The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1918-03-28

Really, l wasn't much impressed by
the English king. He seemed a pleas
ant, tired little man with q great bur-
den to bear and not much of an idea
about how to bear it. He struck me
as an individual who would conscien-
tiously do his best in any situation, but
would never do or say anything with
the slightest suspicion of d punch to 1t.
A few days after his visit to the hos
pital l saw in the Official London Ga
zette that I had been awarded the dis
tinguished conduct medal. Official let
tiers from the Canadian headquarters
amplified this information, and a no.
tice from the British war office in
formed me that the medal awaited me
there. : was told the king knew that
the medal had been awarded me when
he spoke to me in the hospital. De-
spite glowing reports in the Kentucky
press, he didn't pin it on me. Probably
he didn't have it with him, or perhaps
he didn't consider it good form to hang
a d. c. NJ. on q suit Of striped presen-
tation pajamas with a prevailing tone
of baby blue
While I was in the King George hos
pital l witnessed one of the most won
derful examples of courage and pluck
l have ever seen. A young Scot only
nineteen years old. McAuley by name.
had had the greater part of his face
blown away. The surgeons had patch
ed him up in some fashion, but he was
horribly disfigured. He was the bright
est, m%erriest mar in the ward, always
joking and never depressed. His own
terrible misfortune was merely the top
ic for humorous comment with him.
He seemed to get positive amusement
out of the fact that the surgeons were
always sending for him to do some
thing more with his face. One day he
was going into the operating room and
Il fellow patient asked him what the
new operation was to be.
"Oh," he said, "I'm going to have a
cabbage put on in place of u head.
It'll grow better than the one 1 have
now"
Once in Il fortnight he would man.
age to get leave to absent himself from
the hospital for an hour or two. He
never came back alone. 1t took u
couple of men to bring him in. On the
next morning he would say:
"Well, it a my birthday. A man
must have q few drinks on his birth
day"
l was discharged from the hospital
in the middle of February and sent to
Il comfortable place ut Hastings, Sus-
sex, where I lived until my furlough
papers came through. I had a fine
time in London at the :.heaters and
clubs pending my departure for home.
When my furlOugh had arrived I went
to Boxton, Derbyshire, where the ca
madam discharge depot was located.
and was provided with transportation
to Montreal. I came back to America
on the Canadian Pacific Royal Mail
steamer Metagama, and the trip was
without incident of any sort. We lay
for a time in the Mersey, awaiting
word that our convoy was ready to see
us out of the danger zone, and q de-
stroyer escorted us 400 miles on our
way.
1 was informed before my departure
that n commission as lieutenant in the
Canadian forces awaited my return
from furlOugh, and l had every inten-
ton Of going back to accept it, but
since l got to America things have hap
pened. Now it's the army of Uncle
Sam for mine. I've written these stO-
ries to show what we are up against.
It's going to be q tough game and u
bloody one and q sorrowful one for
many, but it's mostly right on one
side and all wrong on the other-and
I'm glad we're in it. I'm not willing to
quit soldering now, but l will be when
we get through with this. Because
when we finish up with all this there
won't be any necessity for soldering.
The world will be free of wal for II
long, long time, and q Gods mercy
that.
(THE END.)