The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-10
GERMAN BARON CONVERTED BY SOCIALIST GIRL NOW SELLS
 NEWSPAPERS FOR A LIVING

" IDS III Such sweet ana muSlcal tones. I let her talk on, and, to my great surprise, I woke one morning to consciousness of the fact that my life had been wasted, and that, like so many more of my class was of no use in the world. that I was really a drOne in the hive of industry, and ought to be ashamed of myself.
 In the course of time I certainly did become ashamed of myself, and I made up my mind that I would live a life of honest toll when got through the war. went away from LuXemburg, and was among my companions once more.
 In the change of environment an afraid my determination to live the new life of service pointed out to me by the girl Socialist was forgotten, or, at least, weakened. found my ideas were again drifting in the direction of a life of ease on my return to civil life, though possibly I did not intend so much to live the life of riot I had been accustomed to.
 Left for Dead. About this time the Allied armies began their offensive. On the Aisne I was badly wounded, and left to die by our troops as they fell back. and nobody seemed to imagine there | was any life in me, for the British and French ambulance parties passed
 me by.
 | I was so weak that could not call ! out, and my terror at the thought of i being buried alive made tt more than 1 ever difficult for me to attract at- | tention. I could just lie there and pray to God to send me aid.
 Suddenly it flashed into my mind. 1 ''Who are you to ask favors? You | hoZ Fo of uiY JI ] ness, stunning the honest toll by which other men prove themselves 1 worthy citizens" I had to confess | with sorrow that this was even so. | and for the first time I felt really | and truly penitent for all that had l gone before. I thought of the years | of life spent in riot and debauchery. | of my arrogant bearing towards those not in my own social order and of the 1 idle days I might have spent in do- ! ing useful service to the community l of which I was a member. i Tears came in to my eyes as l l thought respectfully of the opportuni- ! ties I had missed, but I realized that 1 regrets were useless. What could I | do to make up for the past? While I | thought in this strain the recollection l of the girl in Luxemburg came back to me. She had told me that the only
 
 ness was to find some real work, and 1 do it.
 My Promise. Then and there my mind was made up. I prayed once more. confessing ] the way in which I had abused life, and promising that if spared I would lead a better life. After I prayed a strange calm came to me, and I lay there, little troubling about the lone illness of it, or the hurricane of shells now bursting over the ground. Previously I had been suffering the torments of the damned. My limbs were aching, my wounds seem- ed to be burning, and my throat was parched. Now it seemed to have all passed away, all of it, and I seemed | to be in comfort and ease. The shells were still bursting, but they appeared to go further away. and to affect me less they burst.
 The night passed, and in the course of it I dropped into an easy sleep. In the morning I woke up, and gaz- ed around me on the scene of deso- Iation and death, Dead were dotted over the battlefield in clusters, dead of all nations, as though there had been q great world battle The sun was brea king out across the scene, and the gun fire that had been so { terrible the night before was moret distant.
 Coming towards me were ambu- lance detachmen ents "I will shout to | them when they are nearer I said, and even as I spoke I remembered
 my helplessness, but, nevertheless, l made the attempt, and, to nay sur prise, one of the parties came over to see me. They were British, and they nursed me until I was well enough to go back.
 I sought out work, but found thai there was nothing I could do, noth- ing but sell papers. It was hard to bring myself to do it, but I was de- termined that I would keep the VOW I had made, and so I planted myself on this pitch
 Sometimes when I see the mock ing faces of former comrades my res- olution weakens, and I am tempted to go back to the easy life which know could be mine, but regard my VOW as sacred, and even if I did not fear that some i'll will would come to me, for I am convinced that my life was spared as part of the bargain If break my compact I cannot hope to live on the expectation of seeing again that wonderful girl of Luxeua- burg and telling her that I am now nearly worthy of her faith in me.