The Irish standard., 1918-11-09


regiments in France. It is a record
that makes men of Irish blood hold
their heads high. 1t is record that
betters the brightest page of Amer
icas most glorious military annals.
These two regiments, one used to
be the old Ninth Massachusetts, and
the other the Fighting 69th of New
York, were in every bad scrap the
American army has been in. The tales
of their prowess are just now fltering
back to Paris. They may be told be-
cause the censor at headquarters has
now ruled that regiments may be
named for their part in such fighting
as preceded that on the River Vesle.
The Ninth and the Sixty-ninth were
in almost all of it. The story comes
from the lips of two men, one doctor
in the Ninth and the other a chaplain
in the Sixty-ninth, who saw what they
relate. These two have seen many
soldiers die. They know what bravery
and courage and cheerfulness are.
The Ninth Massachusetts.
Lieutenant Simon Kelleher, of the
Ninth, was in Paris today. He tells
the story of his boys. And most of
the time he is either laughing, or
tears Involuntary creep out the cor
ners of his eyes and drop unshamed
| down his Drowned cheeks.
Lieutenant Kelleher's stories show
that the Irish boys of his regiment,
the boys of Boston, South Boston, Rox-
bury, Cambridge and Charleston,
! fought with the cool courage that held
the fire on Bunker Hill until those
Americans of an earlier day saw the
whites of their eyes," They show
that these boys-and most. of them
were mere boys-died face to the
front, grim smile on their lips, fight
ing, doing their soldiers duty to the
last breath of ebbing life. Each heart
beat of the all-too-few left throbbed
to one purpose-to fight. No one man
of the Ninth died, says Lieutenant
Kelleher without taking toll and more
of enemy lives with him.
Wounded Rescued.
| Just now the names of these heroes
may not be mentioned. But "Kelly
and Burke and Shea" are there, all Of
them, and many more. Lieutenant
Kelleher says nothing of his own gal
lantry. But his stories show that he,
too, served. He was not called on for
| the supreme sacrifice. But he offered
his life thousand times on first-aid
dressing expeditions to the farthest
outposts and beyond.
Father HanIey's Story.
It's Chaplain Hanley who tells the
story of the Sixty-ninth. They refer
to the chaplain as holding the clerical
| record for mileage in No Mans Land.
They can't keep him off patrols. Chap
lain Hanley knows the story of most
of the casualties Of the Sixty-ninth.
| He substantiates the statement that
not man has been killed or wounded
by German bayonet, notwithstanding
the regiment has encountered in pitch
ed and open battle three of the five
divisions of the Prussian Guard at one
time and another of it's career. Need
! less to say, the Prussian Guard d.
vision can make no such boast.
Father Hanley says the hardest time
: they have with casualties in the Sixty
! ninth is to make them stop fighting
| when they're hit. He is himself just
recovering from a wounded leg.
"The officers are as bad as the men, -
he declares. "The day got this
! wound I was working up with Cap
tain Hurley's company. They'd been
driven back little by vicious Ger
man barrage and were on a little
ridge. They'd got orders to hold it,
and they did, for four days. When
they left it they went ahead.
"Well, I was up there this day and
heard of a wounded man ahead and
a little to one side, just over the edge
of the hill toward the German lines.
told the captain I'd better go to him
and he wanted to detail couple men
to help me-. I declined and started off
myself, crawling on my stomach un-
derneath stream Of smachine-gun bull
lets that would have Clipped me had
raised on my elbow.
''I'd gone perhaps fifty yards when
heard a rustic in the grass behind
| men, and there were two of Hurley's
boys. They said the captain had sent
them to carry me back if anything
happened. Now listen to the rest of
it. I sent them chasing back to their
company and crawled ahead. Just as
I got to this ridge the bullet got me.
My wounded man was across an open
! space, and knew couldn't get to
him. I was afraid if waited till dark
I'd bleed to death, so l put tourni-