Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1919 — PATHOS IN HIS DYING PLEA [ARTICLE]

PATHOS IN HIS DYING PLEA

Italian Soldier, Wounded Beyond Hope of Recovery, Had Horror of Being Left to Austrians. One of the wounded, whom we picked up at the Gonar crossroads, is in a dying condition. The column comes to a halt, and all the men bare their heads. This death, in the midst of the retreat, while we are still in ignorance of the fate of those who were defending tiie main section of the army, Is more titan usually tragic. Not a sound is heard from the cannons. In the heavens not a whirr of an airplane, that might say, “You are watched over and protected; forward in good order and in confidence.” The dying soldier has a scraggly beard and waving mustache. His cap has no number on it, ids boots lack laces, his coat is torn. A little while, before his death —a chaplain moistens his lips with cognac and suggests tiie last prayers to him — he opens his Ups and murmurs: “Don’t bury mV here. Don’t leave me to tiie Austrians I”—From “Dal Carso Al I’iave,” by Mario Puccini.