Evening star., 1925-07-19
Soldier Of Fortune Found Thrills
In One Desperate Incident Of War

more charges had burst near me, and
the repeated conclusion of the air had
made me bleed profusely at the nose.
ears, mouth and eyes.
That was a narrow escape. But I
was due for one still narrower. The
first men came on in the town were
a group of II soldiers and the regi-
mental parson.
Hello, there" I said. Say
But a shell interrupted me. When
! came to l was sitting on the ground.
The II men were dead. The par
son and 1 were apparently unhurt.
I reached down at my side for my
pistol and felt nothing. I took look
and saw that the gun, holster and all
had been cut clean away without
harming me in the least.
I reached up to take my steel he'll
met off, and jerked my hand away at
once. I had touched something very
hot. Gingerly I lifted the tin hat off
and saw that all over the top there
was plastered about two pounds OF
steel shell. hot from the gun. Then ]
smelled peculiar odor. 1t didn't take
me long to find that my hair had been
singed by the same piece of hot metal,
which had hit my helmet and gone
through it just far enough to burn the
edge of my hair.
1 had now been for over three days
and four nights without sleep and was
feeling rather weary, but this did not
keep the parson and me from running
away from that place at good rate
of speed.
1 found Col. Rogers and told him
what was happening. He took charge
with reinforcements, and that after
noon we fought our way to another
railroad embankment and captured il.
This was the evening of the 29th.
At in the morning of the 3Oth we
were relieved, and then had to tramp
80 miles back of the lines before we
could rest or sleep. We later found
out that the particularly hard fighting
had been necessary due to the fact
that Gen. Currie, mmander-in-chie
of the Canadian forces, had succeeded
in taking Cambria two days ahead of
schedule. Our battalion was one Of
four which made up the 1st Brigade
in this battle.
Jack Davis, who here tells his story
of the most thrilling of the many bat
ties he has been through, has had
lifetime of fighting-and not in the
prize ring either. Just for the sport
of il he sampled all that Mexico had
to offer in the stirring days when
Villa, Obregon and Zapata were shoot.
ing on sight. When he heard that a
war had broken out IN Europe IN 1914
he decided that the real thing In
fighting was waiting for him oyrr
there. He deserted the Mexican forces
and Joined the Canadian Hussars.
He fought at Mons. through the
Battle of the Marne, and under Gen.
Byng received the D. c. NJ. He was
awarded the V. c. at Ypres in 1915.
After recuperating at a hospital from
wounds, he was given q two-month
furlough and came to New York.
While he was here the United States
entered the war, so he Joined the
United States Cavalry without getting
discharge from the British army.
But merely drilling recruits at Fort
Slocum bored him, so he deserted
again and enlisted in the Canadian
Mounted Rifles. While with them he
went through the battle he here de
scribes. When the war was over,
army life again got tiresome. so he
went to study medicine in Germany.
On his return to the United States
he was arrested as q deserter but his
extraordinary fighting record secured
him an honorable discharge.