Show HOW A MAN FEELS WHEN HE IS WOUNDED i New York Sun A man in this city set out after the recent war to find soldiers who had been wounded in acton He wanted to ask them about their wounds to know how they acted when hurt and especially I I espe-cially what was their first conscious thoughtthe psychological effect in short The investigation was attended with certain difficulties In the first place a surprisingly small percentage ot the invading in-vading army had been wounded Sol tiers had suffered all sorts of other things from sunstroke to yellow jack but Spanish marksmanship seemed less and less to be feared as the search went on Even after the Investigator corralled cor-ralled some men who had been shot he had trouble in making them tell about Ita whole lot of trouble in fact Many of them were like the old sergeant ot regulars whose tale was as follows OL was shot in the leg sons O tumbled tum-bled down soor It felt like hell sorr There Is a tradition that men shall not have feelings when they are under fire When they tell of their feelings at all it comes in the nature of a confession something to be ashamed of That Is what drill and training are for as much as anything elseto create a habit that will be strong enough to resist re-sist nature Consequently i was among the volunteer who bad not prepared themselves so thoroughly as the regu lars for this kind of crisis that most of the Interesting mental phenomena occurred At least one experience seemed to be general Regulars and volunteers alike knew at once what hudJiappened d tct them There was none of that wondei > < and perplexity which one time came to men who had been shot A surgeon suggested that possibly the reason for this was the comparative absence of 1 I shock produced by the wound from a modern firearm Another thing that the victims agreed upon was that the first effects of a shot were less painful pain-ful and less generally distressing than they had been taught to believe For this reason explained a wiry little regular reg-ular Spaniards were dead easy compared com-pared with Indians because the Indians he had faced faed always shot something that hurt every minute A volunteer said that he had wondered quite a lot about what particular kind of a fool he was going to make of himself should he get shot and the fact that he was neither hurt enough to be frightened nor frightened enough to be hurt was afterward a matter of great felicitation There was one member of the Seven tyfirst regiment who was shot hi the leg and he said that the mental effect was intense chagrin His people he said were of the let the others go variety of patriots They did not forbid him to enlist but the consensus of home opinion was against It They took the ground that other lives of less value either to their owners or to society so-ciety would answer the purpose as well He argued that he did not expect tc lose either life and limb or health were the loss of any of these certain he would not have enlisted and he concluded that his chances were nearly as good as if he were to remain at home Well when he was shot down there In Cuba the episode became part of that discus sion in a way that was sudden com plete and not at all unnatural or gro tesque Swifter than the shot Itself came the thought What win the folk say to me now And how am I going to explain this I Anotner volunteer said that when he was shot he felt like standing ut and telling the Spanish army that they had performed the feat of final detriment not only to his country but to the whole universe The Idea of his get ting shot struck him as having been compassed only by means of in iiicon gruous relaxation of attention on the part of Providence He could not ice oncile it with preconceived ideas He said that he stood up and spluttered in the direction from which the shot had ccme like a mad baby until some body came along and pulled him bark ward and told him to shut up During his subsequent illness and delirium the volunteer became possessed of a perfect Imaginative picture ot the man who shot hm t0 the mOSt minute change of expression and effe t of dress That Spanish soldier has as distinct a personality as he has him self and even yet he seems more rail and easier of Identification than most people with whom the American has a waking acquaintance The volunteer said that so far as he knew the Spa lards face was not one which be had ever seen or imagined It was only after his convalescence that he was able to separate what actually hap pened from what occurred in his imagi nation and he knows now that tho Spaniard was a dream My regiment had taken to the shrub Jungle on nearing the front from Sibo ney said another volunteer Crawl ing through the Jungle I found myself following a man who was much bigger than I so much bigger than I in faf that if we were to stand In a row he would overlap me at all points It was through no contrivance of mine that I was following this particular man It just happened for the same reason that he wa5 following somebody else in a way men have in common with sheep All this time the Spanish bullets were drilling nasty little holes in the air and spattering through the leaves above our heads I remember being particu lady grateful for not being as big as the man ahead of me It was but a step from this to taking advantage of the cover his size afforded I remember arguing with myself that I was nt doing anything mean or contemptible that the big man stood no greater chances and that I stood fewer oy the arrangement I didnt feel as though I was cheating him out of anything in short although I was dead sure that if i he turned and caught me dodging when he dodged and stopping when he stopped there would be strife withn our lines All at once there was a little twinge in my arm It had the numbing effect without the pain of being struck on the funny bone Somehow I knew at once what it was and my first thought was for my friend the big man He was walking serenely away notwithstanding the fact that he must have had a bullet hole through the mid file of the stomach I forgot all about myself and waited almost breathlessly for him to stagger and fall He kept right on until he drew out of sight and when I realized that my bullet must have gone right through him without any effect at all my profound astonishment astonish-ment gave way to rage I felt as thoug he had cheated me I tried in vain to formulate some kind of remonstrance and hurl It at his retreating figure I have been wounded only very slightly said an officer although I never went into an engagement that I am not suffer premonition that I was going to be shot in the stomach Officers Offi-cers do not discuss the chances of de h any more than I suppose railroad engineers engi-neers do but since the war I have coma across many men who felt as tenJerly for their stomachs as I did for mine It felt like a piece of ice in my abdomen abdo-men Ever since the war said another officer my memory has been develop ing details that were crowded for ih time to the rear by my Interest in the greater drama Many of them although small in themselves illustrate the personal per-sonal courage and devotion of the troops There Is one episode that in particular typifies the American sol dier I like to think so at any rate He was a private of regulars When I first saw him he was already a deal man If I ever saw one He was on his feet shambling along with that galvanic gal-vanic kind of energy that comes to men of great vitality when they are wounded beyond repair His foreheal was all puckered up his mouth was set and his eyes were glazed and staring He halted suddenly and shook all over Just as he fell even as it seemed In the very act of falling he looked ap and saw me A very faint sign of acog nition came Into his eyes ana then ho straightened with a perk and saluted me as stolidly as though he was on parade His arm was all torn and ragged the wound from a shell probably prob-ably and the final effort sent the blood flying all over his face There was nothing in the act of conscious dramatic dra-matic effort This welldrilled well disciplined wellbalanced private soldier sol-dier of the United States army was merely saluting me his superior officer and the thing that stood for his flag He was a flat flagrant piece of mechanism mech-anism a thing to delight the proies slonal Instincts of any officer I never knew his name or his record or his regiment regi-ment and I didnt want to know I knew that he was a soldier and it has been the means of constant inspiraiion to know that we have that kind to work with |