The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-06-21
BRITISH GIRL NURSED
HURT i. S. MARINE
An Incident of Vera Cruz
Siege the English Like
to Tell

Stories of the first days lighting in
Vera Cruz continue to come to light as
residents of the city tell their tales and
impressions of the attack and capture of
the port by the American bluejackets
and marines says Charles f. Sterrett,
writing from Vera Cruz for the Chicago
Daily News. An Englishman who was
a witness to the incident relates the fol-
lowing narrative concerning the heroism
of one Carmen lonergan, an Engllsh girl
Her father a wealthy business man of
Mexico City. had fed with his wife ana
daughter to Vera Cruz with the first
batch of refugees from the capital In the
home of a friend in this city they were
composing their shattered nerves when
the Tuesday morning which witnessed
the bombardment of the waterfront struc-
lures downed.
With two young women of Vera Cruz
Miss Lonergan was walking in the Aven-
ida de la Independence. They were ac-
companied by a lieutenant from the Brit
ish cruiser Essex, carrying a union jack,
and were being escorted to the safety of
the British consulate. The little party
had lust reached the corner of the Gale
de la Pastora. where stands the con-
srlate when a burst of firing sounded
from up the street and the roaring guns
OF the Chester and the Prairie began to
belch their hail of destruction,
Run" said the British officer sharply
and the girls ran forward toward the
sheltering doorway.
AS they ran an American marine came
around the corner--one Hagerty He
smiled cheerfully at the young women
and in reassuring tones called:
Don't run, ladies. There is no dam
ger"
Then he staggered, simultaneously with
a sharp report from a neighboring bal
cony. The speeding bullet of the hidden
"snipar'' passed between two of the girls
on it's mission and Hagerty plunged for
ward at their feet and lay still. A great
scarlet blotch appeared on his shirt and
spread horribly downward and across. The
girls screamed and stood as If petrif1ed
on the walk, unable to run.
The lieutenant seized their arms and
implored them to hasten. They gazed at
him wildly for a moment and then the
Mexican women dashed forward. Car
men Lonergan ran after them for a few
yards and stood in the safety of the
courtyard of the British consulate. There
again she stopped. Her heart was pound
ing with fright. but the blood that
coursed through her veins was of the sort
that is thicker than water. She thought
of Hagerty, lying desperately wounded,
barely 100 feet away, his huddled figure
piteously still in the hot sun. With sud-
den determination she ran back to him,
careless of the bullets than sang about
her. and tried to lift the wounded marine
in her arms.
Around the corner, at the far end of the
block swept a small detachment of Mex
leans. The Americans were at the cor
ner, near where the girl tugged at the
heavy form of Hagerty. She was caught
between two fires
Unable then to move forward or back
she sat down the curbstone and took
the dropping head in her lap, trying to
stanch the blood that flowed from the
wounded breast When the firing had
ceased she was still sitting there. easing
the pain of the stricken marine with the
tenderness of a mother. only when his
own comrades arrived and bore him away
to the hospital did she relinquish her
charge and return to her people.
That is all there is to the story of Car
men Lonergan. but it reflected the feeling
between American and British in time of
peril and it is one of the little stories
the marines like to tell and that the En-
Elish people here like to tell whenever
they find some one who has not heard it.