Over in France when the officers of Sergeant York's regiment were trying
to obtain all the facts of his wonderful exploit, they asked him what he
did with the German officers he had captured when he started to bring in
his line of prisoners. His reply was a simile from his boyhood in the
mountains:
"I jes made a middler out of myself."
Among all the American officers present there was but one who
recognized his reference to the old marble game.
The death of his father when Alvin was twenty-one, relaxed a hand that
had protected and guided him more than he realized. His two older
brothers were married and he became the head of the family of ten that
remained. He left to his younger brothers the care of the crops upon the
farm and he hired out on any job that brought an extra revenue. In
summer he worked on neighboring farms, and in winter hauled staves and
merchandise when the roads could be traveled, or logged in the lumber
camps.
He formed new associates and under the new influences began to drink and
gamble. With his companions on Saturday and Sunday he would "go to the
Kentucky line."
Through the mountains along the state-line between Tennessee and
Kentucky there were road-houses, or saloons, that were so built that
one-half of the house would be in Kentucky and one-half in Tennessee.
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