The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1898-08-27
ASSEM- BY
(ocNFrNuED FROM FIRST PAaE.)

JtiI1D1e' OF mu1es ana wagons In the lane
and then setting their faces toward Sib-
oney they commenced to walk it. They
were the men whose injuries were too
sllght Tor Wag room to be given them.
There was not enough wagon accommoda-
ton for the men whose wounds rendered
them helplessly PROSTATE. So let the men
who had mere arm and shoulder wounds,
simple flesh wounds, or only one injured
leg or foot, walk it. Siboney was only
eight miles away.
True, it was a fearfully bad road, but
then the plain fact was. that there was
not enough wagons for all, and it was bet
ter for these men to be at the base hos
p1tal, and better that they should make
room at the division hospital even IL they
had to make the journey on foot.
There was one man on the road whose
left foot was heavily bandaged and drawn
up from the ground. He had provided
of the forked limb of a tree, which he had
padded with bundle of Clothes With
the assistance Of this and a short stick
ne was padding briskly along when 7
overlook him.
Where did they get you, neighbour I
asked him. -
":Oh, durn their SKINS he said in the
cheerfulest way. turning to me with a
smile. they got. me tWice-a splinter of a
shell IN the foot, and a bullet through the
calf OF the same leg: when I was being
carried back from the firing line
"A sharpshooter?'
1.-The fellow was up in tree
And you're walking back to Siboney.
wasn't there room for you to, ride? I
expected an angry outburst of indignation
IN reply to this question. But I was mis-
taken. In plain, matter-of- fact way he
said:
Guess not They wanted all the rid
ing room for worse casesn mine. Thank
God, my two wounds are both in the same
IT, SO 1 can walk quite good ard spry.
They told me I'd be better off down at the
landing yonder, so I got these crutches
and made a break
And how are you getting along" I
asked.
GOOD and WE'LL he said, as cheerfully
as might be. Just good and easy And
with his one sound leg and his two sticks
ne went cheerfully padding along.
1T was just the same with other walk
ing wounded men. They were all beauti-
tuliy cheerful. And not merely cheerful
"Ihey We're all absolutely unconscious that
they were undergoing any unnecessary
hardships or sufferings. They knew now
that war was no picnic and they were
not complaining at the absence of p.cnic
fare. Some of them had lain out all
the night. with the dew falling on them
where the bullets had dropped them, be.
fore their turn came with the overworked
field surgeons =. 49, y
There was only sixty doctors with the
outfit they explained, and, naturally,
ttt ley, couldn't tend to everybody at once
THAT seemed to them a quite suffi-
cient explanation. 1t did not occur to
them that there ought to have been more
doctors, more amhulances. Some of them
seemed to have a faint glimmering of a
notion that there might perhaps have
been fewer wounded; but then that was
so OBVIOUS to. everybody. The conditions
subsequent to the battle they accepted as
the conditions proper and natural to the
circumstances. The cheerful fellow with
the lmprovised crutches was so filled with
thankfulness at the possession Of his tree
pranch That 1t never occurred to him that
ne had reason to complain of the absence
OF proper clutches. l happened by chance
to know that packed away in the hold
Of one Of the transports lying out in
Siboney bay there were cases full of
crutches, and was on the point of burt
ing out an indignant statement of the
fact when l remembered that the knowl-
ecge would not make his walk easier So
said nothing about it.
''~ Tad to na~ka the tourney tn Sihonev
myself. There was nothing more than
desutory firing going on at the front
and had kilograms to try and ge+ away
SO passed a good many of the walking
wounded, and heard good many groans
from palm-awninged wagons. The men
were, all the same bravely and uncom-
piainmgly plodding along through the
mud. AS they themselves put it, they
were up against it, and that was ali
And down at Siboney? Well. thank
COO, the hospital tents had been unload
ca. Ihey were short of cots, short of
blankets, short of surgeons, short of sup
plles, snort Of nurses, short of everything.
but, thank goodness, by squeezing and
croWding and .economizing space there
was ", .snelter for tke men as they came
Red Cross society,"
~