Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-07-06

that's saying a good bit This fell !
low first dubbed me over the arm,
and when I was down he started to
finish me after piercing my right
arm, when all of a sudden saw him
crumple up and he had got his Wei
could never determine whether he
had been killed by a rife bullet or
whether an airplane above was re-
sponsible. Anyhow, / was carried
away by the r. A. M. Corps, bleed
ing profusely. and had a hard time
saving my arm"
Opinion Changes
Recuperating at Brighton, Eng
land. whore he was treated splen-
didly with motor rides and good food
young Lewis found, now, that opin-
ion on America had changed, for
when he said he was a Yank he got
the best.
II rejoined my company" went on
the adventurous youth, not stopping
to emphasize that he was keen to-
get back in battle line "at Ypres, and
say, my friend, 1. saw a real battle.
The colonel told us there would be
real warfare that day, and it was.
We made a charge that day; that's
what we called it; believe Empey
was the first to call 1t over the top
| can't say that I remember many
details, for / was riddled with the
first machine gun fire and instantly
lost consciousness. This continued
for seven hours and some time after
ward l found myself in Margate and
afterwards at Ramsgate, Kent, in
big hospital" The boy halted abrupt
ly here, and bit his lips painfully. a
tear clinging to his eyelash. He
explained somewhat bitterly that he
thought the surgeons had been too
hasty. Pulling himself together
again he gave some graphic narra-
tives of methods and incidents COM
mon at that period of the war. one
of which was particularly startling.
Going Back
There were some at that time"
said he, who did not want to fight,
and they would raise their five fing-
ers over the trench for some Hun
sharpshooter to knock 'em off. When
this happensd the man was sent back
incapacitated, but after while the
officers got onto it and now it means
court-martial The system grew
more and more strict as we lost
ground and l wish you would print
this about the poor kid who fell
asleep on guard. I cannot remem-
ber hi sname but we met up in Eng
land. For this infraction he was
sentenced to death bycourt- martial,
but on account of his age, he was
only II, they postponed the oxecu-
ton until after the war. But he fell
asleep a second time and I remem-
ber this time that he had been ON
duty twenty-four hours. That did
not help him. The commanding of
ficer made him an offer: Either take
another court-martial or accept my
taking court-martial, but we fell
taking court martial, but we fell
lows thought the other would be bet
ter and that's what he chose. Go
out there and lay on that parapet,'
was the officers order, pointing TO
the foremost position on our line.
Would you believe it that kid lay
there safely for one hour and nearly
sixty minutes without the Hun
sharpshooters bothering him. He
had one leg down and was almost
behind the parapet ready to come
in when bang a bullet was shot di-
rectly through his heart 1t was q
queer coincidence that our company
captured that same Hun sharpshoot-
er afterwards and he told us that
he knew exactly what was going on.
I knew that kid would be executed
anyhow said he, and I thought I
might as well finish him."
Tne wounded mans thoughts re-
Verted to his own frightful disaster
as he gazed down at his helpless legs,
but his eyes shone bravely: after
being at, several reconstruction hos
pitals they sent me here" said he,
"and I'll tell you a secret, I'm in
service again. Yes, sir, 1 have join
ed the tank company, 327th Bat
talon, at Gettysburg, and before this
war is over I will get back to square
things with the German who shot
me up so badly"
A nurse, approaching, smiled sad
ly at the youths intrepidity, but he
promised, though sort of wistfully,
Yes, / must go back and finish the
German who finished mel"