The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-09-04
THE DIRGE OF AGONY
BATTLES GLOW PALES IN A
FIELD HOSPITAL

What 1t Means to BE Brought From
the Battlefield Into a Room Full
of Torn and bleeding Men-Pues
of Amputated Limbs, From which
the Boots Have Not Been Drawn,
in Sight-COmmissio WAGON.
Mrs. Russell Sage, Of New York,
who is devoting much time to
the relief Of the sick soldiers,
believes that at such time as this So
cial functions are absolutely out of
place. In speaking of the matter re-
Gently she said:
IF the women Of this country who
are now spending their time in follow
ing the silly round Of fashionable func-
lions would turn their attention to the
deplorable condition Of our soldiers at
the camps the conditions would rapidly
improve"
Yet there has been much work done
by the women. They have gathered
in Red Cross rooms to work, have sent
their contributions to national relief as
sociations, and given Of their time and
means whenever they were sought. But
Mrs. Sage has been in a soldiers hos
pital herself, and therefore knowing
the agony, the helpless misery and pain
endured in the best Of those places,
the very idea Of social enjoyment dur
Ing such times is abhorrent to her. In
fact, with all the stitching and pack
ing for the field hospitals there are few
who realize what 1t means to be wound
ed in battle. 81. P. NJ" writing Of it
in the Evening Post, says:
Here 1t is that enthusiasm has to lie
down helplessly with misery, inertia
and pain. But the worst of it is that
this aftermath of war is always I'M
provided for In the resisting forces of
the human economy. So long as man
can oppose violence with resistance
and match force with strength, he
does so with an exulting mockery of
death itself that Is characteristic of
the masculine animal But, carried
into the hospital, a door clangs behind
him. He is shut in with his own per
disability, his own consciousness, and
with him physical outrages that sci
ence can only meet with a general as
suagement. Your exploding shell has
had no regard whatever for special
provision or special experience The
course of a rifle bullet when it enters
the delicately adjusted physical econ
omy Of man follows no practicable lines
of the least resistance. 1t bOreS or
crashes through vertebrae, tissue and
artery. 1t cuts ganglions and rends
viscera. Every fresh patient is there
fore new case, and must have special
treatment without the advantage Of
precedent.
One does not get the lesson of NOR
tally hot in the general hospital, where
Il = l. f1n1 fI,n "a
given a tidy air of cool convalescence
to the ward. It is in the field hospital
that Death executes his preliminary
dance of horror, and science itself
braVely sets it's teeth and tries to keep
pace with an emergency that the laws
Of life cannot anticipate. No one has
ever dared to go the full length Of
realistic description in the field hos
pital. Hugo, With his magnificent au-
dacity, and Balzac, with his micro
scope, would falter and vince before
the confusing deliriums Of human
agony and the indescribable spectacle
of man tearing his kind limb from
limb with the perfected enginery Of
his science, and then asking science to
keep pace with him in assuagement
and relief.
THE FIRST EXPERIENCE.
My first hospital experience must
have been that of tens Of thousands
I passed In a twinkllng from the &C.
stasy of physical excitement to the
swoon Of death. There was click,
then an exit Of everything, as the
lights were extinguished and the soul
of me fed like a receding river.
The next second g. dull light, an
overpowering smell of ether. a sup
pressed hurrying Of feet. and the dis
sonances of human agony growing
more audible and more intolerable as
the light grew, told me that [ was in
hell or in a hospital. Two hours had
elapsed. They have never been ac-
counted for by me. Then it was that
I came slowly to the full consciousness
of what a kindly blow was mine, that
stunned while it stayed the courses
of life.
Others were not so fortunate. We
were lying without order on the straw
in a rude shed. Some Of it had been
used for bedding for cattle. The am
balances were at the doorway. the
curses Of the teamsters mingled with
the groans of their burdens. There
were two surgeons and two assistants.
Thev were in their shirt sleeves and
had napkins for handkerchiefs round
their necks. I lifted myself AS we'll as
7 could and looked round. My eye fell
ton of boots, but which 1 speedily
enough saw was a pile Of amputated
limbs, from which the boots and shoes
had not been removed. and from which
dripped and ran congealing stream
of blood that was tracked all round
the narrow spaces by the slipping feet
of nurses. Instinctively, l put my
hands upon my own neither limbs to
feel If 1 had lost them. and they made
themselves known by convulsive
vince as I did so. They were there,
sure enough, but was to keep them?
In the center Of the place some boards.
torn from the shed itself. had been
placed upon two trestles, and this was
the operating table. 1 tried to shut my
eyes as I saw one form lifted off and
another lifted on. but l couldn't. The
businesslike butchery OF the surgeons
fascinated me for a time, prevented
me from needing my own pain. Some
kind of suspense was inwrought with
the hideousness Of 1t all. 1t would
be my turn next. One or two of the
men died under the operation. / could
see that by the look of the surgeon
and the extra haste Of the attendants.
One of the ambulance men, seeing me
sitting UP, came over to me and pushed
mo hoc al. ather roughly. keen STILL"