Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1918-05-24
TOLD OF REAL ACTION
Corporal Michigan Proved
Big Feature In Villas
Red Cross Drive.

OOlpOI Dbl OdLuCS ACOu1Sdu vi OI1C
Thirtieth Royal Highlanders of Can
ada brought home to the people ..of
this community Wednesday and
Thursday evenings something of what
this war really is and the sacrifices
being made by our allies in the effort
to make the world safe for democracy
Corporal McGuigan is. an old can-
paigner, veteran of three wars and
a man-every inch of his six foot two.
He is an Irishman by birth and as a.
true son of the Emerald Isle has done
his bit in cementing together the far
flung boundaries of the empire that
f1ourishes under the Union Jack At
the age of ten he first entered the
service and from that time on he has,
heard the call of country in every
hour of need. In 1890 he went in tine
Soudan campaign and spent his eigfI
teenth birthday with Kitchener at
Khartoum. In 1900 he enlisted In
the Lincolns and went to the Boer
war in South Africa where he won
additional honors and was mustered
out at the end of the war. At the
outbreak of the present war he was
prospecting in British Columbia, Can
ada, eight hundred miles from a rail-
road. Through hunter, trapper and
prospector the news reached him I'm
the Wilds of Canada and he hit the
trail for civilization and by canoe and
pony reached Edmonton and enlisted
in the Both Royal Highlanders, one OF
the empires famous regiments. He
went across with the first Canadian
contingent and in February, 1915, two
months after enlistiDg, he was in the
front line trenches in France.
The story of the gallant Canadians
goes down in history as one of the
most glorious achievements of the
Dominion and through it all Lance
Corporal McGuigan fought as man
never fought before. Outllumbered
eight to one, ten to one, and at one
time fifty to one, those courageous
Highlanders. fought to4he last ditch
Sacrificing men ~ the hundreds to
stop the onrushing Hunnish horfes-
And stop them they did, but at an
awful cost. At st. Julien Corporal
McGuigan was wounded, and gasSed
which incapacitated him for further
service. He was invaded to Canada
and there regained his health. He
enlisted again and in the third battle
of Ypres, June Ii, 1916, lost a leg and
received seven other wounds from q.
shrapnel shell, eliminating him irons
further participation in the great
struggle. For twelve months he lay
on his back recovering from his in
juries and was taken back to Canada
as stretcher case. He is still under
hospital care at Toronto.
Corporal Michigan is fighter, not a.
speech maker, but his talks to the
people here gave some vivid details
of actual warfare as he found it. He
spoke in the interests of the Red
Cross, telling of the great work that
organization is doing and the urgent
need for the greatest effort on the
part Of all to carry on the work, He
recited his own personal observations
of the Hun atrocities practiced in the
early part of the war, bringing con-
elusive evidence right home to local
people.
At Eagle River Wednesday night
the opera house couldn't hold the
crowd that turned out to hear this
living example of what war does to
the manhood Of nation Cars from
Watersmeet, Donaldson, ConoVer,
Phelps, Three Lakes, Sayner, Star
Lake, Arbor Vitae and Woodruff
brought hundreds of people who had
difficulty in finding even standing
ROOM
Thursday morning eight cars from
Eagle River with the band and
the speaker and several citizens
to the number of thirty-eight drove
over to Winchester, going from there
by train to Vinegar, where noon
meeting was held. In the evening u
meeting was held at Winchester, both
places bringing out record breaking
crowds and according the visitors
royal welcome.
Corporal McGuigan was secured by
the Villas county branches of the
County Council of Defense, the LoF-
atty Legion and Red Cross. He left
this morning for Toronto to report at
the hospital after his ten-day tour OF
the States in the interests of the Red