Cottonwood chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1917-current, 1918-01-18
MARATHON RUNNER
DISPATCH BEARER
Henri st. Yves, Famous Splinter,
Now Carries Messages for
French Army.
HAS MANY NARROW ESCAPES
Spotted by Germans While Carrying
Orders, He Remains In Water
Filled SheIl-HoIe for Five
Hours-Wants to Fly.

Paris.-Henri Saint Yves, the for
mer marathon runner and now dis
patch bearer in the French army, has
returned to Paris for special "a
hour furlough, granted him because of
a particularly perilous mission which
he carried out in the course of his du-
ties in the trenches in front of Saint
Quentin.
While trying to carry orders from
the advanced French trench line to
French machine gun crew which
had established itself in q shell hole
in the middle of mo Mans Land"
halfway between the opposing lines,
Saint Yves was spotted" by two Ger
man machlne-gun crews, also holding
shell holes.
They opened cross-f1re on the for
mer long-distance runner and he
dropped into the nearest shell hole,
which was almost full of rain water.
Saint Yves remained in the water,
with just his head above the surface
to enable him to breathe, for five
hours, or until after darkness. Then
he crept out and made his way to
the French machine-gun position, de-
livered the orders to the lieutenant
in charge and made his way to the
trenches again.
Sent to the Hospital.
Saint Yves had to go to hospital for
ten days, however, as the shell hole
water in which he had been immersed
so long was ''gassy," having asimilat-
ed the poisonous properties of the gas
shells from both sides which had been
rained down in mo Mans Land" Sew
eral hours after Saint Yves emerged
from the shell hole the poisonous wa
ter got In its effect.
Saint Yves was wounded in the beg
last May, but has entirely recovered
from that and asserts ne will be able
to run as well as ever If the war ever
ends and he gets back into civilian
life.
The marathon runner has applied
for transfer to the aviation, and his
superior officers have Endorsed his re-
quest. He expects to be called to an
oNANIAOA oNAOOA W DCBAA at
any time. Saint Yves will try to be
brsvetted as a fighting pilot for Aging
in single-seated machines.
II hear that poor old Tom Longboat
has been killed with the Canadians up
near Lens" said Saint Yves. "Well,
Tom was wonderful runner, but no
man ever lived that can run as fast
as the Boche bullets.
sour sector at the front-opposite
Saint Quentin, where the Germans re-
treated to the Hindenburg line-is sup.
posed to be quiet all the time, but we
had little fight up there a few weeks
ago that was pretty lively. l was as
signed as dispatch-bearer, carrying
messages from the colonel up to
the line, because the German bonn
bardment had plowed up all the
ground behind our first and second
line of trenches and torn up the tele-
graph and telephone wires, and their
artillery had also wrecked a lot of
our wireless.
Had Narrow Escapes.
II had several close shaves in cross
ing out in the open, with the German
snipers potting at me from 1000 me-
ters away, A couple Of big shells
dropped pretty near me, too, but then
you get used to shells, whereas ma
chine guns and rifles always annoy
you.
"Pretty soon 1 hope to be in the
aviation service and after I get bre-
vetted as a pilot and have some ex-
perience of flying at the front, I'm
going to apply to be sent to America
as an instructor for United States
army aviatOrs."
The wife and family of Saint Yves
are now at Dieppe. Contrary to gen.
eral belief, Saint Yves was never a
waiter in a Paris cafe. Born in
Rouen, he lived and worked there as
bicycle repair man prior to going