Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1916 — LIKE PART IN PLAY [ARTICLE]

LIKE PART IN PLAY

Battle Charge So Seemed to London Theater Boy. Goes Through With Role ,He Rehearsed, Has No Sense of Fear, Does His Share and Is Wounded. London. —Although admittedly scared in the fitst charge, a British soldier tells in the London Times how his chum’s death roused him to action and sent him rushing into the charge which resulted in his being wounded. The soldier before enlistment was a call boy in a London theater. "It was all right once the curtain was up,” says the soldier. “It was the

first night’s wait for the advance which I found most trying, with the incessant thunder of the guns and the shrieking of the shells over our heads. It was a most Impressive overture to the great drama to come. This was my first appearance in a big battle. "Although I knew the part I was to play well enough, after the many months of rehearsals in England, I must own that I was shaky, like an actor on the first night, I suppose. Looking hack now, it seems strange how quickly the feeling passed away. “My chum and I had agreed that we would stick together as long as we could, but our plans were soon upset. No sooner had we clambered out of our trench than he went down. This seemed to rouse me. I seemed to go mad with rage and hardly knew what I did. The most extraordinary thing was that I seemed then to have no fear of the hail of bullets which rained down upon us. They all seemed part of the play. “I was carried along by an overwhelming Impulse to get at the enemy and avenge my chum. I, like the rest of us, scampered as fast as my legs would carry me, slipping and sliding in the mud, until at length I went sprawling in the slush which had 'been churned up by the rain and shells. I haij just scrambled to my feet again when I heard the order to renew the charge. , “Leveling my bayonet, I rushed headlong forward, jumping over bodies and barbed wire as though I was electrified. My first experience at battle was short and sweet, for I was bowled over at the first trench. I remember plunging my bayonet into a huge German who confronted me with a leveled rifle. Then I was hit on the head by something or other which made me see more fire than I had seen during the whole time I had been out there. I hope to get a ‘return engagement’ and be in the last act of all, but I have at least avenged my chum.”