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Show IU) SOLDIERS GIVEN TENDER CARE Utmost Solicitude Is Shown by Surgeons for Injured Fig'hting Men. Red Cross Representative Pays High Tribute to Medicos at Front. By CAPTAIN JAMES A. MILLS Of New York, Now oil rield Servics With the American Red Cross in Europe. WITH Till-: AM KUICAX A RMY IN" FRANCE, Dee. 7. In all tlje horror and primness of the war there is nothing that has stood out finer or nobler than the tender care and earnest solicitude with which the American .surgeons and doctors handled their patients. The Hod Cross man, whose duty hrrnps him into the dressing Stations and hospitals hospi-tals just back of the battle line, has unusual un-usual opportunities for observing the work of the American medical men. His activities brin hint in closest contact with both patient and doctor. Jt lias been said 1 ha t war renders a man calloused and dulls his finer sensibilities, sensi-bilities, but this is not true of the American army surgeon. It has rather tended to make him more considera t p. and gentle. This is the observation of men in the field service of the American Ameri-can Red Cross. Given Every Attention. Jt will he pleasant, although not surprising, sur-prising, to these at home to he assured that disabled American soldiers from lite time their wounds were, dressed at the advance casualty station to the time they arrived at the last base hospital, have received the most sympathetic and lender care. Indeed, it may be, said that (hey gel better care and more attentive treatment than a person would in peace times. To render the soldier free from pain, to make hi in comfortable, to cheer his spirit, tlie American doctor will exhaust every resource, will sacrifice .sleep and food and all personal thought of himself. The soldier's pain lie feels in only a hisser sense t lian his own. Jf the soldier dies, his own spirit suffers keenly. Thousands of instances have occurred oc-curred every mo:it h where army phyai -cians. so absorbed and so sympathetically interested in t heir pa t ion Is, kept night after night an anxious and imbrnUnn vigil ovrir tho progress of t he in cond it ion, and themselves rested only when ordered to do so by a superior officer. In tho actual battle zonn (he doctor had to act both as physician and nurse, for no om"!i are permit tod In Ihe front lines. 'Jt was always iniprossive. to see the gentle, cautious way he placed his patients in bed, the infinite pains lie look to cause them as little suffering as possible pos-sible when applying or removing dressings, dress-ings, and how kindly and rtasyuringly he spoke to them. Drivers Are Careful. The ambulance drivers and stretcher bearers, too. all of whom were trained in first aid, were careful an I attentive in handling patients. They spared no pains to see that tho sick and wounded in transit, from the front over broken French nads suffered no hardship or dtKennnnrt. Often (lie drier would make a long and tedious detour in order to avoid hadly rutted spots or shell holes in the road. At night, when not even t he flicker of tho faintest light was permitted, (ho task of tlie ambulance drivers in going to and from the trenches was a particularly particu-larly severe and trying one. Kverything ahead ct them was in absolute darkness, and the peril often was great. In their hazardous worn of transporting transport-ing the wounded over shell-swept areas many of these ambulance drivers and stretcher bearers lost their lives or were severely wounded. Their work (hiring the present war has been no less praiseworthy praise-worthy than (lie devoted services of the American doctors. Both have brought I high credit to the medical and sanitary departments of the United States army. |