New Britain herald., 1922-01-06
BLINDED POILU
 TALKS AT THE "
Guy EnVin Relates Experiences While Serving With French Army

Guy Envin. French war hero, blinded in the service of his country WAS the speaker at the weekly meet ing of the High School club at the Y. M. c. A. last evening. MT. Envln, although he has been in this country only since September. speaks very good English.
 The subject of his talk was, Mas tcrs of Fate" He said that he sad keen deeply touched by the express s,ons of affection and sympathy which he has received during his stay in America,
 Some people are horn for gladness and Ay, while others are born for tears and sadness he said His fate was to be young and strong, 10 strug- gle and fall in that great war. His destiny is to spread throughout the world happiness and comfort. My mission is to show a lesson from a fertile sorrow"
 Tells of Early Life.
 MT. Envin then told something about his early life, Before hN '''' he lived In small town in France, not far from Lille, His ldInor n,.. ,- professor in the college there. His father was described as being small man, about as thin 'as a telegraph pole"
 His father was a man of theories and he used to apply his theories to his children, making them wear their hair in an almost shaved state so as 10 prevent badness, and making them wear enormous spectacles, workable scaffolding'' in order 10 save their eyes. At school they were given the name, the family with the spec tacles."
 At eighteen, MT. Envin represented himself as being tall, thin boy, with an enormous pair of spectacles perch ed upon his nose, and with his head shaven. He was neither mothers boy nor a good student. He found the concerts of the birds more inter- esting than his studies and he har- bored only one desire: to go away He hated his fathers theories.
 i,nlsts for Service.
 So in March. 1913, he enlisted in the 10th regiment of infantry, and on the 4th of August his regiment de- parted for war. To his young mind the war sounded like a trumpet. After days of marching they arrived on the banks of the Mouse river in Belgium. The beauty of nature made him for get the war. MT. Envin described very wildly the scene as he saw it.
 The stay along the Mouse was not long one. The German troops had broken through the French line and his regiment, among others, was forced to retreat. This was the we'll known retreat from Belgium which ended with the German forces liter ally at the gates of Paris.
 They walked 30 miles a day, deriv- ing practically no rest. When they arrived at their destination they were thin and weak from privation.
 Describes NO-NIan'S Land.
 The story of his mission across No- Mans Land was told with much in tcresting description. It was a March evening. His captain instructed him to carry orders to the fourth section, very difficult task. To get to that section it was necessary to travel along that deserted area known as Mans Land Just as he crawled over the parapet he received a ter rible knock on the back of his head, and he fell Dack lntO the Iencn. ne felt of his face and found that one of his eyes was completely torn from it's socket, but he thanked God that the other seemed to be all right He did ' not suspect that he was to see no more.
 He did not know how long he lay there, but at last he decided that he should get away from that spot as soon as possible. He crawled along the trench on all fours until he was stopped by tree against which he bumped. He found small piece of chocolate in his pocket. and after he