Grand Forks daily herald. (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1914-1916, 1914-11-25
LOCKED IN A BOX CAR
With DEAD AND DYING
Jeans Trip From the Battle Line After He Was Wounded
New Saw a German Soldier Until He Awoke From
Inconsistencies in Calais Hospital, Because the En-
envy Was so Far Away.
(By Herbert Corey.)

For five years" said Jean. II sold
jewelry to Americans on the Grand
Boulevard. They are all my friends"
He wanted to tall about his Amer
lean friends i'll the fluent but twisted
English his experience as a watch
seller to Americans upon the Grand
Boulevard had taught him, but the
callers wanted to hear something of
his adventures. That shell, now"
ono of them limited. How does it
feel to be hit by s.rapnel:"
When the Shell Came.
Jean hardly knew. Although he was
among the first called to the colors
he had been under fire only half a
dozen times in all. Until he was
whistle of Il bullet. That day-it was
near A~rras-Jcan was lying in his
trench with hundreds of other little
red-legEed infantrymcn. He had not
even been watching the scene. lie had
been tired by the march of the night
before, and was half asleep. After a
time. he explained. one becomes en-
nuied. There had been nothing to see.
No enemy was in sight. Only there
was the pound. pound of the great
guns. Now and then round, white
clouds were formed In the air by the
exploding shells.
! "Then-eee." said Jean.
A shell burst over his trench. No
n else had been hurt. His comrades
put on the first aid bandages, and
that night the stretcher men carried
him back Of the lines. The busy sur
geons We're working under the glare
of acetylene torches in the shelter of
a bank. 1t made him think of a fair,
he said-the flaring lights and the
running to and fro and the cries. He
explained carefully that the wound
ed men cry seldom cried out. He
meant the shouts of the surgical or
men where to place their charges.
There was blood everywhere. One
looked at a urgeo and he was
washing his hands. The next time one
saw him-nah! He was blood to the
elbow.
Jean was fortunate. That night he
was placed upon a train. bound for
wounded had been lying in the field
hospitals for days, waiting for their
chance to be moved. Some had lain
in the trenches or on the field for
days before the stretcher men found
them. Jean called good-by to an or
DERBY who had found time to be good
to him. He thought his voice might
have been weak, for the orderly did
not hear. 1t grieved the wounded
man. 1t seemed as though he were
leaving a friend to go IL in the dark
ness.
Fancy how weak I was, M'sieu,"
said he. 81 wept."
There We're four others in the
straw On the floor of the cattle car
in which Jean started for the base.
They talked to each other u very lit
tie as they laid there in the darkness.
The door of the a had neen closed.
They had heard the iron bar drop in
to its place outside. Jean did not
think at first that any of his cornpan-
ions had been seriously wounded. No
n of them complained. They whis-
pered weakly to each other. Then
they relapsed into silence. Just be-
fore the train started Jean heard one
of them-he must have been an Eng
lishman-speak in an undertone.
Bessie" he said. Bessie"
The train was started, with jerks
and harsh clanking of the coupling
links and groans from the wheels.
Conversation became impossible, ev-
Ell if one had desired. The noise was
too great. Jean thought he had not
suffered greatly. except that as the
hours wore on his poor body ground
down through the thin layer Of straw
to the boards of the box car floor.
Two Of the others had broken bones.
The heavy jolting of the train began
to grind the shattered surfaces of
bone together.
J They cried out" said Jean, look