HIS GUN-SHY SON

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3196, 21 September 1917, Page 5

HIS GUN-SHY SON

DIDN'T RAISE HIS BOY TO BE A "SLACKER" A WAR VIGNETTE FROM AMERICA , They don't raise their I jys to be gunshy down in the mountains .of Kentucky, so when John Calhcnii Allen, of Clay, County, heard that his son had been arrested in New Yi.rk as a "slacker" he was "plumb mad.- The young man was rounded up with a bunch of other "con- : soientiouß. objectors" and taken, before Judge Mayer in the Federal Court. John C. junior toid the Judge that during his boyhood in the Kentucky mountains he had witnessed so much bloodshed that h6 was now opposed to fighting, and had a horror of killing a man or, in fact of being killed himself. The Judge was puzzled. He had never heard before of a Kentuckian with any such complaint, so he communicated the facts h> his father down in Clay County, and, says the New York "Times": The answer arrived in the form of the 6 feet 2 inches of John. Allen himself. The mountaineer came into court just before the noon-hour. He wore the boots and the corduroy trousers of the Kentucky hills. His shirt was blue, collarless, and home-made. His coat was oldxashioned, .and in his hand he carried' his big black sombrero. "May it please Tour Honour, said United State District Attorney Kdos. "we have with us the father of Jo"hn Calhoun Allen." The mountaineer looked the Judge squarely in the eye and bowed. Tall and erect, he towered above every other man in the court-room, and he was not in the least embarrassed. "Judge," he said, "I got your letter and I thank you for it, and I started to answer it in writin' but decidod that maybe it was better that I come here myself and see what's the matter with tllat boy of mine. It ain't like our ioJka to act as that youngster has acted, and I assure you that I am plumb mad auout it. I have' five boys,, and this one who is in trouble here is the oldest. Two of my. lads are already in the Army and tha two youngest wjll be there soon as they, ara old enough. And so I have come all the way from Kentucky to get this one who I hear is a backslider. All 1 ask is for you 1 to let- me take my boy back to Kentucky with me, and I will see to it that he comes to time when his country calls. There aint going to be no quitters in the Allen family. My. boyß that aro already in the Army ain't twenty-one yet. This one is my eldest and he's the first to miss the trail, but he'll find the trail again or 111 know the reason why."' " ■ : „ "I have the utmost confidence m you, said Judge Mayer after the old man fin* ißhed, "and I shall release your eon m your custody, confident" that you will sea to it that he obeys the law and Tegisfe'Tle'lt register all right, Judge," ts- ; plied the old man, "and I tell you that; if he don't something will happen in tho publio square back home, and all the folks will have a chance to see with their own eyes that the. -Aliens don t stand for no .quitters at a tame when the conntry needs all- the men it win. get. In the meantime the Marshal had sent to the Tombs Prison for young AUeil, and the young man was waiting mthe • Marshal's office when his father arrived. They are self-contained people down lit the Kentucky mountains. Their feelings are deep, but well controlled, so that when father and son met there waa; no show of ontotiou on the part ot cither • But the sight of his' son softened the father's anger. He placed his hand uenfty on the younger man s shoulder: . "Son," said the father, "don't you know what it means to "do what you tried to do? Don't you know that you don t come from no such stock as these slackers-and quitters, or whatever clfo you call such cattle ? Don't you know that/boy ? Well, if you don't, it's time you started learnin' Now you ain't crazy, for our folks don't go crazy, and you are goin to register, and you are goin to fight and fight your darndest, too, if your country calls roil. Now just put that in your head and let it stay there.. I dmit want to hurt you, and I ain't if you do nghtjbat I just want to say that if yon don t do right, when I get you baok home l wiU tale you into the publio square and shoot you myself in the presence of all tho f °Tho boy, with tears in his eyes, said.he would register just as quickly as le """And I'll fipht, too, if they want me," th "CM°courae e you. will, for you wouldn't be my son, the old man rc And' that was the end of the Allen inC '"That old fellow is one of the kind that makes the country great. He is a -«u American " said Judge Mayer afterwards. JustXfore he left the Federal Building, John Allen asked cue of be marshals what case was being tried before Judge Mayer, lit was the case of ■Emma Goldman and Alexander Ferk""l'noticed a man and a woman and T wondered who they were. What did they "'""They are anarchists and ™ trial for urging men not to register for the war," the Marshal replied. "Thoco aro the kind'er folks who? are resnonsible for bovs like this one of mine uettin' into trouble," Johni Allen oheervcd. "We don't have folks like that down our way." . ___