Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-04-05
THE HUN OUTWITTED
BY "PAT" O'BRIEN

with a period, the chat we began at
three. And 7 felt very unworthy
when he replied simply and unaf-
fectedly to my question about the
lecture 1 supposed he was going to
deliver in. Toronto;
"No-Fm going to attend fu-
neral. You see they are bringing
Tommy otkinson home TO bury him.
He was my pal over there. we
were together for long time
longer than most. A chap you know
sits on your right at breakfast and
at lunch there's a new pilot there
perhaps a new man on your lett
at supper. When you keep SEEING
rev facts you know prettY soon
some one else is going to see q new
face where yours had been
1 felt it was my turn next the day
before they got me-"
Weren't you frightened 2"
asked rather breathlessly. Then my
eyes fell on the hero's hands-he
was twiddling his thumbs like
frightened school-boy.
"Of the Germans?" asked the
hero a bit scornfully. Then his eyes
followed mine to his hands and we
had an ice-thawing laugh at the
thought of how much moro terrible
then the Hunnish 'Archies," few
fusillades of question marks might
seem.
He Sees 'Em Coming
Some of your brave adventurers
are brave because they have no
imagination. But Pat visualiZes
things-he sees them coming. He
has a bit of that seventh son of
seventh son" psychic quality that
your blue-eyed, black-haired son of
Erin often possesses. But we dwelt
upon the blue eyes and black hair,
a few lines to the rear. We are now
thinking about that train to Toronto.
How splendid of you to go up to
pay last honors to your friend"
Said l, 81 suppose you'll come back
Sunday"
"Oh no, I'll be gone three or four
days. Tommy doesn't know I'm COM
ing to say good-by. Pm just doing
that for myself-selfish like. But
there is youngster in one of the
hospitals, yound cadet; / taught
him a bit about flying. Now he's
sick, I'll have to give him a bit of
cheering up, don't you think? And
then there is his commission to see
about. Poor kid, he's had bad
time. He needs his friends, to stand
by him.
They tell appealing little tales
about the ''chivalry of the air." !
have seen il face to FACET is not
tradition bat fact. Pat O'Brien go
ing to Toronto to pay last honors to
a pal he loved-Pat O'Brien going
to cheer d sick cadet-and still an
other Pat O'Brien-the boy who of
fered his youth, his health, his very
life to put out the fiendish world
bonfires Germany lighted. He doesn't
put it that way-such a statement
would sound like "Swank" to one
who has been trained in Britainl
He says he went over to get into the
biggest scrap in the world and to
stand by the Allies because they were
lighting against bad odds.
There is still another Pat! Allow
me to present him:
II didn't hate the Germans to
start with. OF course l didn't like
them or their methods, but hating
doesn't make you fight very well.
You see red when you hate and you
can't see through the red to what
you want to do. / just disliked them
at the start, let's say. I didn't hate
them when l woke up in their hos
pital and they probed the bullet that
got me, out of my throat.
When Hate Began
"I began to hate them the day [
sat in front of the hospital taking
a sun bath and down-on-t -the-ground
air-bath. There was a fight over
head; two of our machineJ fell. !
saw them hit and felt all the smile
go out of me. Then they brought
me Il picture they had found in the
pocket of one of the dead aviators.
They brought me that picture be-
cause it was one of me-and of the
man who fell He was my chu1n-
my friend Paul. They had gos him:
snapped him off all in a minute. /
began to hate them then all right
you see it of course?"
/ saw it. And there was another
thing to see: Pat O'Brien not bitter
about it when "thev" fThat's what
he elways calls the Hun) gor him
bus hating when his friend was
sruffed out by the slant German life
CXtineuisher.
And there is Pat O'Brien for you:
fierce and yet gentle; fine and strong.
What a thing friendship is;
How it gives the heart
And soul u stir-up"
The Kind of Man He Is
That Pat O'Brien's heart and souI
are stirred and keyed up. I will