Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1914-08-20

their Semi-conSciouS condition, yielded
themselves to the arms of the attend
ants with look of, deepest terror IN
their eyes, while few, the minute
hand was laid on them, died OF the
consequent shock -
They continued, to arrive in such
numbers that soon every bed IN the
vast apartment would have its occu-
pant, and Major Bouroche had given
orders to make use of Sthe straw that
had been spread thickly upon the floor
at one end. He and his assistant had
thus far been able to attend to all
the cases with reasonable promptness;
he had requested Mime. Delaherche to
furnish him with another table, with
mattresses and oilclot4. cover, for the
shed where he had, established his
operating room.
Cut Up Victims.
/ The assistant would thrust napkin
saturated with chloroform to the pa
ltient's nostrils, the keen knife flashed
lin the air, there was the faint rasp1ng
of the saw, barely audible, the blood
tspurted in short, sharp jets that were
checked Immediately
AS soon as one subject had been
operated on another was brought IN,
and they followed one another in such
quick succession that there was barely
time TO pass sponge over the pro-
tecting oilcloth.
AT the extremity of the grass plot,
screened from sight by a. clump OF lilac
i bushes, they had set up a kind of
morgue whittier they carried the
bodies of the dead, which were res
moved from the beds without mo-,
ment's delay in order to make room
lfor the living, and this receptacle also
served to receive the amputated legs
and arms of the victims.
j In the vast dyipg-rpom, the wide
door of which was standing open, not
Ionly was every bed occupied; but
there was no more room upon the
litter that had been shaken down on
the floor at the end of the apartment.
i All Are Suffering.
j They were commencing to streW
sltraw in the spaces between the beds,
1.-THE wounded were crowded together
SO closely that they were in contact.
ALREADY there. were more than 200
lpatients there, and more were arriving
Iconstantly; through the lofty windows
1.-THE pitiless white daylight streamed
lin upon that aggregation of suffering
humanity.
Now and then an unguarded move
lment elected an involuntary cry of
] anguish. ~
II The death-rattle rose on the warm,
! damp air.
Down the room low, mournful
Iwail, almost lullaby, went on and
ceased not.
And all about was silence, intense,
profound, the stolid resignation of de-
lspair, the solemn stiffness of the
, death chamber, broken only by the
thread and whispers of the attendants.
. Rents in tattered, shell-torn uni
forms disclosed gaping wounds, some
lof which had received hasty dress
ling on the battlefield, while Others
were still raw and bleeding l.
There were feet, fstill incased in
their coarse shoes, crushed into. a
mass like jelly; from knees and ell;
! bows, that were as if they had been
smashed with hammer, depended
| Iinert limbs. There broken hands, and
fingers almost severed, ready to drop,
RETAINED only by strips of skin. =
II Men Cut to Pieces.
II Most numerous among the casual
| tiles were the fractures; the poor arms
land legs, red and swollen, throbbed
Iintolerably and we're as heavy as lead
But the most dangerous hurts were
: those in the abdomen, chest and head.
There were yawning assures that laid
open the entire flank, the knotted
yiscera were drawn into great hard
Jumps beneath the tight-drawn, skin,
while as the effect of certain wounds
the patient frothed at the mouth and
writhed like an, epileptic.
Here and there were cases where
the lungs had been penetrated, the
lpuncture noWeso minute as to permit
no escape of blood, again wide, deep
orifioe through which the red tide OF
life escaped in torrents; and the in
ternal hemorrhages, those that were
ibid from sight, were the most terrible
in their effects, prostrating their vic
Tins like flash, making them black
in the face and .delirious.
And finally the head, more than any
Iother portion of the frame, gave evil
dence of hard treatment; broken
jaw, the mouth pulp Of teeth and
bleeding tongue, an eye torn from its
Esocket and exposed upons the cheek,
la cloven skull that showed the palpi-
ltating brain beneath.
i [ Lay in Coma.
i Those in whose case the bullet had
touched the brain or spinal marrow
were already as dead men, sunk in
the lethargy of coma, while the frac-
lures and other less serious cases
tossed restlessly on their pallets and
Ibeseechingly called for water to
iquench their thirst.
Leaving the large room and pass
ing out into the courtyard, the shed
where the operations were going on
presented another scene of horror.
| In the rush and hurry that had con-
itinued undated since morning it was
impossible to operate on every case
lthat was brought IN 80 tier atten-