Grand Forks daily herald., 1914-11-09
WHOLESALE HER0|SN
IN EUROPEAN WAR
is Fine Place to be In, the Word of the Wounded in
Hospitals Surgeon Who Saw Trainloads of German
Dead and Dying Says the Kasers Troops Suffer with
Remarkable Stoicisrn.

The best that could be done was to
send them back, in the hope that they
would be cared for by some one along
the road"
The trains moved slowly. not out of
consideration for the men. but be-
cause the railroad lines were jammed.
When each train pulled up at sta
tion on its way back from the front
surgeons dashed through the cars.
The men whose wounds seemed most
to need attention were carried out and
laid upon the floor of the waiting
room. There were no beds.
sometimes their wounds were
putrefying," said the doctor. .'The
very flesh was rotting under the band
ages A man had been shot through
the foot. When I took off the band
age his toes dropped oft in my hands" +"
Disgusting. I know. This story is
not fit to print. But it is what is 60
Ing on in this greatest of wars.
Ravagcs of Tetanus.
There is little of hospital gan
grene." said he. 1.-The worst foe the
anti-virus cannot be obtained the men
die like flies from it,"
Tetanus--oddly enough to the un-
inftiated-is more apt to follow slight
wounds. The men are told in the
printed instructions in their first aid
packages not to touch their wounds
with water or their fingers, but to loop
the sterilized bandages about them.
They are apt to isregard this when
the hurt is on q limb. They try to
stanch the flowing blood at the near
est stream.
DAY after day those mournful
trains of wounded passed through, on
their way home." said the doctor. 81
do not know how many there were
hIIf hA =
the German system will ever know.
The suffering with which those trains
were freighted is beyond all human
conception. have walked charity
hospitals for years. but every night l
ing hells."
But the men ''stood it" with teeth
out. 1t wasn't often that one would
moan, unless he were under the in
f1uence of anaesthetics.
'"The percentage of deaths among
those sent away from the front up
set all mortality theories" said the
doctors. Men grew well and strong
who should have died in a day. The
high speed slender bullet cauterizes
it's own wounds. My own theory is
that they were cured by happiness.
They were going home"
No distinction was made in the Ger
man hospitals between their own
wounded and those Of their enemies.
In spite Of the charges Of inhumanity
against the Germans-the Germans
make quite as many against the Eng
lish and French-German and Gaul
and Brtton are all pretty decent men
under their differing uniforms.
This war is bad enough" said the
doctor, but, thank God, it hasn't sap
ped our faith in humanity. We may
each other like angels. The war line
doesn't run between the wounded
men,"
But this is a war in which the mass
counts for everything and the indivi-
dual for nothing. The wounded man
Is given as much care as possible
but very little care is possible. Men
been carried tenderly to a hospital in
an air-tired ambulance, moving at q
foot's pace to avoid jolting, drag them
selves out of the fire field, leaning on
their rifles. They lie for days under
the sun and rain, waiting for the
stretcher man to find them. Their
wounds are bound by surgeons who
have worked without sleep, literally
for days and who in consequence are
irritable and snappish.
II went through my last days
swearing at the wounded men like q
bucko mate" said this doctor, sheep
ishly. IT wasn't responsible. was
half insane from fatigue and the
rushing haste and the agony that
cried out for help on every hand"
And the men recognized his state.
Those that, were able tgrinned feebly
at him or at the ordarlies. Some
OF them whispered q laughing order