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Show ONLY A VOI.l'.VTKKK j The following poem was sent to' the News by a Milford volunteer j from Camp Kearney and we publish j it but hope that no one feels that '. suh is the fate of the volunteer. We! believe that the only reason that the ! drafted men may in some instances, receive more recognition than the I individual volunteer is solely because the people have had the opportunity to give that recognition while many volunteers chose to quietly slip away to respond to the call "of their country coun-try and thus avoid all of the unnecessary unnec-essary "fuss and feathers." The only recognition that is worth having in I this war, anyway, is that which may j come because of faithful service. The I weeps, kisses and hurrahs doubtless enthuse and are held in fond recollection recol-lection but the boys must remember that they are only for encouragement encourage-ment and a little faithful service will merit and receive ten thousand times as much from the folks at home. All glory to the volunteer or recruit who I serves his country well, say we. Why didn't I wait to be drafted ' And be led to the train by a band. Or out on a claim for exemption. Oh, why did I hold up my hand, Why didn't I wait for the banquet, Why didn't I wait to be cheered? For the drafted men got the credit. While I merely volunteered. And nobody gave me a banquet, Nobody said a kind word. j The puff of the engine, the grind, of the wheels Was all the good-bye I heard. Then off to the training camp hustled To be drilled for the next half year. And in the shuffle forgotten, For I merely, volunteered ! And' perhaps some day in the future, j When a little boy sits on my knee, j And asks what I. did in the Great! War, " And his little eyes look up at me, I will have to look back into those eyes' j That at me so trustingly peer, ! And confess that I wasn't drafted, ! That I was only a volunteer! j From Camp Kearney, Cal. i |