Show 7 bl adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF 1 tie the tale of the galloping tooth H ELLO EVERYBODY L you may have been in france during the unpleasantness that went on there in 1914 1918 you may have seen towns she shelled red to a crumbling ruin you may have seen regiments decimated by poison gas you may have seen men torn to pieces by bursting grenades and families pauperized and turned out of their homes by the onward plunge of the great german war machine you may think you know all about the horrors of war but don aspinwall of rochelle park N J will tell you you seen anything don was somewhere in the villers cotteret area on special duty with the second divisi division orl A deafening barrage had been rolling back and forth across the lines for more than two hours the germans were tossing every form of pyrotechnic display in their bag of tricks huge roared overhead like great express trains machine gun bullets zipped by an occasional ash can from a battery would tumble lazily through the early morning haze to spread itself with a devastating roar in front of the barbed wire it was a swell time to be someplace else but horror horror nothing not hingl the real horror was going on right inside don Aspin walls face don had a toothache it was undoubtedly the outstanding disaster of the whole war it had been going on for 24 hours and don was convinced that if it went on two hours longer nothing could keep the germans from taking paris and don was miles away from any possible agency of relief the only thing that could have stopped that ache would be a well placed bullet and don was all in favor of that 1 I tell you he says the actual gospel truth I 1 poked my head over I 1 0 ON he had no anesthetic but glancing behind me I 1 knew the worst A stolid faced six foot yorkshire orderly had sneaked in the top of the trench several times and gave jerry the bronx salute in in the sincere hope that some german officer might take offense and order me erased with a machine gun field battery or some other similarly effective weapon attempts at suicide came back labeled no dice but no german officer would have been sucker enough to halt such an effective blow to the allied cause all dons attempts at suicide came back to him labeled no dice he had to wait until he was relieved from duty and then in a semi delirium he be lit out for the nearest british medical unit two miles away eventually he got there and was ushered into the presence of a brass hat bat who turned him over to a young medical lieutenant hestena nt it took him five minutes to diagnose the case of acute toothache says don and then he be seated me in an improvised dental chair and looked worried it seems there any local anesthetic in that part of the country and well what to do don told him what to do he told him to get that tooth out of there and to hell with the anesthetic that seem quite cricket to the young englishman he demurred for a moment then he seemed to have an idea and said all right yank but I 1 say it will bally well hurt you more than it does me with those words of comfort says don he stepped out for a minute when he came back I 1 watched him open a shabby black bag and produce a none too cdean pair of ordinary gas pliers he had no anesthetic esthetic ari but glancing behind me I 1 knew the worst A stolid faced six foot yorkshire orderly had sneaked in he stood at my back toying with the barrel of a massive british webley navy type revolver and gauging the distance to certain sections of my skull with a practiced eye I 1 have long to think about that though don have any time to think about it at all the minute he turned his head he felt elt something hit it that felt like a nudge judg e from a howitzer there was a blinding flash and a million stars pin wheels constellations and blue lights danced before his eyes 1 I began to fall into a deep black void he says at last I 1 thought the germans had planted a nice juicy shell under the dental chair and I 1 was all ready to put forth my hand and receive my harp and lialo halo then I 1 began to be aware of a disconcerting fact I 1 could still feel a dull throb where my toothache had been and now there was another dull t throb in the back of my head gradually both old and new throbs increased in intensity the black before dons eyes faded to a gray haze and through it he began to see the features of the young british medical attendant there was a large moving blur behind the attendant the haze cleared a little more and don could see it was the yorkshire orderly the orderly was calmly wiping the butt of his webley and don distinctly remembers noticing that several brown hairs still adhered to that butt dons hair is brown too he says that might or might not have been a coincidence and what a climax and then the doctor spoke don hear what he was saying very well but the picture of what happened was beginning to take shape in his brain that yorkshire orderly had been the anesthetic he had socked don on the cc coco CO with the butt of that revolver and now the medical attendant seemed to be apologetic about it don stopped him dont worry doc he said its au all right with me it was a swell job even it if your anesthetic was a bit rough t the attendant shook his head and began to repeat his words then says don my confused brain began to function as I 1 heard that englishman say oh im sorry yank but I 1 done anything yet you vou know you see my orderly worked too fast and I 1 had to wait until il you came out of it SO YOU COULD TELL ME WHICH TOOTH IT WASI released by western newspaper union |