The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-10-19
Soldier Wins Admir- alton of Com
rades Through Cheerful
ness in Hospital.
he Was GAME TO THE END
Four Operations Were Too Much for
Strength OF Non-com. Who Was
Wounded In Action at
Chateau hierry.


These were exactly the words the
nurse used. But the tone of her voice
and the look In b4s syes said more.
The little group in the ward which
had been playing cards on one of the
beds to forget the tension they felt
while the sergeant's operation was
taking place, stopped suddenly, all at
tention, all h~ungering for good news.
you don't mean the s~ergeant's
gone, do your" exclaimed one.
"Yes, boys, the s~ergeant's gone. Four
operations were just too much for his
strength. He regained conscious
ness"
The little group of patients and the
nurse were silent.
The chap with one leg gone had half
a deck OF cards In his hands. Dazed,
he relaxed, and the cards fell to the
floor, scattering over half the ward.
The chap with one leg gone never no.
tced them.
He Was q Game Boy.
Gee. the s%ergeant's gone" he said
huskily. "he sure was a game boy."
HE was the best fellow / ever
knew" said another, sand the cheer
fullest, too. I've seen them dressing
his leg time and again, and gosh but
1t hurt. But did the sergeant ever
say anything? Not the sergeant-he
never batted an eye"
"Just to think" unused a third. at
wasn't half an hour ago when we
saw him go out. / shouted, Good
luck, Sarge when the stretcher was
carried through the door, and he
smiled and said: Thanks, I'll be back
In a few minutes with you"
The sergeant was Frank Carbaugh
OF Greencastle, Pa, a member of the
Seventh Machine-Gun Sanitary detach-
ment. No mother ever reared q drawer
son.
The sergeant, who was a mathemat-
les teacher before the war, was
wounded when his outfit was rushed
into action near Chateau Thierry.
None Of his bunkies knew Just how.
because, as one Of them explained,
"the sergeant wasn't the kind of a
fellow who'd talk OF himself. You
can bet he was wounded doing some
thing for somebody, though"
They did know that the sergeant lay
out In the open a long time after he
was wounded. Medical records show
that. His left leg was badly smashed,
and they operated at the first hospital
he reached. But gangrene had set
In, and four operations had followed
i'm an effort to save him.
They have had lots Of brave pa
tients that doctors and nurses and
patients admired alike In that hos
pltal, but never n just like the SER
geant. who said little, was always jok-
ing and cheerful, and never had a
complaint. The rest Of the boys In
the ward would do anything In the
world for "the sarge"
The little group sitting on the cots,
with the nurse, had been talking of
the sergeant for a long time, when
n of the boys said: "You ought to
write to his mother, Miss Cutter. The
sarge thought the world Of his moth
err"
I'm going to-" replied the nurse.
"You boys write out what you think
OF the sergeant, and I'll send that.
too"
What the Boys Wrote.
The boys did, and here are a few
lines from them:
Private Elmer Hyland wrote: II was
With him as Dor as he came from the
operation, and I cried when he went.
He vas a great boy-a clean fellow
through and through. / wish my foot
was 80 / could walk with him to the
cemetery"
Wagner John Trask wrote: "Our
sergeant is gone. Why, I loved that
fellow like my own brothers. I've
een other fellows go, but I never
felt like this"
Sergeant Vincent Sauer wrote: II
never felt worse since ! came In the
fight. He was game to the last; al
ways cheerful. and when I called Good
luck to you,' he answered: Thanks.
I'll be o. X. SOON We always had
fun around his bed: he was so cheer
fIl. He was one Of the finest fellows
l ever knew"
Arthur Stain, who knew the SER
geant better than the rest, the boys
say, because he and the sarge liked
to dabble In poetry wrote a poem to
send the s~ergeant's mother.
They buried the sergeant in the lit
tie American graveyard In a pretty
Lorraine valley, with an American flag
lei the coffin. as Is soldiers fired
three shots over the grave and the
bugler gave "taps." Then some of
the boys whose injuries permitted
their attending the funeral, gathered
flowers In the valley and the nurses
placed them on the grave with red,
white and blue ribbons around them.