A SOLDIER’S VOW.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 54, 28 October 1912, Page 3

A SOLDIER’S VOW.

One of the most peculiar or inexplicable of vows was made by a Crimean soldier who lias just died. When ho was in the trendies before Sebastopol (says the Journal des Dehats), suffering from the hitter frosts, while his comrades were being carried off by disease, Michael Goetz swore that

if he returned safe and sound to his native village he would never marry and' never accept a pension or any help from anybody. When he returned to Alsace he kept his vow, refusing to marry, no matter how much his familypressed him to, and rejecting all pecuniary assistance even when old age came upon him and restricted his powers of working. As an old Crimean soldier he was entitled to a pension of £24 a year, but he wouldn’t take it, nor when Alsace was incorporated in Germany would he apply for an annuity granted to old French soldiers. However great the sufferings he had to endure as a consequence of this rigid fulfilment of his vow, he was never hoard to complain. He attended with-’ out’ fail to his daily work, and now and again advised young people not to follow his example of celebacy. A fortnight ago he fell ill, and when his neighbours, not seeing him about as usual, visited his cottage, they found him laying on the pallet covered only with the old cloak which for years past had done duty in hot and cold weather alike. Once more he went over his memories of the Crimean War, once more sounded the praises of his old colonel, the'idol of his'- life, and then went to join him.