The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1918-01-16
EDITH CAVELL'S
COUSIN IN ARMY
Seeks Vengeance for Brutal Muir
der Of His Boyhood
Companion.
NOW IN THE SIGNAL CORPS
Rejected Many Times by Recruiting
officers In United States and Can
ada on Account Of Small Size
Wants Blood for Blood.


Camp Gordon, Ga.-There Is one lad
wearing khaki in this camp who en-
tered the army with fixed deterinin-
ntion to avenge deeply seated pri-
vate wrong.
He is Lawrance II. Cavell of Chi
cago, first cousin and boyhood compan-
Ion of Edith Cavell, the English Red
Cross nurse whose execution at the
hands of q German firing squad in
Brussels sent thrill of horror through
the world.
1t was no easy matter for young Ca
veil to break into the army. Not I'M
til after several vain attempts, both in
the United States and i'm Canada, did
he succeed in getting himself straight
cned out on the first quarter of the
course which he expects to lead to the
satisfaction of his desire for revenge.
At the time of the murder of his
cousin he was only eighteen and small
for his years. His father had been en-
gagged in business in Chicago since he
had transplanted the family from the
native heath in the county of Kent,
England, some years before. Kent was
also the i'll fated nurses home, and as
very small boy young Cavell had de-
veloped an admiration and affection
for his cousin. some ten or fifteen years
his SENIOR that bordered almost on
alteration.
Rejected by Canada.
Inexpressibly shocked by the news
of his cousins atrocious death, the
boy Immediately presented himself to
the agents of the Canadian recruiting
forces in Chicago for enlistment in
the overseas service, but he was re-
jected on account of his age and size
he was many pounds underweight. He
even went to Canada and brought all
the political influence he could COM
pass to bear in order to carry out his
purpose, but again was turned down.
No one could have hailed the en-
trance of America into the war with
more real joy than he. 1t would give
him his long awaited opportunity TO
gain some recompense for the murder
of his cousin, he thought. He was
again doomed to disappointment. A re-
cruiting officer told him that he was
too small. Nothing daunted, he car
ried his case to Washington in person
and the matter was placed before the
war department through an influential
army officer in Chicago.
Permission was given him to volun-
teer in the signal corps, and this he
did in Chicago last June. He has just
been transferred to Camp Gordon as a
member of the outpost company of the
317th signal battalion under Major
Hemphill. Eagerly devOting himself
to his duties and apt to learn, he al
ready has been scheduled for the rank
of top sergeant In his company. He
also has developed his physique until
now he is as hardy as the best soldier
In the army. He hopes for a transfer
to the aviation section, as 1t Is the goal
Of his ambition to hurl bombs on the
BOches from the air.
A visitor to Camp Gordon this week
to see his son, Cavell's father called
on Captain Allen of the outpost COM
pany and recited the story of Law
rence's long baffied determination of
revenge, a thing the boy himself had
been too modest to do.
Like Older Sister to Him.
The father said the lad had been
brought up in the same house in Kent
with Miss Cavell, and that her rela-
tionship to him was rather that of a
devoted elder sister than of a cousin.
ut matters not what branch of serv-
Ice l am in," the boy told his father.
II shall die satisfied only when l have
drawn blood for blood, and l pray God
to live to see that day. l expect to.
He will answer my prayer.
Edith was murdered without a
hearing in cold blood by the kaiser.
She was an English girl, and they
sang the hate song over her dead body.
l expect to sing the song of hate over
the dead bodies of Germans. No sac
rifice Is too great, no punishment too
severe, no hardship too trying; death
Itself a coveted reward, just so / am
permitted to put bullets into German
hearts as that firing squad under or
ders put them into my cousins heart.
l am In the war for a purpose and
shall accomplish It,"
Deeply grained as his hatred of the
TeutOn race had grown, Mr.. Cavell
said that his son had no quarrel with
Individual Germans. Scores of them In
Chicago, he added, had expressed to
his family their Mortified resentment
of the execution Of Miss Cavell.