OCR Text |
Show o THE LITTLE RESERVE. As troop trains pull out of tho great depots of tho land with our fighting men, among those left behind arc tho little reservists. They may be the kid brothers of' the young men of war, or the sons of those who leavo families behind. The nephew of a trooper also belongs to this organization. They adore, with boyish chivalry, their hero of the American army springing into tho firing fir-ing line of tho world. This little chum of tho fighting man has his own ideas as to tho greatness of his hero hi khaki. To his youthful mind, kin in uniform is greater than any general staff officer.- Ho remembers a thousand thous-and little details as a mother remembers the tiny episodes of the long ago. They weld tho martial figure to his little heart. Boy like, tho lad left behind stoutly donio3 tho obsis-mce obsis-mce to tears and gulps manfully a sob that would mar his attempt at a military salute in farewell. Perhaps, j younger still, and tho only son of his father, ho cannot maintain such strict rolf-disciplinc and tho little figure i3 Hroken with grief at tho last moment as the faco of face-? 'o him, out of all the hundreds, merges into tho Win of, ellow uniforms and tho green flags on the last car flutter -he old railroad farewell. In tho strides of the war god, J 't may hap that out of the list of names of thoso missing or worse, the little fellow may recognize the name doai" 'jst of all to him. The first real whip of fear will beat upon his soul and from that moment on, young as he is, he will know something of what it means to be a man. A mother's faco will look to him for comfort and in itout response a pair of baby hands will entwine about 'icr neck and a baby heart will beat loyal and true as the boy comes to realize he i3 her solo companion through)! life. Boyish toys and pleasures will be missed in manful silence as he learns of self-denial and control. In the white unwritten pages of history it may be the gracious will of heaven that records of war will no longer be transcribed. But these little reservists will have received a discipline from the present conflict which will make them better citizens of the great republic of the west. Prepared by the training in sorrow's school for the giant task of the war after the war, they will lead the struggle into which the country steps once the battle flags are furled and the trench gashed fields of Europe yield to the grain of peace. The little reservist is a hero himself. He is the living example of why we war to a finish that war shall be no more. Hertild-Republican. |