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Show M ALIVE BY I EXPLOSION HELD : I VORSTDEATH Cut My Head Off," Cries i. Youthful Victim of Ger-I Ger-I man Shell. By Charles F. Bertelli, international News Service Staff Cor. . respondent., PARIS. June . The most horrible form of death that the great war haa produced la burial alive by the explosion ex-plosion of a shell. a A high school boy of New York, .whose parent were Egyptian had the unpleasant and almost fatal experience of being buried alive by the dirt east p by a bursting projectile and was Interred for alx hours before being rescued. res-cued. '' The young American soldier's life eras saved Just In the nick of time and tie waa carried off to an advanced I dressing station screaming: ' . 'Cut my bead oft! Oh, Ood, out my i bead off!" . His name la Rip Baer and he haa been in the foreign legion of the "seset B"lFS5fa fJKrnt Vl'tVfr b"HsT eel44vnPftte vwnr war. In August. KM, he waa study-bis study-bis art and literature in Paris and enlisted en-listed the day after war waa declared. He bad many thrilling experieacee. but the greatest occurred at the open-big open-big of the present French offensive In Champagne. Baera company waa aent across a beery barrage fire to Attack a atrongly fortified salient. Shells were falling right and left. "There were ao many of them we man for ths present work be waa doing, and reminded him that he waa lax in drill work. Determined to take part, Baer picked a quarrel with the sergeant of bla company, knowing that the punish-1 ment for such ao offense waa a period of duty on the first line, where the fighting la hottest. Hla strategy won, for he waa taken into custody for fighting and sentenced to the trenches. "Weir," remarked Baer cheerfully. "If I get killed, 1 wont have to serve toe reet of my time." But the young American had some compensation. In the early part of the attack and before he waa burled, Baer eame upon a solitary German In a patch of woods through which hla company waa advancing. The German fired hla rifle at Baer and, seeing he bad missed, raised hla arms, crying "Comrade." Baer waa aaked what followed. "Oh, I Just shot him through the heart and left him." replied the American Amer-ican coolly. "He waa a coward, anyway. any-way. He wasn't even fit to be a German, Ger-man, for the Germans fight well." ' i topped thinking about them," eerie, ee-rie, red Baer, who la now ta the American Amer-ican hospital at Nuellly. "All I remember re-member Is hearing one dreadful whlstls and I said to myself, 'I'm done for. Thefe me. That waa the laat thing X remembered." Bear's comrades fill m the mtsetng part of the story. A huge shell exploded ex-ploded about ten feat away from ths American, throwing sarth all ever trim. It was only through a miracle I that no part of the steel struck him, but bis friends were sure he jrss done for. , Every sign of him hsd disappeared. It waa only when a party of soldiers picking pick-ing up the dead came along alx hours later that they discovered an arm stick vp through dirt. They gave it a pull and found It wag attached to a human body. They dug Baer out without any hope that be waa alive, but there they : were mistaken. The American was suffering treat shell shock and the tympanum In hla right ear bad burst, but he still breathed faintly. At the advanced dressing station Baer waa Informed that he would never ! hear again and waa aent to the rear. ' The la lee t reports from the American hospital ars that he will regain bla kearlng and will be entirely recovered within a month. The strain of oriental blood In Baer manifested Itself In a card he aent to an American woman, who frequently ; aent him packeta of cigarettes. The card was written before the day of the stuck. "We are to attack tomorrow,'' wrote j Baer. "The battle will be glorious, but j even more glorious will be the victory." I ' Baer was nearly deprived of his part j tn ths victory by a wound ha received three months before In fighting tn the I same sector. He bad not entirely re- covered when he waa buried alive. Baer bad been on duty In a first line ' trench and waa eating his lunch when a shell sxploded some distance from 1 him. A fragment of the steel of his j canteen, which he had swung around to the front, waa driven Into hla atom-! atom-! sen with such force that a nasty gash waa Inflicted. I When he got back on doty Baer was sselgned to a leas perilous post back of j the second line, on telephone duty, , which he cordially hated. The news of I ths forthcoming attack waa circulated and Baer aaked the captain In charge to let him take part In It. The cap-twln cap-twln refnwed. declaring he was a good ,SSSSBBSBSBBaBaWaBaSMBaBBSBBBBaSBBBBBBBBBBBBI |