Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1900 — BOY WAS A TRUE HERO. [ARTICLE]

BOY WAS A TRUE HERO.

Hit Four Times, bat He Completed His Task of Fixing the Gun. There was blood every where—on men, oars, thwarts, guns. Still, those of us who survived, and who were able to handle a rifle, managed to return the enemy’s fire. The worst was we could not see the smoke from the insurgents’ rifles, so warily did they cling to their ambush in the thick undergrowth. I remember most vividly the fierce desire l had at that moment to get back at the foe—to see some of them fall and bite the dust and writhe in pain, as our men were doing. For a short time the lighting instinct crowded out of my mind pity aud fear. Having no other weapon than a revolver, useless at that range, I reached for a rifle dropped by one of the dead. It had been hit iu the lock, and the clip was jammed in. Venville, one of our apprentice boys/ ntempted to flx It. A bullet went through I lie flesh on his neck. "Mr. Gillmore, 1 am lilt," lie said. But lie continued working at the rifle. A second shot plowed through the boy’a breast and came out In ills armpit. “I am hit again. Mr. Gillmore!" He was still trying to puli out tha Jammer! clip when a hall cut a furrow Iu the left side of his head. "Mr. Gillmore, they have hit me again!" He wiped the blood from his brow and eyes with his coat sleeve, and then returned to his task as calmly as if it were only a mosquito that had stung him. It was not three minutes till a ball crashed Into his ankle, Inflicting a painful hurt. There was just a slight quiver in the lad's voice as he looked up to me and said; "Mr. Gillmore, I am lilt once more. But 1 have fixed the gun, sir." This beardless boy of 17 had never been under Are before.—From “A Prisoner Among the Filipinos." •