The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-04-18
QUARTER MILLION
WOUNDED men
10 Preparing That Many
places In Hospitals for the Har
vest Of the Spring
Campaign.
SCOTS GUARDS LOSSES
Germany 10 Using Aluminium for
Shells, All Of the Copper In
the Empire Having Beer
Exhausted.
SCOTS GUARDS LOSSES
IBy William G. Shepherd, United
Press star Correspondent

IBy William G. Shepherd. United
Press stan Correspondent
LONDON, April 4. tBy mall to New
York.D-A quarter Of . million men
are walking the streets Of English
towns today, whole and sound. Soon
they will be tossing on hospital beds.
The beds aren't even ready, as
yet They are being collected. Tho
Wholesale purchasing OF the sheeting,
the pillows, the mattresses. IL pro-
ceeding in . hurried, scrambiing fash
ion. Houses are being rented for hos
pitals: rooms are being prepared.
Various branches Of the war depart
ment are working with desperation to
have ready. at the proper time, the
means Of giving comfort and attention
to these quarter OF million men
when they are wounded.
There aren't enough nurses to 10
the big Job that lies just ahead. So
while these quarter million sound,
whole healthy men. are waiting for
the time when they shall go out and
have their bodies torn-in the same
way, but not In the same spirit that
the martyrs waited to be called to
the lions-there are more than 10000
young women in England who are
desperately taking courses In nursing,
preparing for the great spFingtime
bloodletting on the continent.
There are many English hospitals
and many English nurses on the great
Job. already. but they are being used
for the men already In the field. This
new, gigantic activity Is for the new
army; for men who are to be In the
field In the near future: mostly for
men who have not yet left England.
When one knows the facts about this
new wartime enterprise in London,
tho very streets take on gruesomc-
ness that Is hard to shake on.
Here In . cafe is . merry party Of
pretty English girls and bright-faced
young men, in new uniforms. It Va
almost certain that, among the girls,
are several who are studying to be
nurses. and it is even more certain
that some Of the young men, before
the war Il over, will writhe with the
pain OF shattered bodies. But neither
the death head nor the shadow Of
pain hangs over ire festivities; that
will come later; the thing to do now
is to be merry. !,
But the law OF the averages Of war
has put its mark on this party ard
on every gathering of men and wom-
Ien In England. The spring campaign
Of the English has 1t on the arithmetic
for 1t all is that quarter OF million
men of the new army are to become
casualties The calculations of the
war ONCE are as heartless as fate,
and az sure. They are the horror ~
war put down in icy cold figures. And
when known that this horror Of war
has been worked out in the war ONCE
and that it looms over every gathering
of men and women in London, over
all the streets and cafes and theatres.
one begins to understand the real ter
ribleness OF what Is going on in
Europe.
The English are slow to understand
thing like this: they do not enalyze;
putting two and two together is 2
thing that the average Englishman
doesn't seem to door, at least, no
foreigner ever catches him at 1t. He
goes about his affairs and takes what
comes. The hospital bed-one of the
$50. OO0-is coming for him. The bed
is being made and he Will lie in It.
And the gruesome part Of 1t is he isn't
wounded yet.