The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1915-12-10
BLINDED SOLDIER TRADES STRENGTH
OF BODY FOR WOUNDED MANS SIGHT
Canadian VINO Recovered Use of His Eyes When the espean
Sank Tells Of Reaching Hospital Guided by Injured COmrade
He Carried on His BaCk-Unt Almost Completely
Wiped Out at Battle Of Ypres Canadian vaOr.

st. John. n. III was stone blind,
heard the moaning OF a wounded
man near by, and CROPPED and stun
bled along until found him He had
been shot In the side. stuffed his
wound with bandages, Then ! told
him that II he would direct me on the
way would carry him ON my back TO
the dressing station,
THE way was very long and ex'
trerely rough. ! feF many times,
Often my guide became unconscious
through the shock o. the fall There
was always the danger that he would
not recover-that both Of as might
fail for the last time on the shellswept
ileld Without him ! was alone and
helpless In a darkness blackor than |
had ever known. Without me his life
would ebb fast from the gaping hole
which sapped his vitality in a Grim
son stream,
Family he whispered where the
way was safe and gasped encourage
ment as ! staggered on Then |, IN
turn, encouraged him when brought
him back to the world gone mad time
and again, after pain and shock OF
fall had given him release from sut'
fering in unconsciousness. At last we
came to the end of the road Of horrors
and gentle hands cared for us at the
dressing station"
In these words, Stanley Chambers,
who has already been proclaimed a
hero of the fight at Ypres, told the
people of st. John, ~ b., to which
he has just returned, of his experience
on the field of battle How Mr.. Cham
bers was blinded by gases and did
not recover his sight until plunged
into the waters of the Atlantic by the
torpedoing of the Hesperian, already
has been told But the detail OF how
the Canadians so gallantly accounted
for themselves was not told until the
people of st, John gathered TO wei.
come their hero home.
Valor of the Canadians.
No words can so vividly tell the
gripping story of the fighting as those
in which Mr.. Chambers described the
valor of the G.. '.iu contingent to
the audience, so moved by the story
that the only applause was an occa-
sional sobbing by those who had
friends or relatives in the battle zone
of France. In telling the story, MIR.
Chambers said:
During the first nine weeks we
were on the firing line we did not see
a German. We were inspected by
Generals French and Smith-Dorien
and the latter complimented us on
our appearance. We were afteTy ard
told that this meant we were soon to
see some excitement We later were
sent to Ypres. where we relieved a
French unit and the Frenchmen, seven
hundred of them, with great courtesy,
shook hands, each in turn, with US
and wished us well. The farewell of
The French soldiers occupied one and
4 half hours.
"On the morning following our ar
-ival at our new position some OF the
boys peeked over the parapet and saw
he bodies of one hundred and fifty
Germans lying beyond our trenches
The dead had been on the field from
November to April After a survey
If our new position we decided there !
vas an excellent chance to secure |
rophies and two hundred of us
climbed over the parapet and started
We were soon subjected |
o machine gun fire, the Germans
probably thinking that a charge was
bout to occur, but we returned to our
renches without the loss of a man.
Smelling of our positions by the
iermans continued for FIVE days. We |
hen were relieved Some of our
roops were quartered in a brewery,
nd one of our number, son of a
Iethodist clergyman. announced one
light when the firing was heavy that
e would have to leave the building,
s dad would never forgive him if he
we're found dead in a brewery
"One afternoon the Tenth and Six
eenth battalons formed up at dusk
n the canal bank to make a stand