The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1905-01-26


Richard Butx In the Case of Rus
sian Soldier Shot Through the
Heart-WOunded japanese Kindly
Treated-CossacI Officers Faith In
the Doctors Ability
After having been out at the front
for two weeks watching the Japanese
shoot holes through our Russians II
was very interesting while resting in
Mukden to watch how the holes were
plugged up, says Richard II. Little the
Manchurian correspondent of the Chi
cage News.
DR.. Richard Butz is the hero of this
narrative-th is, if it is proper to call
a man who has not waded through
fields of slaughter a hero. He is one
of the great stumbling blocks that lie
an the japanese path to victory They
hit man in vital spot and by all the
laws of war and medical science the
man should be dead and another name
added to the sum total of the victims
of japanese proves. Instead Of that,
DR.. Butz rece. YES the man into his
hospital, finds the bullet and throws it
away, patches up the works, and the
man gets well and goes back to the
airing line
DR.. Butt has cared for siXty-five men
shot in the brain. The modern high
velocity small bore steel bullet gives
the skillful surgeon chance OF these
sixty-ive men operated on by DR.. Butz
many had bullet wounds straight
through the brain. These were easy to
treat But others mad severe fractures,
caused by fragments of shell smashing
the bones of the skull and driving
pieces into the brain. The bullets from
the shrapne shells also make bad
wounds. They are of slow velocity
and instead of whistling clean through
& man when they hit, soaring with their
intense heat the edges Of the wound,
they break and fracture where they
enter and lodge in the body. Yet Of
these sixty-five difficult cases DR.. Butt
has lost only five.
was down at the hospital the other
day and took picture Of man whom
the japanese had killed in as pains
taking and thorough manner as any
body can kill a man and still have
some regard for the Geneva convention.
They had drilled rifle bullet straight
through his heart. The Russian burial
party took the word of the Japanese
for it. They digged the grave and put
up a wooden cross at the head of it,
and the priest came and granted abso-
luton and went away, and the burial
party sat down and waited for the
man who was shot through the heart
to quitssmoking cigarettes and fold his
pale hands over his breast. The dy
ing soldier smoked cigarettes until the
burial party had none left, and then
they carried him into house, so they
could get some tea and catch a few
hours of sleep while the man who was
shot through the heart could die when
he got good and ready.
That night-this was on the fourth
day Of the battle of the Sha River-the
Japanese opened a shell fire on the
town, and all the wounded were hur-
sriedly gathered up and carted off to
-Mulzden. Along with the rest went the
man who was shot through the heart,
never thinking to tell the litter bearers
that it was all mistake and that his
grave had been fixed and the wooden
cross put up and that he was expected
back. Arriving at Mukden, the wound,
ed were sorted out, and all who could
be classified as desperate cases. were
taken over to DR.. Butts hospital.
AS 8 desperate case the man who
sgas shot through the heart stood at the
very top Of the list. The young sur
geon who did the sorting out didn't
know whether the man would live long
enough to be put into the ambulance,
but when he saw the patient had a
hole through his heart he said, This
will tickle old ButZ to death; it's just
his kind" So he sent the man along.
He was carried very carefully into the
hospital, and the doctor was sent for.
Il saw the man with a bullet hole
through his heart two weeks after the
shooting occurred. He was not in his
bed, and we had to hunt for him all
over the hospital and finally rounded
him up at the far end, where he was
foregathering with some OF his regf-
lnent who We're also convalescent.
He came back and sat fer his picture
on condition that he would be permit
ted to put his uniform on in q few days
more and go downtown. After saw
this man / no longer wondered why
the Japanese success was only momen-
Gary What's the use of killing men
when DR.. Butz overhauls them and
patches them up and makes them good
as new?
Dr.. Butz, when at home in ST. Peters
burg, is at the head Of the largest hos,
pital in the Russian capital. He was
born in the Baltic provinces of Russia.
and German was his mother tongue.
He was educated in Germany and fin
ished his medical studies at the Edin~
burgh university.
The doctor is proud Of his hospital
in Mukden. 1t is not much to look at.