The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-21

expeditionary forces. It is an old story now. but this Alabama lad has only Just now recovered his strength sufficiently to talk with his doctors permission.
 "On that perilous night he as corporal was in command of party of five sta tioned in an advanced listening post be- yond the trenches. The other four were ordered back when the inferno of Ger man artillery fire suddenly broke loose. Today, propped up in the hospital ms back pillowed on a cloud of cotton, ms head bandaged until it looked as if he were wearing a white football heao guard, his face covered with patches, cuts and bruises and his leg stiff from wounds, he talked.
 "T don't know what happened to the others back of me- he said. suppose they ran to cover when the hail of steel broke loose. hung on to the telephone. l. seems that in the first minute the wires were cut and made useless, but decided to stick to my post anyway. Shells were bursting all around me and though I crouched as low as possible In the little pit I could not escape flying stones and pieces of sharpnel. My steel helmet was dented and bent, my face and hands cut and my body bruised by fragments of stone. I thought the end had come, when suddenly the firing stopped.
 ''Pausing, the wounded boy lay quiet until he recovered his breath. A nurse came up and held a glass of water to his lips. after which he continued:
 Then l heard the Germans coming. l could see them plainly in the darkness moving across No Mans Land" They were shouting orders and talking to each other, but I could not understand a word of it. Once I lived three years next to a German family and tried to learn the language. I certainly wished that night that had
 The trace of a regretful smile fitted across the corner of his mouth that showed under the bandages.
 Then the fighting in the trenches started all at once, he said. Four men came toward my post. I leveled my rifle on the parapet and let fly and all four dropped don't know whether they were hit or merely fell to dodge the bullets. At the same time I heard whizzing in the air An explosion be- hind me lifted me off my feet and threw me on my face. My back seemed to be on fire and I knew that I had been hit by a grenade thrown into the pit.
 Though my wounds hurt aWfulfy, 1 figured that the only thing to do was to lie quiet. Then I saw a German conn ing down the communication boyau into the pit. He was the biggest man I ever Saw. He had thick black whslers. 1 had my arm over my head and could just see him under the edge of my steel helmet. He thought me dead and stepped on my le. If he had stepped on my back l would have yelled. He picked up one of our blanket rolls and beat it toward the German trenches
 'The young corporal lay helpless and bleeding until daylight, when he was picked up and carried to the emergency station. He was too badly battered to be moved farther back.
 And it has hurt like Hades ever since he concluded making even the nurse smile.
 All make the same plaint as they lie on the hospital cots discouraging fea- ture is that our army is unable to re- ward such young heroes with medals and decorations such as they would surely receive for similar acts if they belonged to the fighting forces of any other na- tion.
 "A cold chicken and bottle of cham pasne, sent to the young corporal from the general hospital, were the most tam gible rewards he received"