New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-26
BOXER DESCRIBES
HIS EXPERIENCES
ON FIRING LINE
CARPENTER Flew Over German
Lines at Height of Only
200 Yards

George Carpenter, the heavyweight
boxing champion OF Europe, who Is
now in Paris on leave from war ser
vice, has written for a London news
paper little story of his experiences
and his prospects. He looks forward
to reentering the ring and is con-
WINGED that it won't be long before he
is free to put on the gloves for fight
ing of different sort from that in
which he has been sharing for many
months past. Expressing this conf
dence, he says:
"Will be glad to get out of this
hell? A thousand times yes, but not
before we have seen TO it that the
gates of hell have been shut so tight
that they will never be flung open
again.
World Of Horror
81 shall always remember that when
| fought your Bombardier Wells at
Client Belgian people screamed that
boxing was cruel and CHASTITY and must
be no more. Then they did not know.
A suueamish Belgian can never be
again. For Belgians have lived too
long in a world Of horror
Relating his experiences at the
front, he writes:
81 have seen sixteen months on the
firing line as pilot. Much have
seen. have had fights high in the
clouds. | have been wounded. | have
received the War Cross (Croix de
Guerre), and have been recommend
ed for and shall receive shortly the
Medaille Militaire.
81 have been lucky, immensely SO,
for I have been in many tight corners.
1t may be that some OF the charms
given to me when left London In
stead of fighting Young Ahearn have
brought me good fortune.
"But ! would tell what the Order
Of the Day. which is what you would
call your Gazette says about what |
did to win the Medaille Militaire. 1t
is that few over the German lines
at height of only 200 yards and that
when | returned 10 our lines my BIZ
plane was found to have received no
fewer than fifteen rife bullets.
when flying, if it be that you are
CHANGING your arm, shall | say, you
have no sense of danger. | never in
all my flights thought or even dreamed
of being beaten. | always believed in
my self. II is so now with my machine.
Il is a. some human. You feel that it
knows you, that il is part Of yourself;
you come TO believe il is invincible,
and although in my last big fight,
in which | can now well believe |
was hugging and wrestling with death
al the time, did not once quake with
fear. | was, Of course, conscious that
! was being potted at all the time.
Fifteen Bullet Mark
"To fy as low AS ! did WAS risky,
perilous, but the knowledge that il had
10 be done IL ! were TO be Of service to
our artillery seemed to FIJI me with a
sense of security. Ii was only when |
got back into our lines and saw the
fifteen bullet marks and the holes that
had been riddled in my machine that /
realized that | was as near being
knocked out as ever have been In my
life.
These days my duties, though often
I exciting and dangerous, do not consist
| in hunting enemy seroplanes. Indeed.
my orders are even to avoid engaging
them. But have been compelled to do
so on several occasions. and under n
heavy handicap because of my machine
no. being fast or handy enough.
at ia my business TO assist in the
direction OF our artillery fire by means
Of wireless messages and signalling.
/ like my work ever so much, for K
/ asks that | shall always have nv wits
about me, very like the boxer who,
though he is winning by ever so many
, points. has always 20 be on the look
/ out. There is such a thing as being
{ able TO regard whatever you do as so
much sport. and can assure you that
ever since | have been in the army I
have found much joy In being able 10
! believe that ! am in some great game
/ fierce. murderous game. it is true, but
a game, nevertheless"