The Mena weekly star., 1918-05-09
OVID TIT. TOD
 co AN AMERICAN SOLDIER WHO WENT a AQI11Up GUY YTr[prY
MACHINE GUNNER ,5ERNNGM FRAnce-
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 l looked up and THs dugoIf WIS damned. An artillery captain and two oIhcers had also entered and stayed Tor the finish. Wilson spat out an enormous quid of tobacco, looked m saw the captain, and got as red as carnation. The captain smiled and l ie1t. Wilson whispered to me:
 "biime me, Tank, see where click Tor erucifxiOn. That captain is the same one that chucked us Goldfiakes Tn his dugout and here I have been 'chucking me weight about in his hearing"
 Wilson never clicked his cruclixion
 Quite contrast to Wilson was an- other character In our brigade named Scott; we called him "Old Scotty" on account of his age. He was fifty-seven. although looking forty. "Old Scotty" had been born in the Northwest and had served in the Northwest Mounted police. He was typical cowpuncher and Indian fighter and was a dead shce with the rifle. and took no pains to disguise this fact from us. He used to take care of his rife as if it were a baby. In his spare moments you could always see him cleaning 1t or polish ing the stock Woe betide the man who by mistake happened to get hold , Of this rife; he soon found out his error. Scott was as deaf as a mule. and 1t was amusing at parade to watch him In the manual of arms, slyly glancing out of the corner of his eye at the man next to him to see what the order was. How he passed the doctor was mystery to us; he must have bluffed his way through, because he certainly was independent. Beside him the Fourth of July looked like Good Friday. He wore at the time large sombrero, had a Mexican stock saddle over his shoulder, a lariat on his arm, and 'forty-five" hanging from his hip. Dumping this parapher- nalia on the floor he went up to the recruiting officer and shouted: ."Tm from America, west of the Rockies, and want to join your d--d army. 1 I've got no use for a German and can I NhVOR oOthCs AL ONOtidnu 1dIu Lnty turned me down; said was deaf and so am. I don't banker to ship in with a d--d mud-crunching outfit, but the cavalry's full, so l guess this regi- ment's better than none so trot out your papers and I'll sign 'em." He told them he was forty and slipped by. I was on recruiting service at the time he applied for enlistment.
 f It was Old Scottys great ambition to be sniper or body snatcher," as Mir. Atkins calls It. The day that he was detailed as brigade sniper he cele- brated his appointment by blowing the whole platoon to flags.
 Being Tank, Old Scotty took lik- ing to me and used to spin some great yarns about the plains, and the whole platoon would drink these in and ask for more Ananias was a rookie com pared with him.
 The ex-plainsman and discipline could not agree, but the officers all liked him. even if he was hard to man. age. so when he was detailed as a sniper a sigh of relief went up from 1 the officers rness
 Old Scotty had the freedom of the brigade. He used to draw two or three days rations and disappear with his glass, range finder and rife, and we would see or hear no more of him until suddenly he would reappear with a couple of notches added to those already on the butt of his rifle. Every time he got q German it meant another notch. He was proud of these notches.
 But after few months Father Rheumatism got him and he was sent to Blighty the air in the wake of his stretcher was blue with curses. Old Scotty surely could swear; some of his outbursts actually burned you. No doubt at this writing, he Is somewhere in Blighty" pussy footing 1t on bridge or along the wall of some intuition plant with the "G. R.' or Home Defense corps.