Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1915 — SLEEPY BRITON DEFENDS WHOLE VILLAGE ALONE [ARTICLE]

SLEEPY BRITON DEFENDS WHOLE VILLAGE ALONE

Wounded Sergeant Changes Hits Opinion Respecting Recruit Called “His Lordship.” NOTED FOR HIS LAZINESS Promise of Good Night’s Rest Leads Him to Distinguish Himself in Charge on Village—Defends Bed ~ r . Against Whole Regiment London. —“Never again will I Judge a man by his appearance,” said a wounded sergeant, when asked for his most thrilling battle experience. "When we started for the front we had in our company a man whom I simply could not stand. He was tall, well built, rather good looking, with light hair and mustache, and most awfully lazy. There was no mistake about it —he had wealthy parents, a man who had never traveled without a valet “On the moment of his arrival in oar midst we named him ‘his lordship,” and bets were made that he would succumb after the first day’s march. Not a bit of it. It is true he looked tired at the start, but he looked no more so at the finish But when we reached the place where we were to rest for the night, he calmly unwound his puttees, underneath which he wore real silk socks. We felt a bit upset Silk socks for a soldier are clearly against army regulations. Manicures His Nails. “But this was nothing to what followed. He got out a nice leather box, opened it, extracted Some sort of instrument and proceeded to manicure his nails. 7 —^ "All the boys gathered around him to watch the performance; but I put an end to it by promising him four days in the ‘ordinary,’ which he was to undergo after the taking of Berlin, for, you see, we could not very well spare the man Just then. “We were finally placed in the trenches. ‘His lordship’ did everything ungrudgingly, hut he could not sleep without a pillow, so he paid four packets of cigarettes a day to a fat fellow and rested his head on the latter’s stomach. But we began to respect him from the day when he laid low 16 Germans with 18 cartridges. It was ‘some shooting,’ and he did it as nonchalantly as if he were in a rifle gallery “Well, we left the trenches—that is some of us did, and some did not — and even then one day we were ordered to take by assault a village occupied by a Bavarian regiment.

First in Dash for Bed. "To give added courage to the men, our captain said: ‘You cee these houses? There are beds in them, and these beds are for your use if we take the village.’ Take my word for it, we did not lose any time, and if I did not hustle then, I never hustled in all jny life. I was among the first to reach the nearest house —at least I thought I was, but when I dashed in I found 'hiß lordship’ calmly stretched but on a bed previously occupied by a German officer, whom he had thrown out of the window. We thought ‘.hat we could have a good night’s rest, but about three o’clock in the morning we were told to get up, as a German regiment was Torching against us. I awoke my men, and all rose without a murmur, all except *his lordship.’ "‘Get up!’ I shouted. "He opened one eye, looked at me and said, ‘Not on your life.’ " ‘What do you mean?* I was choking with anger. ‘We must retreat; a whole German regiment is about to attack us.’ "‘lf it is the whole German army, I will net give up my bed to them,’ he answered with some heat —the first time I saw him get hot about anything at all. Holds Germane Off. “ l order you—' I started to but he shut his eye, turned on the other side and slept 1 added eight days to his ‘solitary, * sad as I could not very

well carry him on my shoulders, I left him to his fate. “We retired upon an adjoining hill, within half a mile of the village, to await re-enforcements. At dawn our captain, who was watching the enemy through field glasses, exclaimed with surprise: ’This is curious! They have not entered the village yet. They content themselves with shooting at the houses.’ in turn. It was true, the Germans wpre held back by somebody, and every now and then one of them fell. And then I saw at one of the windows a white apparition. It was ‘his lordship,' rifle in band, defending his bed. “Our re-enforcements arrived, we took back the village, and—can you Imagine where I found ‘his lordship?’ He was fast asleep in the bed. I shook him; he opened his eye and muttered: ‘Bring me my coffee.’ I gave him four more days of ‘solitary,’* and the general added an order to have him mentioned in dispatches. “I suppose he is still fighting and doing good work, while I have taken the pledge never to Judge a man by his looks.”