The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-09-02
Medal Bedecked Rene Has Tales
of Daring Galore.
ALL PROVEN TO Be FICTION
Publication Of Photograph In French
Newspaper Leads to Exposure Of
Greatest Fakir Of the War-Enjoys
Confidence of Army Officers and the
Credit OF Leading Paris Cafes
Amputates Own Leg.

The heroic exploits and hairbreadth
escapes of D'Artagnan, as narrated by
Dumas In "The Three Musketeers,"
fade into comparative insignifcance
when compared with the achievements
of Rene Bertrand, as told by himself.
Minus an arm and a leg, with nine
medals glittering on his breast, and as
sorting that his body bore more than
thirty bullet and bay6net wounds, "Pri-
vate Rene Bertrand of the French col.
onial infantry" posed In Paris as the
greatest hero Of the q
Now he has been arrested as per-
haps one of the wars greatest fakirs
and the police authorities declare that
he lost his leg and arm In q railway
accident and that FIVE imprisonments,
instead of five citations. composed his
record.
Meantime, while reveling In the
fruits of his own romance, Bertrand en-
joyed the confidence OF army officers
and the credit of the leading Paris
cafes.
Bedecked With Medals
The medals he wore included the
Cross of the Legion of Honor, the mill
tary medal, the war cross with seven
palms and five stars, the British mill.
tary cross, the Belgian war cross, the
colonial medal, medal Of Morocco, and
the medal for saving life, and the
medal for wounds. In addition, he
wore the ~sfouragere" of the Legion of
Honor.
Where he got them has not been dis.
closed, but to account for them Be-
trand constructed a story Of wonder.
full incidents. According to this tale
he won the military medal by saving
the lives of two officers and was him
self wounded In the thigh when sur
rounded by natives while fighting with
the French territorial forces In Moroc,
co. In 1913
Then, according to his own story,
Bertrand won the war cross In a patrol
exploit In the present war, when, after
his companions were killed. he cap
tured a whole German cooking outfit
at Laon, having killed most of the
cooks. Next, fighting with the British
on the Somme, he won the military
cross by capturing II Germans single
handed. Meantime, he had been zap
tured five times by the Germans, but
always managed to escape.
In the next chapter of his biography
Bertrand appears In the fight around
Monastir on the Macedonian front,
where he simultaneously operated four
machine guns and wreaked such an
awful havoc with the enemy that their
attack was beaten OF. At the battle
OF Monastir he essayed to rescue an
officer who lay wounded In No Mans
Land and was himself wounded In the
abdomen. Despite his pain, he dragged
the officer back to safety and went out
again to rescue a wounded nurse. In
the last. trip his arm was shattered by
a bullet and later was amputated.
"Amputates Own Leg
Next we find Bertrand a passenger
aboard a ship bound for France. The
torpedo which hit the vessel shattered
one Of Betrand's legs. Calmly anpu-
Eating 1t with his knife, Bertrand bound
up the stump, dragged himself to the
rail, threw himself overheard, paused
long enough to rescue the captain and
swan to q piece Of driftwo0d, where
he lived for three days and three
nights before being rescued by a Span
ish vessel. For this Bertrand said he
received the medal Of the Legion Of
Honor.
Numerous stars and leaves Of palms
chat Bertrand wore upon his war cross
had been acquired. according to his
tale. BY IL distinct acts Of heroismi
worthy Of the coveted cross. but the
details Of these Incidents have not