Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1915-08-04
b. S. VOLUNTEER
HOSPITAL CORP
THRU DANGERS
VIVID DESCRIPTION OF WORK BY
VOLUNTEER CORPS IS GIVEN
v, BY AMERICAN.
TELLS EXPERIENCE DURING "a
HOURS At POST HALF MILE
. BACK OF FRONT TRENCH.
lBy Associated Press.)

New YORK, aug. + Eliot Nortoh, u We"
York lawyer, brother of Prof. Richard
Norton, the founder Of the American Vol
nnteer Ambulance corps, the chief he'd
Cross unit with the Second French army,
makes public a letter written to him by
William X. Berry, attached to the corps,
giving a vivid description of It's work and
the dangers its members have To undergo.
Prof. Norton was but recently decorated
by the French government with the mill
tary cross. Mr.. Berry's letter dated Bals-
sieux, Somme, July !, states that the corps
has been removed TO a base less than six
miles behind the ines and tells his experi-
ence during twenty-four hours at a post
halt q mile or 30 from the trenches.
1.-Two of Us, on a two-stretcher, three
sitter ambulance, arrived nj the appointed
village q little after midday the letter
reads, shut still in time To bid goodbye to
the French guard ear which We were to
replace. At = 30 p. IN. there came a tele-
phone order from the Premier Post de
Secours' at the trenches for the 'Voiture
Americaine' TO report there Immediately.
At once the ear was gotten under way.
Slowly We crawled through streets Uttered
with the debris of shell shattered house,
and walls, and by Sentries who demanded
the pass word at the bayonet's point.
Further on a clutter Of supply and ammu
milton trains IN a country lane kept u
back, but Il sudden turn To the left showed
a white ribbon Of empty road that wound
l.I IL lt.un a. -
il looked, and inviting. We opened the
throttle wide, and rushed To the summit
tn find ourselves in full view of the Ger
man guns aud trenches, while in the sur
face Of the road We jolted over, old shell
marks CAPPED al u like manholes.
Down the far sid of he ridge We
cropped at tull speed, holding our breath
But no shells fell, and no bullets. and we
ipwardly congratulated ourselves a, We
drew up near the dueout shelters hidden in
a hollow behind the French second line
where We found an orderly waiting for n
beside n final sentry. Here the ear wa>
turned round and the stretchers shoulder
ed for We had reached a point beyond
where the ambulance might not 20, since
the road, which led straight on 10 the Ger
man lines, was heavily barricaded AT in
~tervals of fifteen meters.
1.-The premier Poste de Secour>' was
some WAYS down the road and We hurried
towards it with the orderly. When We
reached il, this first aid dressing station
proved to be a dueout chamber five feet
below ground reached by an inclined plane
much a. one enters to the tomb chamber
of the great Pyramid of Cheops. Here We
found our men, Wounded but fifteen min
utes before, ready for Us. One had "a rifle
bullet through his head, the other was rid
Gied with shrapnel. Both were in pretty
bad shape, the Shrapnel ease especially,
but as we lifted the first onto a >tretchcr
his eyes opened and he smiled III us. while
from the distorted bundle of light blue uni
form and red bandage which was the see
ond a weak and bloody hand crept out and
closed over NINE a We lifted him and from
a mouth which | could not see came the
whisper, Les AmericaineS.'"
Mr.. Berry then describes the painful
work of carrying the two men back through
the post village Ia a little church further
on, which had been fitted up "a !, temper
AIRY hospital.
During dinner that evening the village
was shelled for half an hour. Re writes.
Al III p. IN they were aroused by IN or
DERBY with a summons Tor them to 90 IL
.-llill IL
Without y single light. but with !.
cloudy moon 10 guide n. the ear moved |
through tho descrtcl streets fcclin. itsi
way thr ugh the tree shadows. Scntries4
are Jumpy folks ~ these hours. and a
moving lantern in the middle of the road
brought us Ia a dead stop while Il throar
" 'Qui Nlve. from the darkness ut Tho
side marked where q rifle probably coz
cred us. -
The pass woodland then N aga8
until Hill IL was rea he'd. This time Ahe
left the ear close against The nearest DIV b
outs as possible. for now stray bulldhn
were zip-zipping overhead AZ thick I'm
June bugs around a candle. 4 dim liRnit
showed ns the 'Poste de Secours.' q
shuffied down its passage and ente4pth
One of The twp, lanterns was SMOKY 81
badly. and il was through a haze nom
we saw. at one end of a chamber *ibo
haps forty feet long bv ten wide i'm Will
one had 10 stoop five or six Sill 10
wounded infantry asleep on the an"
which covered the arthern floor: ID IN
other end. a rude operating table,
which two Orderlies were liftin =
cause of our journey In a cornd vol
surgeon was washing his red halrSM"
a basin. That was ALL" ~
dpct
The way of the transgressor ofte ge the