The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1919-05-23

Following is the story referred to in
last weeks issue of this paper.
Extreme modesty, so characteristic
Of real heroes, prompts the writer
to request that his name be with
held. We want the readers OF The
True Northerner however to know
that the story was written at our
request, and is a brief account of
the service for which he was
awarded a Distinguished Service
Cross and British Military Medal
The writer is now at the home of
his parents in Almena township.
He chooses to head the story, "The
Story of Jim Jones', Yank."
This is a little story with a pur-
pose. You all know "Jim Jones. 4"
Almost every boat and train that
travels these days, is bringing him
home. He's been doing his bit in O.
ID. Many are the strange questions
asked of him. One of these, proba-
bly, not so strange, is, "What did
you do to get them ?" or "What did
you get them for?" And that is the
hardest question for him to answer;
except possibly the one about how
he liked the French girls. Questions
are some of the real horrors of war.
But all that is just chatter. We
are telling Of Jim Jones. He was
just like most Of the rest of that two
million that went overseas, in that
his forbears had come from the
Europe he went over to and had
done their bit in their day, to settle
little arguments like Jim was doing
Possibly they were of the race that
he had to fight against; or maybe for
generations they had fought this
enemy of today.
Some Jims, more fortunate in cir
cumstances, came back with nice
bright medals and pretty bits of
ribbon ornamenting their o. d.
chests. These, Of course, had their
many intimate friends and many
"just friends" and a whole army of
those who had "heard of JIM. Now
his intimate friends and relatives do
not ask him this question of chow
did you get them?" They just strut
a little and say nothing, but act like
"Well that's nothing, amt he our
jim? We knew he'd do it," But it
is to answer the question of all those
Just friends and those who know
Of him. that this story is written of
one Jim in particular.
This story must go back almost
three years when Jim took to "toting
gun" in hopes of some day return
ing with the scalp of one Villa; a
rough neck who was disturbing the
peace somewhere below the Rio
Grande. Instead of that he got eight
months of machine gun training
among cactus, mosquitoes and heat;
(heavy on the heat) but all on the
near bank of that river. Little did
he think that he was preparing to do
battle against the enemy of his
anscesters. But that was (as he likes
TO call it) turned out rather fzzle;
he got home and to work again. But
a aonth later was again in uniform
guarding railroad property, nine
days before war was declared. A
year or more later, he started over
seas. All of this time he had special
lied on machine guns and their use.
FhalI:, the day arrived. Jimmy
had been over the top several times
and already had several months OF
active service to his credit; but this
was TO be real stunt. He had land
cd the job he had wanted for long
time; that was Reconnaissance Ser.
geant in a machine gun company
The day before, he had done all that
was possible to gain information
for the use of the machine guns OF
the morrow. Having battle maps
and aerial photographs of the grounc
to be taken, he was pretty well aware
of the YnaUnituda Of fha cfttnt II.