The daily Alaskan., 1917-09-22

plause with kisses? Well. that's what we got. And, am proud to say that 1t was Miss Compton who conferred. this honor upon me. ,
 At about 8 o'clock on that afternoon, when we were all having good time, one of the orderlies threw open the door of the ward and announced in 6 loud voice that his majesty the king | was coming in. We could not have been more surprised If some one had thrown in a Mills bomb. Almost i'm mediateIy the king walked in, accom- panied by number of aids. They were all in service uniforms, the king having little in the style of his uni form to distinguish him from the oth- CTS. He walked around, presenting each patient with a copy of Queen Mary's Gift Book" an artistic little volume, with pictures aud short stories by the most famous of English artists and writers. When he neared my bed he turned to one of. the nurses and in i quired:
 'Is thls the one?'
 The nurse nodded. He came and sat at the side of the bed and shook hands with me. He asked 'us to what part of the United States I had come from, how had got my wounds and what the nature of them were, how I was getting along and what I particularly wished done for me. answered his questions and said that everything I could possibly wish for had already been done for me.
 Thanked by King ard Decorated. For
 Bravery.
 "I thank you," he said, flor myself, and my people for your services. Our gratitude cannot be great enough to- ward men who have served as you have"
 He spoke In a very low voice and with no assumption of royal dignity. There was nothing in the least thrill ing about the incident. but there was much apparent sincerity in the few words.
 After he had gone one of the nurses asked me what he had said.
 "Oh," l said, George asked me what I thought about the way the war was being conducted, and l said I'd drop in and talk it over with him as soon as I was well enough to be up."
 There happened one of the great dis appointments of my life. She didn't see the joke. She was English. She gasped and glarcd at me, and I think she went out and reported that I was delirious again.
 Really, wasn't much. impressed by the English king. He seemed a pleas ant, tired little man with great, buy. den to bear and not much of an idea about how to bear 1t, He struck me as an individual who would conscien- tiously do his best in any situation, but would never do or say anything with tue slightest suspicion of 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 ampllfed this information, and a no- tice from the British war office inform ed me that the medal awaited me there was told the king knew that the medal had been awarded to me when he spoke to mo in the hospital. De- spite glowing reports in the Kentucky press he didn't pin 1t on me. Probably he didn't have 1t with him, or perhaps he didn't consider it good form to hang aD. C., NJ. on suit of striped presentG- ton pajamas with prevailing, tone of baby blue.
 While l was in the King George hos pital l witnessed one of the most won- derful examples of courage and pluck I 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 disfigured 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 tue fact that the surgeons were always sending for him to do some thing more with bis face. One day be 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. "a cabbage put on in place of a head Itll grow better than the one l have now"
 Once in a 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 few drinks on his birth day"
 l was discharged from the hospital in the middle of February and sent to a comfortable place at Hastings, Sus- sex where I lived until my furlouGh