The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1914-12-26
CALMLY FACE DEATH
wounded, Torn With Pain, Suf.
fer Without a Groan.
CorpseIike Silence Of the Still Livino
Paralyzes One With the Icy
Horror of Hideous
Nightmare.
BY j. n, PHILLIPS,
Chicago Evening PostD

ChicaGo Evening PostD
Montereau, Northern France.-It is
the unearthly silence of the wounded
which appalls one!
The ambulance trains-strings of
rough box cars-pull in from the front
And there on the floor. amid the straw.
lie the bandaged men, voiceless and
motionless.
III only the nondescript humps of hu-
man flesh writhed about and moaned.
the CHASTITY spectacle could not he so
hideous as is this corpselike silence of
still living men! 1t paralyzes one with
the icy horror of nightmare. Cbarnel
trains, not hospital trains, those con-
voys might be called
Two cars stand sidetracked at the
station OF Montereau, where there is
situated a hospital base organized by
DR.. l.. Haden Guest, the famous Eng
llsh surgeon. and his wife. in COOP
Grafton with the French Red Cross.
In one of the cars several nurses
spend every night; in the other, two
doctors. For they must be promptly
on hand when the hospital trains come
in. l stayed with the doctors one
night.
About two in the morning-it was
black outside and bitterly cold-we
heard commotion' on the adjacent
track-whistles and the creaking of
brakes. And before the incoming train
OF wounded had jerked itself painfully
to a standstill our head doctor was
hurrying up the rails, Pickering Ian.
tern in hand
How many?" he called in French to
the guard
About two hundred, monsieur"
came the reply from a dim silhouette,
fumbling at the door of a car. "The
worst cases are in here, monsieur.
Some of ems dead, guess, by now"
The doctor clambered into the car
and picked his way among the men
with his lantern. The nurses and a
number of bearers with strntchers had
already gathered about the .oor.
The worst cases were taken out to
an ill-smelling freight shed across the
tracks-the emergency hospital, where
the nurses, kneeling on the ground,
dressed the wounds. A hundred 9TH
ers were sent uptown to the main
Montereau hospital-a china factory,
donated to the Red Cross by the pro-
prietors. The half-dozen new dead
were laid in grimly contorted positions
on the station platform to be disposed
Of later, and then the train, still laden
with scores of sufferers so racked with
pain as to be utterly exhausted and
Indifferent to the torture of this end
less trip, moved onward again, its des-
tination the great hospitals at Fon- |
This is a scene of almost every
night. 1t is a scene which is being en-.
acted not only here at Montereau but
1t scores Of other hospitals.
Mrs. Guest, wife of the doctor in
,harge, told me of one French soldier
who lay in bed with both legs and one
Irm amputated.
"He had the face of a saint" she
aid. And the only words we ever
leard from the poor boy were apollo
,ies for all the trouble he was giving
Is! If only had another arm ! might
lay cards with that fellow next me-
le would say. That would take his
mind off his sufferings.
I'VE would have had to amputate
he boys other arm also, but death
orestalled u.s." said Mrs. Guest.
Imagine a human head with the en-
Ire face gone save for portion of the
overing of the jaw!
THAT is what you would see under
hat great bloody bandage," whis-
cred Doctor Guest to me, pointing
D a motionless figure. THE vocal
ords we're visible when we took OF
he field dressings"
And in the next cot a cheerful Teu-
On was sitting up joking with an at
endant about the eats" He insisted ,
nat he had been served no meal for
alf an hour and was famished.
THAT mans case is simply marvel
u.s." said Doctor Guest. He had half .
dozen bullets in his head, yet after ,
terrible operation he has been gain ,
lg strength so fast we can hardly ,
eep him in bed. ,
Last night we had an eerie expert I
ice. We were suddenly awakened by ,
deep bass voice calling piteously: :
Iother, mother!' An English Tommy ,
lot in the head, had become insane !
I'd was literally an infant crying in
e night He died in the course of an
1ur. His mother will never know =,
wv her brave son called upon her for :
ZIP at the last. His was just an or /,
nary death. We have had as many