The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-11-18
SCI. CARPENTER
LECTURES WELL
j. natural and Simple Style is Very
effective and He PIeases His
Audience Of Sunday After
noon Here.
GREGORY IS SEEN ALSO
x.okuk Hero Of Famous Iowa Regi-
ment prefers shrapnei to Speech
making and is Silent
About Himself.

Sergeant J. A. Carpenter, late Of the
Royal Canadian regiment. Is one Of
those simple and brave souls, whom it
( a delight to hear talk, because he
avs so much without trying to be all
orator, or lecturer.
Everybody at his lecture at the
Grand Sunday afternoon is glad he
vas there: and 1t is a pity there was
10 small an audience.
Sergeant Carpenter. born and reared
n Iowa and married to Clark county
Missouri girl, has a clear voice. very
distinct articulation, fine enunciation,
and language which 1t is accurate to
describe as flowing.
His style is as interesting as it is
admirable. That most difficult thing
In literary technic, INSTALLATION, seems
as unconsciously easy to him as keep
Ing his lenses right. When he de.
:cr,bed a sugar mill to be taken, or a
scene in shell hole full of dead, or
how two wounded Canadians with one
bullet in revolver between them
captured two fully armed Huns and
made them carry their captors back
to saftey, everybody in the audience
saw the scene as perfectly as though
II were illuminated before them by
flare.
His Unconscious Technic.
Carpenter accomplishes this by the
simple. but rare, exclusive use OF An
glo-Saxon words in his descriptions.
Careful tab on his sentences showed
minutes at time without a word of
Il zrsr In loo phr h c
verbs and adjectives with precision
and prefers those with definite. :ath-
er specialized meaning and plenty of
connotation.
Add to these rather remarkable
characteristics of an amateur speaker
a rich sense of humor and pretty
keen knowledge of humanity as it is,
and We have some explanation why
the audiences of this sergeant go out
to brag about his platform speaking.
He is a real student of the world at.
fairs and the world war and all his
cancellations show wide breadth OF
view, as we'll as penetration.
Some Things He Said.
The boys left with a smile and they
are coming home one of these days
with that same smile. Maybe they viii
have left behind leg or an arm or
an eye, but they have kept the smile
all right"
This smiling spirit ran all through
Sergeant Carpenters talk.
Some times a friend says to me.
he continued. "Well old chap, you've
lost your leg, and / say. No, l gave
that leg gladly to the greatest cause
ir the world and in behalf Of the great
est nation On earth, didn't lose it,
lie described In a graphic, way the
taking of Vimy Ridge in which action
he had part. being machine gunner.
Nimy Ridge is long range TWEEN
y-two miles long and straight up.
me French took it in 1915 and held Il
enc day. few months later the Eng
lish took 1t and held 1t one day. In
these two battles the loss was 10000
men.
When the Canadians were ordered
70 charge the ridge we knew what t
meant For weeks we drilled until eV-
cry man knew just what he was to do,
snd no one bothered about what the
otner fellow was to do 1t was Easter
morning. before day break when the
oruer come. We charged as one man,
ana for hours we ran up, up, UP to the
Top, ell the way through a hell of fire.
numbered of men falling by the way,
nut the ridge was won-to hold not
ior one day, but for all time"
one OF the awful pictures he drew
was of the experiences he had at the
Tune he was wounded
The men had been ordered over the
Top TO take four. trenches, but they did
not stop until they had taken twenty
one. That day his leg was shattered by
machine gun shots. and as he dragged
himself back of the lines he fell into
smell hole. half full of water. In the
smell hole were seven dead men and
one American boy, nineteen years
OLD. badly wounded
he described the hours spent in that
mole, and how the two wounded Amer
leans, with only one round of ammu-
hlt'on between them made three hus-
ny Huns, who came to capture them.
larry them to the nearest dressing
stauon. and for reward took the Hun
prisoners. He paid tribute to the Bull
sarians as fighters, he said they put
up good clean fight, but that the
Termans were "a cowardly bunch of
urty fighters, whose favorite weapon
was gas and poisoned wells"
lie strongly urged half dozen