The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1918-09-14


must be won before a member of the
on the western front
This was in May, 1917.
BY August /, most of us were full
fledged pilots, actively engaged ut vari- +
Gus parts of the line in daily conflict .
with the enemy.
BY December Is, every man jack of /
us who had met the enemy in France. |
with one exception, had appeared on I
the casualty list The exception was /
II. X. BoySen, an American who ut
last report was fighting on the Italian !
front still unScathed. Whether his |
good fortune has stood him up to this !
time don't know, but if it has | would
be very much surprised.
or the others, five were killed in &C
tion-three Americans, one Canadian,
and one EngliShman. Three more were
in all probability killed in action al
, though officially they are listed merely
as missing" One of these was an
American, one a Canadian, and the
third a Scotchman Three more, two
of them Americans, were seriously
! wounded. Another, a Canadian. is Il
, prisoner in Germany. l know nothing
, of the others
What happened TO me is narrated in
these pages. | wish. instead, | could
> tell the story of each of my brave com
rades, for not one of them was downed,
I am sure, without upholding the best
, traditions of the II. F. c. Unfortunate
: ~, however, of the eighteen who
. sailed on the Meganic last May,
: happened to be the first to fall into
, the hands of the Huns, and what befell
; my comrades after that, with one eX-
T ception, know only second hand.
n The exception was the case of poor,
J. brave Paul Raney-my closest chum-
+ whose last battle witnessed from my
o German prisOn-but that is a story l
g shall tell in its proper place.
O In one way, however, I think the
Y story of my own "big adventure" and
my miraculous escape may, perhaps,
n serve a purpose as useful as that OF
= the heroic fate of my less fortunate
e comrades. Their story, 1t is true, might
k inspire others to deeds OF heroiSm,
,e but mine, l hope, will convey the
r equally valuable lesson Of the folly
10 of despair.
+ Many were the times in the course
s. Of my struggles when 1t seemed abso-
IS lutely useless to continue. In hostile
re country, where discovery meant death,
to wounded, sick, famished, friendless,
he hundreds of miles from the nearest
neutral territory the frontier Of which
w was so closely guarded that even if
rs got there ii seemed too much to hope
te that l could ever get through, what
re was the use of enduring further
at agony?
e. And yet here l am, in the land OF
I lliberty-although in a somewhat OBJ
nd scure corner of 1.-THE little town of
Momence ILL.,, where | was bOrn-not
very much the worse for wear after all
I've been through, and, as write these
words not eight months have passed
since my seventeen comrades and
sailed from Canada on the Meganlc
Can It be possible that was spared
en- to convey message of hope to Others
DIS, who are destined for similar trials?
la, am afraid there will be many of them
Years ago / heard of the epitapf
we which is said to have been found on
IN child's grave:
"If was so soon to be done for
= What, o Lord, was l ever begun for!
The way 1t has come to me since
| returned from Europe is:
eff, o Lord, 1 was to be done fol-
| What were my sufferings eer begu
fOr?'
| Perhaps the answer lies In the sue
gestion l have made.
| At any rate, if this record Of my ad
ventures should prove instrumental i
sustaining others who need encourage
ment / shall feel that my suffering
were not in vain.
1t is hardly likely that anyone wi
quite duplicate my experiences, but
haven't the slightest doubt that man
will have to go through trials equal
nerve-racking and suffer disappoin
ments just as diSheartening.
It would be very far from the mai
I to imagine that the optimism which
am preaching now so glibly sustaine
me through all my troubles. On II
contrary, I am free to confess that
frequently gave way to despair al
often, for hours at time, felt so q
jected and discouraged that l real
didn't care what happened to me.
deed, I rather hoped that somethiI
would happen to put an end to n
misery.
But despite all my dependency al
hopelessness, the worst never ma
pened. and I can't help thinking tn
mi my salvation must have been design'
to show the way to others.
- CHAPTER u.