The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-10-03

anxious ana conciliatory.
Il amt as old as l look, sir" said
Private FIRST CLASSY Charles Sims.
Pm only As. l didn't look this old
when l went acrost"
1t was a matter of tangled allot-
ment to wife and child that had
brought Private Sims to the orderly
room Of Company X, 10th Infantry;
casual question about the name Of
beneficiary that brought his story
tumbling out, a story damned up by
| twenty years of silence and fear.
Fear! No mistakig it. And yet Pri-
vate Sims had taken part in five bat
| ties, had been cited for distinguished
bravery under fire and still carried
shrapnel scar. His service record
| showed that.
"Bravery?" said Private Sims
why, no, sir. 1 don't know why they
gave me that citation. 1t stands to
reason an old Teller like me that
knows the game is going to be a mite
cooler than them boys that was seeing
it all for the first time. They was aw-
full green, them boys, lieutenant.
| Didn't know enough to save their
| own lives, they didn't. Many a one
of ~em I've shown how to go around
the end of a rise, stead of over the
crest where the bullets was coming.
Awful green. But game, lieutenant;
yes, sir"
How Sims Was Wounded.
The lieutenant. not properly stiff
and military, encouraged the man to
talk. Private Sims told. in hating
phrases, that painted curiously vivid
pictures of things that had happened,
of the morning he was wounded.
az said tn NV bunlSia 7 was pOiOcy n
get it that day." he said. Il could
! tell. l had been cold for weeks; and
that day 1 was hot all over. And
said IN get mine today and l did.
But not bad, though. l could walk to
| the dressing station. What a long
! way back it seemed. And l was hot
still, though the weather was cold.
That was in the Argonne."
Then question or two about the
allotment, and why the person who
was to receive this allotment was
down as Mrs. Yates instead of Mrs.
, Sims? the whole story came.
MY names not Sims, sir" he said.
1--WE been aiming to get this thing
Strengthened up for twenty years.
Guess you know all about it, sir, you
and the colonel?"
The lieutenant knew nothing on
earth about it, but he didn't say so.
Suppose you tell me, Sims" he said.
Relieved to Tell Story.
He began with the air Of a man in
great relief. Here was a story that
had wanted telling for long time.
Twenty years ago he had enlisted
December, 1899, it was-and they sent
him to Fort Crook, Neb. Not much of
a place to be. And along in May,
when the prairie breezes and the
spring smells make army discipline
irksOme to the new recruit, he had
gone over the hill" Hadn't aimed to
desert; but he got in with a nO-account
gang, and there was plenty of whisky
mixed up in the affair-and they went
absent without leave, and by the time
he had been gone three weeks, he was
afraid to return for fear of facing
charges of desertion. And yet he
didn't want to stay away and be de
) serter. And so he did what hundreds
| of soldiers have done before him
. went to a recruiting station where he
/ wasn't known gave a name tina
| wasn't his, and re-enlisted.
Now by the law of the army, a de
/ serter who again enlists under anOthe
name is automatically convicted of de
sertion, as we'll as being guilty o
: fraudulent enlistment. -
, Went Through Without Arrest.
: They never caught Charles Sims
: whose name is Yates. Nineteen year
. Of honorable service trying t
. square the thing" Finally the chance
2 hard fought for, to go abroad. The
told him he was too old but he pei
5 suaded company commanders and med
D cal officers he was tit-gOt into a It
r placement outfit, went to France
And went through Cantigny, Scissor!
fially the Argonne, Showing rookie
how to save their lives'-distir
guished bravery. the citation called il
And he came back, battered and din
Q eyed and old before his time, with
bunch of "casuals," and was trans
ferred to the 10th Infantry at Cam
Il Custer.
t Il want to get it Strengthened out
he said. Il know they can send me Il
" Leavenworth. They can do what the,
t want, lieutenant, send me to Leaven
. worth or restore me to duty. l ain
t going to run away. Butt hope the,
Il don't send me to this guardhous,
Il here"
). Sims" said the lieutenant, wei
l see what can be done for you"
= He began jotting down dates an(
1tSIllltulS.
What" said the young lieutenant
of Company X, 10th Regiment "wha
Il was your first Outfit-the Compan,
y that you deserted from?'
D The old man Strengthened up anC
+ smiled.
1 His First Outfit.
! Company X, lOtn lnl,..-,Iy, sir h
i said. ut always was dandy outfit
The officer gasped Company X
a 10th Infantry" he said. Why, Sims
there can't be a man alive in this com
: pany today who was in it when yol
4 were"
: mo. sir said Sims, nor in the reg
. iment, sir. But when l got a chanc
j. to come back to the 10th, l though
I'd like to be in my old outfit, sir"
7, They didn't send Private Sims t.
Leavenworth. A colonel, who wor