The Arvada enterprise., 1918-12-19

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| tenant Barley. he pinned an Ameri-
can flag on my breast, q French nag
beneath 1t and beneath that the war
cross. He kissed me on both cheeks,
Of course. which was taking advantage
Of cripple. But 1t Is the usual thing
with the French. as you know-I mean
the kissing, not the meanness to
cripples.
When he had pinned the medal on
he said he thanked me from the bot
tom of his heart for the French people.
and also thanked all the Americans
who had come over from their own
land to help a country with which
most Of them were not connected. He
said 1t was q war IN which many ma
lions were taking part, but In which
there were Just two ideas, freedom
and despotism, and lot more things
that I cannot remember. He finished
by saying that he wished he could dec.
crate all Of Us.
OF course 1t was great stuff for me
and I thought was the real thing
sure enough, but could not help
thinking of the remark I have heard
here in the States-"I thank you and
the whole family thanks you" And It
was hard not to laugh. Also 1t seemed
funny to me, because did not rightly
know just what they were giving mo
the medal for-though It was for one
Of two things-and I do not know to
this day. But thought 1t would not
be polite to ask, 30 I let It 90 at that.
There were twelve other naval ON
GERS who were present and they and
all the other people did lot Of cheer.
ing and vived me TO q fare-you-well.
Il was great stuff, altogether. and I
should have liked to get Q medal every
day.
One day I received Q letter from Q
man who had been In my company IN
the Foreign Legion and with whom I
had been pretty ehummy. His letter
was partly in French and partly IN
Engiiah. II was all about who had
been killed and who had bsen wound.
ed. He also mentioned Hurray's
death. which he had heard about, and
about my receiving the Croix Dc
Guerra I was wishing h. had said
something about Brown, whom had
not heard from and who I knew would
visit mo II he had the chance.
But two or three days later I got
another letter from the same man and
when I opened It out tumblsd photo.
graph. At nrst all I saw was that Il
was the photograph Of Q man crucined
with bayoosts, but when I looked at
Il closely I saw It was Brown. !
tainted then, just like q girl.
When came to could hardly make
myself think about It. Two Of my
pals gonsi It hurt me % much %
think Of It that I crushed the lsttse
up in my hand. but later on I could
read parts Of It. It said they had
found Brown this way near Dixmuds
about two days after he had been 70.
ported missing. 80 three Of us went
over and two stayed there. It seems
very strange to me that both Of my
pals should be crucined and II I were
superstitious do not know what I
would think about 1t. It made me-
sick and kept me from recovering -
fast ~ I would have done otherwise
Both Brown and Murray were good
pals and very good men In q fight
I often think Of them both and about
the things we did together. but lately
I have tried not to think about them
much because It 10 very sad to think
what torture they must have had to
stand. They were both Of great credit
to this country.
The American consul visited me
quite often and I got to calling him
Sherlock because he asked 20 many
questions. We played lots Of games
together. mostly with dice. and had Q
great time generally. After I became
convalescent he argued with me that
I had seen enough. and though I really
did think so-however much I disliked
what I had seen-he got my discharge
from the service on account Of phys.
ical inability to discharge the usual
duties. After I had been at the hos.
pital for q little over . moath was
discharged from It. aftsr Q little party
In my ward with everyone taking part
and oil the horns blowing and all the
records except my favoeits diree
played one after another.
Sherlock arranged everything fee
ms-my passage to New York. cloth.
ing. etc. ran up to g. Nasairs and
saw my grandmother. loafed around
Q while and also visited Lyons.
Aftee Q short hms I returned to
Brest and got my passage on the
0eorg1c for New York. I had three
trunks With me full Of things I had
picked Up around Europe and had
been keeping with my grandmothee.
Amoug my belongings were several