The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1918-02-28
R. FLAUGHER
VISITS MOTHER
MAN SAW , YEARS TRENCH SERVICE
Record OF American Son in British Army
Brings Pride to Principal Of
0dell School

direct from New York City for visit
with relatives and friends at his old
home in Baker, arrived from the east
ern Oregon city Saturday morning.
AT the meeting, the hearts of both
were teo full for utterance. Although
Sergeant Flaugher is AZ years old and
his heavy black hair is streaked with
gray, his mother, cousin of the noted
Brooklyn minister, Newell Dwight
Hills, who had not seen her son for
Y years. beheld him with eyes that
sparkled with pride. lie might have
been little boy who had just returned
from boarding school, s.loaded with hon
ors of scholarship and department. 1t
was even better than that.
"Of course | am proud of him, ." said
Mrs. Yeates. IL believe this is one of
the proudest moments of my life. He
has done his duty as he saw it, and he
is back here to tell me all about it.
But the first moments of the meeting
there in a corner of the lobby of the
Mount Hood hotel We're silent. Both
the soldier man, back from the grim
realities of trench warfare, and his
mother were thinking. About what?
Who knows-perhaps of the days when
the veteran, whose body today bears
three wounds from German shells and
in whose right arm still remains bit
of sharpnel steel, was a little tad.
Other hotel guests hurrying to the din.
ing room took no note Of the quiet pair.
And then the conversation began.
There was so much to tell. X. Flaugher
enlisted as a private in the British
army in October, 1914.
IL am really seafaring man and
not fighting man at all, +" he says,
land when the war broke out | was
bosun on British vessel at a port in
German East Africa. Before my ship
touched at an English port had al
ready made up my mind to enlist.
What made me do it? can't define it
exactly. 1t was just plain call to
duty. And think it was the best
thing ever did in my life. That two
years in the trenches has made diff
ferent man of me. And let me tell
you, am Just an ordinary soldier like
anybody else. The sacrifices and the
fighting have had the same effect on
my comrades. AS sailed the seas !
was an indifferent cuss. never
thought much of religion, and the war
hasn't, perhaps, made me religious
man after all. | haven't become a
Methodist or Baptist or anything of
that kind, but am looking on life
and the great mystery of the hereafter
with different viewpoint. Whatever
may have been the character of man
when he goes into that strife over
there, when he has seen service for as
long as did, his heart Is softened more
toward his fellow man. He may ap-
pear a rough, hardened sinner, but
that's all on the surafce The words
of sincere parsons, whatever may be
his preachings, are hereafter to be held
in deepest reverence by me.
Sgt. Flaugher says that he met in
all about 80 other Americans who had
enlisted as he had.
"And was always proud of them, T"
| he declares, for every last one Of
them had proven that he could be a
good soldier by having been advanced
to rank of sergeant. The average
Tommy is the finest fighting man in
the world, but he hasn't the knack of
leadership that is possessed by the
American and the Canadian. He Is
a sticker and doesn't know what it is
to give up, but when an emergency
arises he hasn't the knack of collecting
his wits and acting as quickly as his
American or Canadian cousin.
Sgt. Flaugher was in some Of the
heaviest fighting at Ypres, and he was
IN the hot 10 nc tho Coroppo
''But after all of it. he says, IL
haven't the horror Of battle that find
so often evidenced by the American
people. Too many of US Americans
over here and far removed from action
have reached the opinion that trench
life is far more terrible than it actu-
ally is. They have an exaggerated
idea of the fatalities sustained and the
awful hardships the wounded have to
undergo. Why. the wounded British
Tommy has the finest care in the
world. In average cases, provided he
can stand the transportation, the
wounded man is back in England
'Blighty' as he calls it, within &c
hours after he has been shot by rife
bullet or struck by shrapnel or machine
gun fire. The Red Cross organization
is wonderful. When a battle is on
stretcher bearers and ambulances are
always right at hand, and Red Gross
nurses at first aid quarters and the
emergency posts are watchful of the
comfort of the wounded men.
"ToO much cannot be said for the Y
NJ. c. A. and Salvation Army huts that
have been established just behind the
lines. With their writing rooms, theil
amusements and the opportunities of
cred the soldier to secure such delica
at moderate expense these huts keel
the soldiers in fine spirits.
Sergeant Flaugher says the British
Tommy looks forward each week to the
distribution of cigarettes and each day
to the allotment of rum.
Nothing so cheers the men as thi
morning draught of burning liquor,
says the returned sergeant. After
night of tense waiting and watchn,
sometimes knee deep in mud and water
the soldier is in need of somethin,
| stimulating. For while an attemp
| was made to substitute hot coffee
brought up in huge thermos bottles
for the rum ration. This came abou
because of the activities of prohibi
tionists in England. But it was foun
J that the coffee usually reached tn
/ men after it had grown cold, ard tn
daily rum allotment was again insti
tuted. and want to say that this Gus
tom and the distribution of cigarette
are two of the finest things the Eng
ilsh are doing for their soldiers"
! Sergeant Flaugher on two differer
] occasions was slightly "gassed." H