The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-07-26
Proud of Her Son, Who Was
Sailor and Now Lies in
Graveyard of
France.
GRIEF AT HIS OLD HOME
NeFghbors Express Their Sorrow
Whom They Hear OF Death
Of Their
Friend.

UNITED Press Leased Wire Service.
NEW YORK, July 26.-"I'm proud
Of my boy"
These were the words today Of the
first American mother to receive
word that her son had been buried
in France.
She is Mrs. Agnes Reinhardt, 213
East Fifty-eighth street, whose son,
Louis, was drowned when he fell
overheard from an American warship
in French waters. Mrs. Reinhardt
has received letter from the navy
department expressing the deepest
sympathy for her loss. She request
ed that the body of her boy be re
turned home for burial. To the first
war stricken mother the government
explained why it was unable to ar
range this now, but suggested that
she again bring the matter up at the
end of the war.
warded to Mrs. Reinhardt was the
speech of tribute by the mayor OF the
French town in which Reinhardt was
buried.
Il had never thought of the gov
ernment as being able to express
sympathy" said Mrs. Reinhardt. ut
has always seemed to be SO much Of
a machine of which Luis was a part.
But now it seems different. The let
ters from Washington make 1t
easier. l am consoled by the know
ledge that Luis died for his country"
Mrs. Reinhardt declared this after
noon that she now felt perfectly
satisfied to have the body of her son
remain in France. A letter from
Lieutenant Harlem, U. S. N, told her
of the christian burial Luis was given
in France and concluded:
''If your son was able to communi-
cate with you. he would no doubt
tell you that he gladly gave his life
in order that his country and his
loved ones might be protected"
"He Was Good Boy"
NEW YORK, July 26.--In squalid
street in New York's east side, where
the hot July sun beats down on con-
gested, sweltering humanity, there is
mourning today for the first Ameri-
can fighting man to be buried In
France.
Louis Reinhardt, sailor Of the Unit
ed States navy, called a dark, old
fashioned tenement in that street,
his home All his neighbors know
today that he is dead, drowned In
falling overheard from his ship. But
his mother, a widow, solely depen-
know it.
"She's gone UP In the country"
said one of the neighbors today.
"Say-we're awful sorry about Louis.
He was fine boy. It'll be terrible
blow to his mother. But nobody
knows where she's gone or when
she'll be back I suppose We'll have
to tell her some time. She'll take
it hard"
The speaker was a woman, her
face drawn with lines of toll.
She mopped her perspiring brow
with her ragged apron. A friend
passing with a bucket of beer in his
hand, passed 1t to her. And she
vanished into the fetid, dark interior
of the tenement.
A little knot of dirty faced kiddies
assembled. They were clad in under
shirts and ragged pants. One clutch
ed a piece of ice.
Sure, we knew Luie," piped up
one. He was a good guy an
he ust to let us kids wear his sailor
hat som etimes'
Other neighbors came-Italians and
Greeks. They talked In broken Eng
lish about the sailor who came from
among them and who will be remem-
bered in history.
The east side mourned for 'Luie"
in it's own way. His epitaph in that
dirty street will always be: $50
Luies dead, huh? Say-he was
good guy, a good guy"