Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1915-12-22

| Goodbye" to his parents, when he
was starting for France for training,
that his mother was completely
crushed bv it, but that his father en-
deavored to be brave and hide his
emotion. Alphonse SAID, 1T was
hard for me, because l had never
been away from home before In all
my life, and now it is fifteen months
since have seen my dear parents. D."
Also he had another very great sor-
row. He told us the Belgians marry
livery early, and that he himself was
to have been married just two weeks
after the war broke out, to a girl
he loved very dearly. "Her name it is
beautiful, is it not, Philomene, which
s. means singing BIRDS" he said to
me, and then told us very sadly that
she had seemed to forget him since
he had departed for the war, and
that she had written to be released
from her engagement, and was go
ing with one of the German SOL
diers occupying Antwerp. This intel
ligence had reached Alphonse by the
circuitous route by which letters do
sometimes reach the Belgian front,
from beleagured Belgium. His was
real tragedy, but despite that and
the constant sorrow which every
Beleian feels, his was one of the
sunniesi faces I have ever seen.
ONLY once while with us, did he dis
play great emotion, and that was
when before saying "Good-night,"
we prayed together with him for his
family and for his country, then he
broke down and sobbed like child.
Alphonse was truly Spartan. Will
| ing to get back to the trenches, he
had the most absolute disregard for
creature comforts of anyone l have
ever seen. The first night in Lon
don he could not sleep at all, but
tossed or his comfortable bed all
night; the easy chair in our room IN
which we placed him made him un.
comfortable, and at last he begged
US to give him a straight one' the
softness of the other one distressed
him. At table, he confessed to us
that he had completely forgotten ms
table manners and that he thought
his parents would be compelled to
teach him all over again. But such
strength, such a magnificent physique
7 have never seen; he said he could
never tire himself, not even carry
ing his pack which weighed over
EIGHTY pounds, for sixteen miles or
more. The GOODNESS and dampness
of last winters Belgian trenches had
not affected him in the least; ne
seemed perfectly impervious to cold
The coolest night he told us ne
would wrap himself in his single
blanket, and with his pack for Pill
low, be perfectly content. one
night in the summer, when the sol.
diers would slip over the parapet OF
the trench and lie down in the open,
for GOODNESS, he was asleep on
sand bag when a German bullet. or
rather a shell burst and fragments
lodged in the bag under him, put
he ESCAPED unframed. He says IN
the winter it is forbidden fcr the
soldiers to take off their boots' oe-
cause of the danger OF attack Dut
that they all were accustomed 10
do it, so that they might warm thefr
feet in their blankets. He SAID ne
did it, at listening post, only re"
wards from the German trenches.
One of the great pastimes OF the
soldiers is making rings from the
aluminium found in certain GERMAN
shells. Alphonse told us with cyl
dent enjoyment that the boys VINO
grumbled loudest and longest ABOUT
having to dig trenches, were Tue
first over the parapet, AFTER oo.n-
bardu2ent by the Germans TO dig lor
the shells which sometimes were I'LL
bedded deep in the earth, but alum
mum spelled rings, and trench als-
ging only safety.
So yesterday we said goodbye to
another of our Belgian boys, and