Show SEES WAR stretcher bearer gives impressions ot of life at front Is nearly overcome by sight of first operation till til given slap by surgeon dare not tell men truth vill ers we had just left led the hospital and had reached the station we were exchanging glances of joy and shaking hands saying parts paris we are going to see paris again the train was waiting on a siding biding we climbed into it the hospital atten irmas placed us in our seats there I 1 heard a conversation that struck me more than has any other since the beginning ot of the war one of the soldiers in our carriage doubtless in a confidential mood that day began to relate the impressions ot of his life as a military hospital attendant it was in the early days of 0 the war I 1 had received a commission as stretcher bearer in a hospital at nice the first wounded arrived long trains were filled with them they had lain on the tha straw ot of the cars throughout the interminable journey across france in slow military trains which were constantly delayed many died on the tha way others were landed here and there in heaps how feverishly we had toworu to work there was not a minute to be lost 1 I remember the terrible slap the head surgeon gave me the first day he entered the operating room when I 1 was ordered to hold a wounded soldier whose leg was being amputated the odor the cruel sight of the operation caused me to turn as white as death and I 1 was about to taint faint that blow brought me quickly to my senses I 1 have seen worse sights since we spent some terrible moments ot of anguish there we had bad no anti tetanus serum we had written and telegraphed everywhere tor for it but the hospitals which had it kept it jealously and it was impossible to obtain any 1 I recall one of 0 the finest men I 1 have ever known a charming comrade who was wounded in the toot foot ilia his wound was not serious at the end ot of two weeks it had healed then one night he felt a stiffness in his neck his mind began to wander his muscles to contract lie he was done tor for all we could do was to relieve his suffering buffering whenever a patient had ant an attack ot of this nature we dared not tell him what it was he was sent to a special hospital it a hospital it was a morgue ile he went there to die finally ore one day we heard that serum could be procured at a fantastic price in italy the doctor immediately requisitioned the swiftest automobiles he could find in nice the next day we had serum and tetanus tetanus disappeared the recollect recollection lov at this period Is not more terrible than that of 0 the days I 1 spent in arras as stretcher bearer during the fierce combats ot of notre dame de lorette I 1 was there a month gathering the dead and wounded witnessing the most moat terrible mutilations my ears filled with the groans ot of men the work was hard we had to carry the men away on our backs tor for the approaches were too narrow to permit ot of the use ot of stretchers more than one died on my back 1 I am old im forty six I 1 was taken from the trenches and I 1 am now one ot of the conductors of this train of 0 wounded I 1 day before yesterday we had a wounded soldier whose head was a mass of 0 bandages with a little hole hola in the place of 0 his mouth another hospital attendant and I 1 were curious enough to raise his bandage his tag indicated that his nose and the lower part of 0 his bis face had bad been torn away by the splinter of 0 a shell by luck he be had bad not lost his sight his wounds had bad been cleaned and dis infected a piere piece of skin had been removed from his back and applied IS to his face in this a round hole was made through which he be was fed and another through which he breathed liquid food was given him by means of 0 a rubber tube and those poor unfortunates whose limbs have been amputated I 1 saw one whose two arms and a leg had been cut off lie he had received more than shell splinters the greater part were small like pinheads As we listened to this man sad and serious a fine tall moroccan who was wounded got up from his seat ills ilia eyes were filled with tears and he started to talk with peres fierce energy why french take aha care boche bocha wounded after war they go home have many children begin war aga again n with children and war no good french stupid boches baches kill all all bad men when no more bodies boches no more war abat good |