Connecticut western news., 1917-08-30

ant, tired little man with great our den to bear and not much of an idea about how to bear it. He struck ma as all individual who would ~conscien- tiously do his best in any situation, but would never do or say anything with the slightest suspicion of a punch to it. A few days after his visit to the hos pital I saw in the Official London Ga zette that had been awarded the dis. tinguished conduct medal. Official let ters from the Canadian headquarters amplified this information, and a mo- tice from the British war office inform ed me that the medal awaited me there. I was told the king knew that the medal had been awarded to me when he spoke to me in the hospital. De spite glowing reports in the Kentucky press he didn't pin it on me. Probably he didn't have 1t with him. or perhaps he didn't consider 1t good form to hang D. c. NJ. on a suit of striped presenta- tion patamas with prevailing tone of baby blue.
 While was in the King George hos pital 1 witnessed one of the most won- derful examples of courage and pluck 1 have ever seen. A young Scot only nineteen years old, McAuley by name, had had the greater part of his face blown away. The surgeons had patch ed him up in some fashion, but he was horribly dlsfgured. He was the bright est, merriest man in the ward, always joking and never depressed. His own terrible misfortune was merely the top- ic for humorous comment with him. He seemed to get positive amusement out of the fact that the surgeons were always sending for him to do some thing more with his face. One day he was going into the operating room and a fellow patient asked him what the new operation was to be.
 "Oh," he said, I'm going to have cabbage put on in place of a head. It'll grow better than the one I have now"
 Once in fortnight he would man. age to get leave to absent himself from the hospital for an hour or two. He never came back alone. It took a couple of men to bring him in. On the next morning he would say:
 "Well, 1t was my birthday. A man must have a few drinks on his birth day."
 I was discharged from the hospital In the middle of February and sent to a comfortable place at Hastings. Sus- sex, where lived until my furlough papers came through. I had a fine time in London at the theaters and ,l,,hs papd fr, ,,,x, doY1o rtr,,.a for honna When my furlough had arrived went to Buxton, Derbyshire, where the Ca nadian discharge depot was located and was provided with transportation to Montreal I came back to America on the Canadian Pacific Royal Mail steamer Metagama. and the trip was without incident of any sort. We lay for a time in the Mersey, awaiting word that our convoy was ready to see us out of the danger zone, and a de- stroyer escorted us 400 miles on our way. tt
 was informed before my departure that a commission as lieutenant in the l Canadian forces awaited my return from furlough, and : had every inten- tion of going back to accept 1t, but since got to America things have hap pened- Now it's the army of Uncle Sam for mine. I've written these sto- ries to show what we are up against It's going to be a tough game and q bloody one and sorrowful one for many, but it's up to us to save the issue where it's mostly right on one side and all wrong on the other-and I'm glad we're in. I'm not willing to cult soldering now, but will be when we get through with this. Because when we finish up with all this there won't be any necessity for soldering. The world will be free of war for q long, long time, and a Gods mercy | that. THE END.