The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1918-05-11
HERO Of FIGHTING
RETURNS TO
NEVADA
FORMER TONOPAH MAN DE-
SCRIBES ATROCITIES OF
GERMAN TROOPS

ago worked as a messenger boy in
Tonopah and later conducted a
small lunch counter in the Big Ca
sino, during the palmy days of that
famous resort, and left here several
years 20 enjoying the best of
health. returned to Tonopah yester-
day morning, broken in health, with
many years taken from his life. He
returns bearing the title of SER
geant major, gained while in active
service in France. After leaving
here Sanelaus, who had amassed
$500 by his labors, devoted two
years to securing an education in
Ohio. Later he went to Canada, and
when the war broke out enlisted in
the 249th regiment.
Sergeant Major Stanelaus partici-
pated in the battle of the Somme,
was at Ypres and was in the thick
of the fighting at Hill $50, where he
received a bayonet wound in the
back and suffered a wound in the
right leg that will leave him crippled
for life. He declares that after he
was shot in the leg and was lying on
his stomach a German thrust a
bayonet in his back. He was later
taken to the German trenches, where
he was given some aid, and being in
a weakened condition, was told that
he must be given a hypodermic in
lection to strengthen him. He dis
plays a scar on his right elbow,
which, he says. was caused by the
flesh being laid open to the bone
when the Germans inoculated him
with tubercular germs. He states
that he contracted consumption and
that he does not expect to recover
from the disease.
Stanelaus declares that after be-
ing wounded and inoculated with the
deadly germs, he was allowed to es-
cape, and in making his way toward
the French lines he was found by
a priest. who assisted him to reach
a field hospital, where he was cared
for by Red Cross nurses.
In recounting his experiences he
stated that he was in France for II
months. 1t was at the battle of the
Somme that he became the victim
of the war as he appears today, Grip
pied for life. His knee cap and a
part of his ankle were shot away.
and for a time it was thought that
amputation would be necessary.
"As I lay in a shell hole, after be-
ing wounded in the leg" said Ser
geant Major Stanelaus, "A German
soldier, running trne to form, came
along and bayoneted me in the spine
as l lay there unconscious.
"Then I was gassed, and I doubt
if l shall ever from that. 1t
was terrible"
Asked if the reports concerning
the German atrocities were true, he
declared that they were; that every
thing horrible ever conceived by hui
man mind had been perpetrated by
the Huns.
Stanelaus was born in Alaska. His
father, who went to France with the
Canadians ahead of him., was killed.
His father was a Russian.
The sergeant major wears a bronze
medal of special design correspond
ing to the Victoria cross, for distin-
guished conduct in action.
Sergeant Major Stanelaus told the
reporter of brutalities practiced by
the enemy that are almost unbeliev-
able. The unspeakable outrages per-
petrated by the Germans were spok'
en- of by the lips of a man who has
seen them.
The officer spoke highly of the
American soldiers and predicted
that, with them in the war, victory
is assured.
OF the atrocities there is no end.
In Belgium, he declares, he saw
strung up by the feet on a balcony
AZ ONE Looking for casualties
n day, he encountered 81 women
along a roadside, who had been
flogged to death by the Germans
and left nude with their breasts
slashed.
Stopping to give a Belgian child a
cup of coffee, he noticed the child
did not raise the cup with its hands;
the tendons in the wrists had been
cut by the Huns. If the child was
a boy the right hand usually was
cut off.
There is little wonder that the Ca
nadians take no more prisoners, he