways. Dr. Mott says It is the most vital and stupendous piece of national public service ever attempted at-tempted up to this time. . I am glad to have a share in it and to be grati-lied grati-lied in any way to help win this war, which ia the chief business of every American today or should be. Secretary Baker's .public announcement announce-ment that there are half a million American troops in France has had a great effect; has depressed the enemy and elated the allies. Germany's only hope is to win before our full strength can lie brought to bear against her and she is failing right now in her greatest effort since the beginning of the war, and will fall. If these fiendish fiend-ish Huns are held as they are being held now, it is hardly possible that the war will go into another year. Paris Is Dark. Paris Is absolutelv dark at night except ex-cept for the faint bhie lights that line the boulevards and a few of the main streets. All of the other thoroughfares thorough-fares are absolutely black window shutters must be closed tightly so that not even a beam of light escapes until the lights in the rooms are turned off. and then windows and shutters may be opened. It must be very uncomfortable In the summer with windows and doors shut at night, although 1 doubt if they havfe any summer in France; it is the middle of May now and we are still wearing overcoats at night and raincoats rain-coats all day. Apparently it never gets warm here. It seems queer to be a civilian and yet under the same control and subject sub-ject to the same restrictions as the regular army officers and men. We are regarded as a definite part of the A. E. F., as it Is called. In fact, everything ev-erything here goes by initials. Mead-quarters Mead-quarters is called G. H. Q. ; the service ser-vice of supplies, S. O. S. On the doors of the houses where our soldiers are billeted In French villages are signs reading 0-6 M-20 H-f, meaning officers, men, horses, and they all sleep together, since the barn and house are not separated, one roof covers everything. A man told me that when sick or wounded men are brought into the hospitals and as yet their cases have not been diagnosed, that a sign is hung on the bed G. O. K. Such is the passion over here for using initials. He claims to have walked t h rough a hospital and seeing so many G. O. K.'s. his curiosity was aroused and he asked a nurse what It meant. "God Only Knows," she replied. Torpedoed by Huns. Fifty-seven secretaries got into Paris night before last who were on a ship that did not arrive safely overeas by any means. Their ship was torpedoed at 1 a. m. and went down in twelve minutes. Fortunately there were not many passengers aboard and everyone escaped. They, of course, lost everything every-thing except what they could hastily grab as they rushed out of their rooms to the lifeboats. Word was wirelessed ahead and when they reported at the "Y" headquarters head-quarters in London, they found "57 varieties" was no name for it. They tell a great story of how the whole bunch of them, tall and short, lean and fat, went into a big room, where the stuff was waiting, how each man took an outfit, hit or miss, mostly most-ly miss, of course, and then of the fun thev had trading back and forth. They worked a whole morning with each other and then came out a sight for the gods, and so they landed here. But it is all in the game. We are here to take everything that comes, to do our darndest to go to the place where it will have to be "Me and the devil, instead of me ami Gott." |