The Irish standard., 1918-10-05

rank the first day they saw him with
a sho-sho gun.
The French officers who came to in i
struct in the use of that light, auto
matte machine gun which fires is |
shots in a twinkling, found it was the |
youngster of the regiment who mas
tered it first and who, before many |
weeks had passed, became the best
derful gunner that older soldiers were
proud to be his feeders, because they !
knew their gun would do the most
damage with Scotty at the sights.
Deadly Quiet and Cool.
And COOL He was always a quiet
one, but under shell fire he became
deadly quiet and cool as cucumber.
They found that out back in April,
when a shell struck the edge of the
parapet, throwing the gun into the
trench and burying it, the boy and his
feeders in an avalanche Of dirt. Scotty
wriggled out, eXtricated his beloved
sho-sho, took it in his arms, and with
never a word to anyone. marched Is
feet along the trench, set the gun up
and went on firing.
But his great chance came when,
on that historic 18th of July, his regi-
ment got the order for which, through
many month of dreams, it had
longed-the order to advance. 1t went
Is kilometers without stopping, chas-
ing the Boche up hill and down dale,
fighting it's way through patch after
patch Of inviting woods that would
prove treacherous with hidden ma
chine guns.
Scotty would have told you that he
belonged to what the general proudly
called his iron battalion, and that in
that battalion, the men of his COM
pany-Company H-were known as
the Indians. They got that name from
the wild war whoops with which they
went rip-roaring into battle-strange
unintelligible savage cries that were
echoes, perhaps of the ones that
sounded long ago around the huts and
stockades of primitive America.
Good Soldiers and Catholics.
But the men of Company H had an
other character. They were good Cath
olics, most of them No one knows
| where they got the idea or who first
suggested it, but had you been watch
ing at dawn on the morning of the
18th, you would have found that when
they went over the top, each one of
the Indians wore something that is
no part of issue regulations looped
around the left shoulder strap of his
blouse. 1t was rosary.
In the first days of that battle, the
movement was so swift that more
| than once a small German rear guard
and an advance Yank platoon would
| meet in the forest and fight out then
| and there a complete and separate bat
tie all their own. So it was with the
Indians one afternoon, as they were
making their way past the bitterly
won town of Epides.
At cross road they saw troops ap-
preaching the main column of squads.
The officer in charge caught them in
the focus of his field glasses. They
| were Boches-coming on. The Yanks
waited, itching to open fire, but bid
ing, their time. Suddenly the Boches
| deserted the road and came at them
through the forest
Blocking the Path.
The lieutenant placed his men along
| a roadside ditch. He placed Scotty
| and his sho-sho beside tree and
squarely opposite a narrow woodland
path that opened across the way. He
could see straight down that PATH and
, the Boches were bound either to come
along it or to cross it.
"see that path, scotty?" said the
lieutenant. "That's your target. Not
one of them must cross it."
Eyes, SIR" said Scotty, and dropped
| beside his gun.
Then, from the high branches of
many tree and from many a shelter,
the German fire opened, and the Yank
fire answered.
A gray figure darted suddenly into
the leafy path. He fell.
Another appeared He fell.
There was perhaps ten minutes of
| that, and what was left of the German
| party were withdrawing when a hand
full of soldiers scampered along the
| road. They were Germans, but they
| shouted as they ran, Don't shoot,