The sun., 1918-12-18
RED WINE DREAMER
OR BOY STOWAWAY?
Adorable Fernand Says He Is
French Orphan Wounded
at Battlefront.
COP GIVES HIM A HOME
Camp Service People Tell Of
Ship Apprentice Slashed
in "vin Rouge" Row.

ANY normal bachelor with eyes Of
irish blue and heart too big for any
brass buttoned uniform to encase COM
pletely would feel Just as Detective
Tom Kenny Of the Jersey City police
Gid about the adorable stowaway of
the Leviathan. the boy Fernand Dor
nier, who when his father and mother
were killed by Germans went of to
war with the Incompatible Americans
and now has a red scar on his left
wrist to attest his story that treach-
erous German prisoner shot him with
a revolver at Chateau Thierry.
Detective Kenny was for adopting
Fernand on the spot. and so was De-
tective Kenny's mother after just one
evening OF tucking him away In bed
that once belonged to another boy now
grown UP. The truth IL this Breton
of H. with his bright face where
smiles keep chasing melancholy away.
his corduroy knickers, his solemn dis
approval Of tobacco and strong Ian
guage, his ecstatic veneration Of the
Stars and Stripes and his orphans
narrative. Is superlatively Adaptable.
The whole port ought to be competing
for his affections. and II Tom Kenny
has the call so much the better for
Tom.
The story of Fernand.
And yet-and yet. There is no in
tention to wreck an idyl. but here
goes:
Fernand was found on the Jersey
City waterfront on Monday evening
In his pocket was an empty purse, He
was reading beneath a street light lie
Voyage de Monsieur Perrichon." a
comedy written for grownups. His stu
alton being incomprehensible to Pa
trolman McKenna and neither the
boys English nor McKenna's French
being sufficient for the others needs,
the stranger in Jersey was escorted to
the City Hall police station and sent
thence to the Society for the Proven
ton of Cruelty to Children.
A translator attached to the Young
Women's Christian Association inter
viewed him. He spelled out his name
--Fernand Dornier. He told of his
home in Bordeaux, of his fathers
death in the war. of the killing of his
mother by bomb. of his being left
alone, OF his taking up with the Amer
lean soldiers and accompanying them
70 the region Of Chateau Thierry. Of
three glorious months at the front.
where il was great to see a German
die, but distressing to see q French
man or American; of his wound, hts
days in a French hospital, his de-
cision to see America, whence came
the liberators; of his hiding himself
OH the Leviathan on her next to the
last trip from Bordeaux, OF his ar
rival in Hoboken fifteen days ago, of
his WanderinGs since then, of his
water front search for American SOL
diers he might have known from the
campaigns. All this Miss Lena Blanch-
ard. the Y. NJ. C. A. worker. inter-
preted to Detective Thomas f. Kenny
Of the Jersey City police.
Institutions are fine" exploded De-
tective Tom when she finished. but
what that boy needs is a home. He
goes with me-
Orphan Finds n Home.
So they went home to 379 York
street. to Mrs. kenny's supper and
much conversation, in which the boys
pantomime made up for the Kennys
lack Of French. and to a boys bed
under whose pillow was laid the treas
-
chon."r
All evening the telephone rang
women who had heard OF the pilgrim
from the war and would take him in
and maybe keep him II he suited
and Detective Tom answered: Yes
he ought to be in a good home but
we're investigating, you know, and
meanwhile. thank you, we are making
him comfortable here"
Yesterday Fernand Dornier watched
the movements of the police from a
chair in the City Hall station OF
went the rounds with his detective
when the errand was compatible with
q boys requirements.
In the afternoon they landed at the
Hudson county court house. and there
Sun reporter encountered them
Through an unofficial interpreter who
doesn't pretend to have originated the
French tongue some details OF the
adventures of Fernand were obtained
lie lived. he said in Bordeaux. His
father. "chlef of guards at the rail-
road station" before the war, was
killed at Verdun year and a hall
ago. His mother went forth as q
Red Cross nurse. and was killed al
Nancy by a bomb that fell from the
sky into a hospital.
He, Fernand Dornier, was left-"le
dernier Dornier"-he explained with
quick smile. He would go to war
At fourteen he could not go as a SOL
der. He attached himself to the
Thirtieth United States Cavalry. They
gave him an overseas cap and q cav
nlryman's blouse treated him as a
hringer Of good luck took him far
toward the battle. He ran c-rands
and helped around the camp, his spe-
cial friend having been Capt. William
Epeck He never reached the front
Iine-ah, no, not the front line, sir
but the second line. yes: he got to the
second line and saw a thing or two, by
blue! lie helped bring back prison
ers, and one day a sordid German be-
eide whom he was trotting drew a con
cealed revolver and shot two American
soldiers dead. One OF the bullets went
into Fernand's left wrist.
German Pays Full PepaIty.
have S;r