The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1919-05-15
FATHER 0'FLAHERTY
As BOYS KNEW HIM
Priest Who Went as Chaplain
From Mitchell, s. D., and
Was Killed Was Friend of
Soldiers of All Ranks.

Washington, May 13.-When the 2Sth
infantry came out Of the Inc in Ar
gonne to sprawl in well earned rest.
any visitor to the lit billets or
to the little October campfires was
sure. sooner or later, to hear the talk
reach the name Of their lost friend and
priest, Father O'Flaherty, killed in &C,
ton at Very, France, October. 1918.
Then Is the time to get at the truth
about q man, because after such a BATH
le death seems far too common a thing
for any one 10 have pretty nothings
said about him just because he Is dead.
One night, when the fog dimmed the
light of the full moon they were talk
ing about Father O'F1aherty--a chance
miscellany OF officers and men, gath
cred around a sunken fire, where, on
a sizzling griddle, someone was turn
Ing the flapjackS made from a supply
OF recently acquired German flour.
Saw Him Killed. ttt
81 was with him when he was killed
-or not more than 20 feet away" q
young lieutenant said. "All that morn
ing he had been burying German dead.
Then at o when IA shell struck q
truck at very-at the crossroads which
used to be Very-and when every one
scattered to h four winds, Father
O'Flaherty hotfooted It TO the place to
see who was hurt and what could be
done about. It,, The second shell got
h~im-killed him outright" IT,. H.
Merry guy, he was" the cook OBJ
served. The ~doughboys tell me ne
went over the top with them at every
fight since Scissors"
Sure he did. I can see him now with
.t...F ~. 80 hta--na raAipQ alnn0
through the mud. I remember how he
used to point this way and that with It.
Once, when he was trying to show q
bunch of German prisoners at st. Mi
L.iel the way + the nearest lookup for
Heinies, he had to do all his talking
with the cane. They though he was
going to hit them and yelled 'kanerad'
TIL he most died laughing"
az - s~rors nj Chaplain.
He accused me of swearing at him
at st. Mihiel." said q captain, grinning
reminiscently. Il denied it," u
Yes, you did, captain he says, y
ing to look solemn, and highly I'M
proper It was, toe. 1t was just before
the zero hour and you barked at me,
Keep that damned nut of yours down
or you'll lose i'll" .
What ] used to enjoy said another,
was watching him suavely toying with
all Of you, making monkeys OF you
when you didn't know It. A man or
the world he was, and o were all
Just children in his hands
There was no denial.
do you remember his blessed bed
ding roll? Lord, il was the biggest
and finest In the American expedition
AIRY forces--size Of an eight-room cot
tage. A gift, / think, from bis loving
parish out In Mitchell, s. ID. When he
Joined us he was too green 10 know
the trenches were not palatial enough
TO make room for that kind Of house
keeping. ,..l. ~. ,
well, IL was brought up on a NUM-
ton cart, and the driver forgot to push
81 off at the p. c., as he had been told.
Later on, further up. that cart was hit
with a shell which blew the dafSied
bedding roll up a tree. ,-.-
1T mystifed Jerry a good deal.
| Finally he must have decided II was
a snIper's nest, for he potted away ati
all the next week. Poor old bedding
roll! IL was wounded in a thousand
places" .
Just at Confession.
Il remember once when he first
came to France" the Knights OF Colum-
bus man said. He was billeted right
near one Of those big French naval
guns, and while we were waiting for
him one rainy day We saw him through
N window, pacing up and down the
road, talking, talking, talking to a little
| poilu, the mathematician Of the bat
terry, whose job was to calculate the
trajectories and all that sort of thing.
oven, father we said when he
came in at last, been showing him
how 20 bit the cathedral at Metz?' Not
exactly he said that little chaps a
priest. " just come from confess
sion"