Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1918-02-28
edith CAVELL'S
I. 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
I! ada on Account Of Small Size
Wants Blood for Blood.

= 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 determin-
alton to avenge deeply seated pri-
waite wrong.
I ; He is Lawrance R. CaveIl of Chi
| Icago, first cousin and boyhood compan-
| ion of Edith Cavell, the English Red
Gross nurse whose execution at the
hands of German firing squad in
brussels sent thrill of horror through
| 1.-THE world.
1t was no easy matter for young Ca
well to break into the army. Not I'M
It'll after several vain attempts, both In
the United States and in Canada, did
The succeed in getting himself straight
ened 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
a 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, bat he was re-
.jected on account of his age and size
The 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
1 purpose, but again was turned down.
i, No one could have hailed the en-
trance of America into the war with
more real joy than he. It 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
lmember of the outpost company of the
l317th 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
ITO the aviation section, as it is the goal
of his ambition to hurl bombs on the
lBoches 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 bafled determination OF
: revenge, thing the boy himself had
been too modest to do.
Like Older Sister to Him.
The father said the lad had beer
brought up in the same house in Ken,
, with Miss Cavell, and that her rela
tionship to him was rather that of s
devoted elder sister than of cousin
1T matters not what branch of serv
ice / am in" the boy told his father
II shall die satisfied only when have
drawn blood for blood, and pray Goo
to live to see that day. I expect to
He will answer my prayer.
' Edith was murdered without {
, hearing in cold blood by the kaiser
She was an English girl, and the.
) sang the hate song over her dead body
expect to sing the song of hate Owe
the dead bodies of Germans. No sac
l rif1ce is too great, no punishment TOT
, severe, no hardship too trying; dealt
itself coveted reward, just so an
permitted to put bullets into German
, hearts as that firing squad under or
, ders put them into my Cousins heart
! ! am in the war for a purpose and
shall accomplish it,
a Deeply grained as his hatred of tn
Teuton race had grown, Mr.. Cavel
: said that his son had no quarrel witt
[ individual Germans. Scores of them II
Chicago, he added, had expressed t,
his family their Mortified resentmen
OF the execution of Miss Cavell.
Chance to Marry Free.
Iorain O-Mavor r. M Mooro q