They have sold liberty bonds in the amount of $206,179,150, to 1,349, individual subscribers.  As “dispatch bearers of the government” they have distributed over 15,000,000 war pamphlets.  They have been sedulous and invaluable in checking enemy propaganda.  They have served on innumerable public occasions as police aids and as ushers at great meetings.  They performed one feat that might to many have appeared impossible, in searching out for the war department enough black walnut trees to furnish 14,038,560 feet of board lumber that was urgently needed for gunstocks and plane propellors.  They have been tireless in supplementing the service of other organizations.  And they never make any display of their work—­they just do it, and keep on doing it, without any talk.  They are useful; and every man who was a boy scout is a better man for having been one.

THIRTY-THREE Y.M.C.A.  WORKERS GIVE LIVES IN WAR

From the time the United States entered the war up to the signing of the armistice, thirty-three Y.M.C.A. workers, twenty-nine men and four women, have given up their lives in the service abroad.

British air forces kept pace with the German armies across the Rhine.  In the last five months, in which occurred some of the heaviest air fighting in the war, Germany lost in aerial combats with the British alone 1,837 machines.  It is estimated that something like 2,700 machines were accounted for by the British since June 1, and to this total may be added the heavy destruction wrought by French and American aviators.

GREATEST MAIL SERVICE IN THE WORLD

The mail service of the American armies in France and Belgium was one of the most remarkably original features of the war.  Mail was handled by postal experts from home in such manner as sent millions of letters by the straightest course to every point in the United States, from the great cities down to the smallest hamlet.

“SAG” RELIEVED POISON GAS VICTIMS

American soldiers in the fighting lines were furnished with tubes of medicinal paste to cure mustard gas burns.  It was simply smeared over the burned patches, or rubbed on the skin to prevent burning.  It was called “sag,” which is the reverse spelling of “gas.”

GERMANS ABANDONED MUCH EQUIPMENT

While they were chasing the Germans after they had broken the Hindenburg line, American soldiers salvaged enormous quantities of equipment thrown away or abandoned by the boches in their haste to get out of the Americans’ way.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

TERMS OF THE ARMISTICE