The Mena weekly star., 1921-12-01
A GREAT WAR HERO
 TAXES OWN LIFE
Col. C. W. Whittiesey of Host Bat talion" Disappears From Ship Brooded Over Horrors of War
 Experiences.

New York, Nov. 29--Secret brood ing over the horrors of his experi- ences in the war from which he emerged one of Americas greatest individual heroes, was ascribed today by friends and relatives of Lieutenant Colonel Charles w. Whittlesey as the cause of his taking his life Sunday while on the way to Havana.
 Leaving several letters, presuma- bly explaining his act, the commander of "the lost battalion" disappeared from the steamship Toloa 24 hours out of New York. His intimate friends had no idea he was making an ocean voyage.
 His Mind Stopped"
 Members of his family and busi- ness associates were incredulous at first when a wireless dispatch report ed him missing. But as evidence &C., cumulated, they reluctantly came to the conclusion that the missing man was Colonel Whittlesey. And they recalled incidents which, pieced to- gether in the light of his tragic death, might have been recognized as indications that his spirit was shaken by recurrent memories of his broth- CTS in arms who had died before his eyes in France.
 The last blow, they said, more try ing than the rest, was in Washington a fortnight ago when he took part in the funeral service for America's un- known soldier. He returned from the capital more depressed than be- fore, the haunting visions clearer than ever, bearing him down. There he had met hundreds of former friends and had marked anew the gaps in the ranks of men he loved.
 His mind stopped" was the ex- planation of Robert Forsythe Little, of the law firm of White & Case, with which Colonel Whittlesey had been associated for about year. ''It had all it could bear, remarkable tho it was. I don't think there is a man in the country who has had the trying experiences Colonel Whittlesey has had in the past two years.
 Friend to Friendless.
 "He was the hero who was always accessible tn ahose who thought he could help them. The disabled, the jobless, the friendless, the widows of the war--all of thenl---were on his mind constantly. For the last two years there has scarcely been an hour when the grief and horror of the war was not brought vividly and specifi- cally beforet him.
 Colonel Whittlesey had told no one, apparently, that he was going to Ha- vana. When he left his office Friday afternoon, it was with some cheery remark regarding the army-navy football game, which he intended to see.
 At his boarding house on East 44th street he told friends he was going away "to be myself--to rest,' when he left Saturday morning with trav- cling bag. He was in the habit of taking week end trips and his going was unmarked by any unusual cir cumstances.
 Colonel Whittlesey's uncle, c. ". Whittlesey, of New York, agreed with his iephew.s legal associates that he had come back from Arlington with the recollections induced by the mem orial services weighing heavily on his mind.
 Won Highest Honors. Colonel Whittlesey's name leaped into the worldwide prominence over- nlkfb Lliiu HIS IcLOIl JD tut dtTfudu officer who called on him to surrender after he was surrounded in the Arr gonne.
 For four days and nights his com- mand, the first battalion 308th in- fantry, 77th division, had lain under fire, cut off from aid, without food or water. All but ST men had been killed or wounded.
 Blindfolded and under protection of white flag, a German soldier stum- bled into the American strong point.
 Surrender" he cried, fin the name of humanity and he told how from the German trenches the agon- ized cries of the American wounded could be heard,
 You go to 'hell," Colonel Whittle- sey replied.
 A few hours later American re- serves attacked all along the line, the Germans were pushed back and the little band of survivors saved. ] On his return to the United States he was voted the congressional medal of honor, the most coveted American decoration for heroism, and few months after the armistice the Ger man officer who called on him to sur render made a public statement ex- tolling the courage and dogged de- termination of his former foe.