Damn. They were lucky to get out of there alive. How dare anyone give credence to these accusations and threaten these men with a prison cell.
I received a gift today.
I want to share it, and my gratitude, with you in honor of Justin’s impending Home Coming.
It is a framed original Editorial from the St. Louis Times - The Paper that Goes Home-
Monday, November 11, 1918
It’s huge, as papers of that day must have been. It belonged to my grandmother (who, as a newlywed, was waiting for my grandfather’s return). She owned the day, literally, penning “Property of (her name)”. Years later, she would relive that homecoming when her son returned from Iwo Jima and her son-in-law from the South Pacific in the second World War.
It’s titled:
WHEN THE BOYS COME HOME
The guns are silenced in Europe. Men who but a few days ago were in death grapple are sitting beside camp fires - dreaming of home, of mother, wife, children and loved ones.
The Americans who turned the tide of battle and have helped the allies win the greatest war in the world’s history may be a bit sorry that negotiations have taken the place of a triumphant march through Germany to Berlin, but they are not unconscious of the anxiety of the dear ones at home and are glad that war is over.
As the Americans sit dreaming today on tented fields, with arms stacked, they have no thought of pomp nor ceremony when once again their feet shall touch the soil they love so well. They are longing for reunion with relatives and friends and return to the peaceful pursuits from which they were called by autocracy’s assault upon Liberty.
They know now that the lead-dog of autocracy and his six unwounded sons are the despised of not only their own people but of creation. They know that these autocrats now and forever more are torn from their marble palaces and velvet throne-chairs.
They see across the Rhine a new nation in the making - a people awakened from the thrall of tyrants; a people that must be taught the first steps of freedom.
They see across the Atlantic, in America, not an exultant people - their own people - but a happy, appreciative people, glad in every way to have been able to have made the sacrifice that has brought peace to the world and the promise that wars shall be no more.
Every community shares in the victory. Many have suffered severely and the daily casualty list has brought sorrow beyond words.
St. Louis is among the cities that have known what war means - that, while going courageously on, has done so through tears for gallant men now lying beneath the lilies of France and the daisies of Flanders fields.
But now is the gladsome day. Memory’s tablet will not be erased of the brave deeds of those sleeping the sleep that knows no wakening, but from this day on ours will be the duty to plan for the home-coming of the boys who are again to step into the ranks of civil life.
Their service has been beyond price. No gold or glittering gem can repay them for what they have done.
Their pay can be only in APPRECIATION. It is that we are not only ready to show but must show in largest measure.
How it may be done has not been planned. But it WILL BE PLANNED and, though our hearts swell with gratitude, the expression of all within us must, after all, be accompanied by expenditure of money.
Naturally, arrangements for the welcome home to St. Louis soldiers will be made by a committee named by official and civic organization. The St. Louis Times wishes now to inaugurate the Home Reception movement with the suggestion that no time be lost by the Mayor in naming his preliminary committee heads.
The expenditure, however large it may be, can in no way measure up with the loss of a single life in France or on the seas, but the size of the fund will serve to make the demonstration of our love for the fighting men easier of expression.
Let our patriotic men and women begin now to plan for the hour when the St. Louis boys get here.
No happier hour will ever be known.
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