The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1918-04-23
when King George of England Asked My Opinion
Of American Soldiers, Told Him That the Canadians
And Americans Were the Same Sort of People
With the Same Customs And Same Ability
BY DOLLY DALRYMpLE

% wv passed for r. 8 years e ass.
and had served for eight
months with the engineering corps on
the Flanders front and was just begin
ming to feel that Z was safely installed
in the army, l came to grief through an
officer finding out that my real age was
49, and so l was shipped back to Cana
da. 1t was in London on my way home
that | was sent for by King George
of England, who said he wanted to shake
hands with the Oldest man who was
wearing the English khaki in the present
war and it was during this audience
with the King that he asked my opinion
of the Americans as soldiers, and If l
thought they could stand the test with
so little preliminary training. l stood
attention to the King during all this until
he said: BE seated. you are too old
man to stand OF course I obeyed and
then l replied to his question about
Americans, by asking one; Your Ma
jesty, said /, DO you think the Cana
dams have stood the test?' He replied:
They have made place for themselves
| ~ hiotoiS. IHcA, your MdJSSNS' Se'AN
|, The Americans will do the same thing,
because the Canadians and the Ameri-
cans are the same sort of people with
the same customs and the same ability.
The only difference between them is that
they live on different sides of the Great
Lakes. They will stand the test just
as the Canadians have stood it"
AS / walked down the street yester-
day, about 10 feet behind Sapper Boucher,
with whom l had an appointment at the
jefferson a few minutes before the ini-
tial matinee of the great war picture,
America at War" which is being shown
there this week, I mentally noted the
splendid physique and supercarriage OF
the man ahead of me; Sapper Boucher
walks with a spring and a swing and
a bearing that is unbelievable for man
of his age-73; l won't say 70 years, but
as our good friend, DIR. Oliver Wen
dell Holmes, put it '73 years young
for that, indeed, is what any one would
think of Mr.. Boucher; his figure is as
erect and straight as a boy of %; his
bright, tWinkling eyes are filled with the
courage of youth as well as with the
wisdom of age; his slightly gray-tinged
hair about his temples and his rudy
skin proclaim youth rather than age-and
that he is a born fighter, is readily OBJ
hatred of the Germans, for then all the
vitality and vigor of his big manly body
are dominant in his expressive face ana
his gesture as we'll as words.
when L said in a city not FAR away
from here few nights ago, some things
I thought about the Germans MI
Boucher observed, "a man said to me as
we left the theatre: You were pretty
rough; didn't you see that there were
LOT of ay1S in alldieQCev
II: L don't give a damn if they were;
wish there'd been that many more, so
I could have told them, too, how felt
toward them.
"And YOU can't blame me, dear lady,
he apologized, presently, flor using such
language as / do or feeling as | do about
the Huns; if you'd been over there as
/ have and you could see and know the
vile brutalities and atrocities committed
by those people, you'd swear, too.
can't even mention to you, lady, nor
to an audience where always you flnd
a large number of ladies, the things
would like to of how the Germans have
treated women; they are unspeakable;
impossible. But some of them should be
known. Take, for instance, one little
incident, Red Cross nurse was caring
for two others-poor, pitiful women being
brought in from the firing line-these two
poor creatures grooming and moaning IN
great distress, when some one asked
the nurse what the matter was; she
told them that the two nurses had had
their hands cut off above the wrists,
and each had her tongue cut off several
inches and both were victims of outrages
from German soldiers. Doesn't that
make your blood boil?"
IT met Miss Anne Morgan recently IN
New York" said Mr.. Boucher. She, you
know, was one of the first at Bordeaux
when the wounded were brought in from
the battle of the Marine. l taxed with
her of various incidents, one of which
shows the frightful ingratitude of the
Germans A German general had been
fearfully wounded and Red Cross nurse
had stayed by him and nursed the gen.
eral through the dreadful crisis of i'll
ness, like the saint that she was. When
she got ready to go, she went to say
good-by to some of the prisoners and also
TO the German general. When she ex-
tended her hand he asked her to shake
German fashion,, which, as you know.
is giving both hands. He grabbed her
hands roughly and before she knew what
was happening he had broken both her
wrists ami damning her, said he'd fix her
so she'd never be able to nurse another
soldier.
DO you think that a Canadian can
forget those things?" Mr. Boucher asked
mo; Canadian is ike an lnd1an ne
never forgets, and we haven't and never
shall forget Sergt. Harry Band of
the Fifteenth Canadians, whom our boys
found crucified to barn door by the
Germans. We don't forget anything,
and we are going to see to it that the
Germans pay, pay, pay to the last drop
of blood. Peace could never be declared
without victory. We've got to win AND
we are doing it. The American soldiers
over there feel just as we do, for they
know how the Germans have turned all
the venom and hatred that they've had
for the English and the Canadians to
the Americans. God! how they hate
Americans The outcome of this war de-
ponds now absolutely upon the rapidity
with which the United States can get
troops to the front; that's all.
~ recall last July when the engineering