The Khaki Boys at Camp Sterling: Training for the Big Fight in France
Josephine Chase
language
(Transcript, Feb. 12, 2016)
The Khaki Boys at Camp Sterling - Training for the Big Fight in France by Josephine ChaseâYou, over there in the crowd, and you and you, why donât you get busy and help Uncle Sam? What are you hanging back for? Nowâs your chance to show that youâre a real American, and ready to fight for your country. Whatâs the use of waiting for the draft to get you? Youâre just wasting time! The sooner you enlist, the sooner youâll be ready to do your bit in France. Itâs up to good old Uncle Sam to jump into the big war and win it. But he canât do it alone. It needs a lot of brave, husky fellows to lick the Boches off the map. Are you going to be one of âem? Every little bit helps, you know!âNow weâre going to sing you one more song. While weâre singing it, get on the job and think hard. We want to take a bunch of you back with[2] us to the recruiting station. All right, boys. Give âem âThe Glory Road to France!ââStanding in the middle of a big recruiting wagon, lavishly decorated in red, white and blue, the orator, a good-looking young soldier of perhaps twenty years, bawled out, âLet âer go!âFrom one end of the wagon rose the strains of a lively air, enthusiastically hammered out on a small, portable piano by another khaki-clad youngster, seated on a stool before it. Gathered about him, half a dozen clean-cut soldier boys immediately took it up. The sheer catchiness of the melody, tunefully shouted out by the singers, had its effect on the crowd. The sturdy quality of the words, too, brought a flash of newly aroused patriotism to more than one pair of eyes belonging to the throng of persons closely packed about the big wagon. It appeared to deepen with the lustily given chorus: