The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1924-10-09
MYSTERY MAN OF WORLD
WAR VISITOR in OAKLAND
VIM. LaSalle, Totally Deaf, and
Bearing Many Wounds, Stops
Here EnrOute to the West

William La Sale, "Mystery Man"
of the World War is a visitor in Oak
land. The man whom physicians
of worldwide reputation, including
the Mayo Brothers, of Rochester,
Mimi, declare "has no more right to
be alive than a man shot through
the heart" is stopping at the Man
haitian Hotel enroute to the west
where he will take up again his news
paper work. With him is his wife,
married in Pittsburgh after the death
of his first bride, Belgian girl who
rescued him on the battlefields, and
succumbed to shrapnel wounds eight
years after she had received them in
the front lines of the Allies defense
against the German invasion. His
two children by his first marriage,
Billy and Dorothy are also with him.
The chief reason for his title as
the Mystery Man" is the fact that
when his hearing was destroyed by
conclusion during the war, a clear
passage through his head was opened,
his ear drums were totally destroyed,
his balancing pin or sense of equilbi-
rum is partially gone, his mastoids
a. ~ iiOliSy SOlilDCN anu pOSItIlOI
is gone. The tissues of his brain are
visible through the ear openings.
LaSalle is an American and %
years old. He was born and brought
up in Los Angeles, where his father
was photographer. At the age of
fifteen he ran away and joined the
Australian army, and saw active SER
vice from the beginning of Australian,
participation in the war. He distin-
guished himself by winning the Vic
toria cross and the Croix de Guerre.
and survived a series of bone and
skin grating operations that has
left him with 211 inches of other
peoples flesh on his body, while the
bones in both his legs are silver
The skin of four individuals has
been grated on his legs, while six
other persons have given skin for
grating operations on his body.
LaSalle's first marriage took place
while he was suffering from she'll
shock, conclusion and deafness. He
was married to a little orphan Bel
gian girl, who saved his life after he
was severely wounded and lying in
muddy shell hole on field of Ypres.
Honore Fountain her name was and
she was a native of the village of
Albert Roe in Belgium. Less than
nine years old, her father and two
brothers killed in the war, and her
mother and sister victims of German
massacres, she was living with four
other little girls in dug-out to
which she dragged the wounded Aus
tralian soldier.
She finally found some other Aus
tralian soldiers and brought them to
the dug-out. LaSalle, then only about
16 years old, was taken to a base
hospital. His condition was so seri-
Gus that doctors and nurses thought
he could not possibly recover.
LaSalle, though without near rela-
tives, carried $4,000 worth of war
insurance. When he learned how slim
his chances of recovery were, he
wanted to reward his nine-year-old
Belgian rescuer and begged to be
allowed to marry her. The ceremony
was permitted and the little girl, the
youngest bride of the war, was taken
to England to be cared for by the
government.
Contrary to expectations LaSalle
recovered and went back into the
thick Of it, accommodating a lot of new
wounds in the next three years. When