The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-09-04
tied UP your artery and you're in

luck"
Some kind of dull thankfulness, like
a glow, suffused me. and at the same
time dull pain made itself known,
accompanied by an intolerable thirst. /
tried to ask him to get me a drink,
but my tongue stuck fast. keep still"
he said: 1.-The sanitary commission
wagons will be here soon with ice, and
brandy, and women"
IN RANGE OF THE FIRE.
We were about a mile and a. half
from the front. The battle was rag
ing yet; the pulse Of it could be heard
at times above the irarticulate sounds
in that place. Now and then shell
exploded somewhere in the vicinity.
Nobody paid the least attention to it.
The ambulances were coming and go
Ing. The curses and shouts outside
and the growing dissonances Of death
and torture inside, made the injunc-
ton to keep still' a horrible irony.
How was one to keep quiet with that
CHASTITY routine before him and that
tumult outside? Ones heart must keep
time to the intensity Of it, and that Is
not the best thing for tied artery.
Besides, what was all this patching
and carving against the issue out there,
mile and half away? Why did
not some one tell us If our battalion got
flapk?-that was the question. l tried
to shout it, but it sounded like q dry
whistle and sigh, and nobody gave any
heed to it.
Why should he? A score of torn and
dismembered men were saying things
that no ear could disentangle, and yet
they wounded and stung if you listened
to them. Other sounds, still more
dreadful, came from the mere automa-
tfsm Of muscles that beat the floor with
Rhythmic heels and bit at the plank
ing in the paroXysm OF delirious pain.
The condition Of nervous tension ma
turally affected my circulation and
every heartbeat made itself felt with
a dagger thrust in that tied artery I
shut my eyes with all my force in the
effort to calm myself. But it was no
use. They came back startngly to the
routine Of those heroic doctors which
wore to me the air OF an inquisition.
Nor was there the least attempt to
screen, to mitigate, or to soften the
dire work that was going on. The
battle had come on unexpectedly, and,
as usual, the hospital provision for It
was laggard and inadequate. Mercy
and tenderness had to be practically
ruthless, and business-lil1e, and Off
hand. Legless trunks We're laid upon
the reeking straw with the gentleness
only Of expedition. The pile of limbs
in the center grew into a quiYering
mass, and the flies, those invincible lit
tie harpies Of the shambles, added a
million miseries of their own, as they lit
upon the distorted faces of armless men
who could not brush them off, and
eddied in clouds round the heads Of the
surgeons. One Of these surgeons, q
Whlte-whiskered, methodical man who
had been through this experience be-
fore at hi ipto !,
ears, which he had to take out when
he was spoken to by the attendants.
His face and arms were spattered with
blood, and some of it chung in little
clots to his white whiskers, but he was
grim and t1reless. 1t never could have
occurred to him that glory had ended
in an abattoir.
THE COMMISSION WAGON.
Suddenly there there was a new kind
Of commotion outside My acute
senses told me that vehicles heavier
than the ambulances had arrived.
They should also have told me that
the cessation Of the mingled ribaldry
and din Of the drivers foretold the ar
rival Of something else. 1t was the
commission. Some one pulled aside the
greasy army blanket that served as a
door, and stood with his hat in his
hand ushering the women. There
were four of them. Three were middle
aged experts who knew what to expect,
and one was to get her first lesson.
They made no salutations. They had
no curiosity, and they gave way to, no
emotions. Two of them were tying
On aprons as they came in, very much
as though they were going into the
kitchen to prepare dinner. They
wore the air Of persons who come to