Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1919-02-28
BUGLE SCRIBE LEARNS THAT
HEROES DON'T TALK OF
THRILLING" THINGS
INFORMATION MUST Be PR|EO
Writer, However, Picks Up Few In.
tereSting Bits of First Hand
"InfO."
BY Jack Mitchell.

The British say we Americans are
too boastful; that we blow our own
trumpets. and that whenever we do
something really worth while We are
always willing to tell the other fellow
all about it.
In direct contradiction to this i'm
preston of our esteemed and most
admired fellow liberators are our boys
who have come back. If you are on the
trail of deeds of valor: if you would
learn how real men fight and live
and die. don't go to the convalescent
center at Montana avenue and Eleventh
streets.
The writer, armed with trusty pen
Gil. Jared forth last evening. iubilant
and happy in the thought that he was
thousand deeds of bravery. sacrifice
The unsophisticated sob writer had yet
to learn that real heroes don't talk
And it was only after much cajoling,
"bullshevism" and wheedling that he
could get notes enough to cover the
assignment
First. there was Sergeant DeJardin
Va thO io-Hd WIlCl, you KNOW,
used to be the old 3rd Oregon. Ser
geant DeJardin was wounded
learned that from the golden chevron
on his right sleeve, and it took real
craftsmanship to get the story of his
wound.
| 1t was at Chateau Thierry, that bat
tleground consecrated to the blood and
arms of America. that Sergeant De
Jardin, then corporal, lay for 10 days
in little scooped out place he had dug
with his entrenching tool. On each
side. in approved American formation
lay his little squad of plain homesick
warsick doughboys.
Water, ever a treasue, became harder
to get each day. and bareback and bully
beef don't alleviate thirst.
! AT last there came a time when they
had been As hours without a drop ia
drink Lips were cracked. tongues
We're swelling. threats were parched
and dry and even stout hearts quailed
from the suffering thirst was bringing
| Two hundred yards away lay a little
! fetid pool of water. There lay life, but
like the sirens of Old. it's trickling call
lay through the path of Kissing blast
ing death
Couldn't you order one of your squad
! to try for the sake of the others?" ]
asked. NO" replied the sergeant. you
cant ask a man to go where you are
afraid to go yourself" And so he went
with eight canteens and they got him
with shrapnel before he got a hundred
yards.
Then there was Private Jensen. COM
pany +, SO5th Infantry, who came from
lWaterville. WASH He was % days in
the ArgOnne forest. Private Jensen be-
lieves In lunches. for every one Of his
pals who were hit knew they were
going to get it. Private Jensen said
he'd hate to take the chances aviators
do. But it developed later that a little
thing like machine gun bullets singing
two inches above his head didn't both
err him much!
| And Albert c. Nelson. of company G..
127th Infantry, veteran of Scissors and
Chateau Thierry. fine. tall. upstand-
ing chap. who would talk little Of him
self but who talked a lot OF the French
as soldiers, and as pals. He was
knocked out by an r. E. after he had
been In it 22 days. He too. told of the
suffering from lack of water and when
asked. What was the first thing you
wanted after you came to-" he said, "A
drink of water-and a cigarette"
There are hundreds Of these chaps
coming back from "over there" every
day. But. being men in the real sense
of the word, their own deeds of gal
fantry are locked away in their hearts
and it takes more than mere persua-
sion to get them to tell Of them.
| Each has risked his life a score OF
times, and all no doubt would do II
again. and again, for the same cause
and the same flag. They are heroes,
pals of the "Deathless Dead" but l re-
peat. heroes don't talk.