The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1920-05-02

humanity in every form. AS soon as
! could bc rolled about | visited up
and down the great corridors and OK
changed experiences with the boys.
Never did | run up against a crouch
or a sOrehead. There was one poor
fellow, however, whose spine was
cracked, and who suffered agonies
when his wound was dressed. Each
day when he saw the dressing table
turn in at his corridor--a distance
as far away from him as here to
Fort Sam, he'd begin to scream, and
kept It up while all the ones ahead
of him were being given attention,
then. when II finally came his time,
he'd steel himself and endure the
surgeons hands in silence.
81 remember one man who always
managed to get lost from tho com
pany when our turn came to go into
the fight" he continued. zone
night | ran across him where he had
no business to be and inquired what
he was doing there. In the darkness
he couldn't see that | was an Off
Ger, and replied that ne was lost from
his company and told me with whom
he belonged.
This is your outfit right here l
told him, pushing him into the last
batch of passing squad whom
knew were on their way to the front
They may tell you that you don't be-
long there, but at any rate they're
bound for where you do belong, so
don't let them throw you out, and
the man fell in with the silent
marchers. ! never heard from him
again and on my roll carried him
among the missing for months.
There were too many true soldiers
knt tnf L 1.A ~ 4.
determined that this man should get
into at least one fight after coming
over tor II.
There was another who used to
furnish us smile every time we got
orders that it was our turn to go up
front" laughed the major reminis-
Gently. when he'd see preparations
going forward for the trenches he'd
come to me almost crying, and beg
me to put him in "A carpentry squad.
he meant the engineers. lie would
insist he was "A good carpenter. but
he could not fight.
i have no time to make such a
change now; don't you see all this
work before me, why didn't YOU
come to me earlier? Get ready to
go up now; were going to make this
the prettiest fight yet and you don't
want to miss IT,"
He'd leave me, still mumbling
over his ability as carpenter.
Coming out of each battle he was so
hilarious over being alive and hav-
ing got through one more fight that
he'd not ask to be changed until he
saw the men preparing for their next
turn. Then he'd lose his nerve and
we would go through the same argu-
ment, lie went through every fight
with us and entered Germany, the
happiest fellow in the whole army.
AT one time We were very desir-
GUS of a live prisoner, and two or
three or us went out one night to
scour no-man's-land for one. | got
on the trail of man and could have
got him dead many times, but could
never get the drop on him to take
him alive. lie knew | was after him
and we Crawled about on our hands
and knees after each other for an
hour or more. Repeatedly he baited
me around in circles, then turned in
behind clump of brush and trees.
! never went in after him. How did
] know but what his orders also read
one live prisoner?
Another night group OF rs
crawled out in the blaCkness to get
behind the enemies lines. Feel our
way over the dirt on our Stomachs
testing every inch OF ground against
mishap or sound, we had made good
hoadway, when one OF the mon
struck his foot through "a wire fence
hanging with tin, glass, and other
bits of iingling noise-makers. Tho
racket that reverberated up and
down that line was horrible TO us
We flattened ourselves against the
earth, and, for what seemed hours
but actually was about 20 minutes,
the German guns played just n few
Inches over our heads. When fin
ally they quit us for dead we wormed
our way back TO our own Iines-no
need to go further after announcing
to the whole German army that we
were coming, and we hardly breathed
until well within the safety zone,
Not word had been spoken since
We left there, but now the man who
did the damage heaved a loud sigh
OF relief and said:
Didn't play helln
Even then we couldn't speak, but
we agreed with a silent vote"