The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1918-11-12
PERFECT RED CROSS
STAR ON YANK'S BACK


on his back as a souvenir of the
great war. The wound that has
marked him so unusual that he is
known at American Military Hospital
No. i, where he is now convalescing
as the 'Red Cross Man." and doc
tors, nurses and patients have
watched his case with unusual in
terest.
Fournan is a member of one of the
American regiments recently engaged
in the fighting near Scissors and
Fismes. He has been in France since
last October and went through "sev-
eral kinds Of help on several fronts
without a scratch. And then, one
morning a short time ago, just as his
company went over the top headed
for a Boche machine gun nest,
"whiz bang" knocked him out. He
had momentary singing sensation
and then awoke to find himself on an
American sanitary train, from which
he was taken by ambulance to the
hospital.
When he was carried to the ope-
rating room the surgeon looked him
over and then called the other doc
tors to come and look. The boy had
been hit by two pieces of shrapnel,
one of which had gone down his back
so close to his spine that only a mir
acle saved him from paralysis. The
other had crossed at right angles,
leaving the mark of a perfect cross
on his back. Fournan has those
pieces of shrapnel in his Red Cross
treasure bag. He says they're
Mucky pieces" because they "only
left scar"
When Private Founan is well
enough to be discharged from the
hospital he means to spend several
days in the south of France, where
he was born. But after the war is
over he is going back to New York
city to his adopted country, where
he has lived for fifteen years. He is
so thoroughly Americanized that he
prefers fighting with American
troops, with whom he trained at
Camp Syracuse.
just by chance the American in
the next bed to Fournan is of Ger
man parentage. Crank He'll, Column
bus, o." reads the card at the head
of his bed, and the corporal admits
that his name is as German as it
sounds. An uncle who lives in Texas
was so pro- German that he disowned
He'll when he enlisted for service.
He'll felt that he had to live down
his name, and so it was that he
earned his corporaPs chevrons
shortly after he had gone into train
ing. He wears two service stripes
now, and he boasts that it took three
machine gun bullets to knock him out
the day he was wounded.
He was fighting near scissors
when he "got his" His company had
been entrenched on a hill slope that
overlooked a valley Of wheat fields
beyond which the Germans were hid
ing in the woods of another slope.
He'll and his men had managed to
cross the valley by running short
distances at top speed and then
dropping for breathing space into
the wheat. Just as he started up the
slope two bullets hit him, one in the
thigh, the other below the knee of
his left leg, and as he fell a third
struck the big muscle in his right
forearm, so completely paralyzing it
that he had to jerk his rifle loose
with his left hand.
He'll remembers rolling over into a
shell hole, where he lay for hours be-
fore a patrol of Boche prisoners,
guarded by an American sergeant,
came by and found him lying there
He was carried into field hospital
and later sent into Hospital No. T..
The leg wounds are healing rapidly,