Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-01-14
WAR MADE HIM HERO
Wounded Austrian Officer Ana
Iyzes His Feelings.
Trust of Soldiers Makes Sedentary
Civilian Strive to Rise to Their
Measure of Him-Surprised
by the Change.
BY HARRY HANSEN.

Correspondent of the Chicago Daily
News.)
Rome, Italy.-When the call to
arms resounds over the land and the
barber, the waiter, the clerk and the
baker leave their tasks to put on the
uniform of their country and become
man-killers, what emotions grip their
hearts, what pictures pass through
their brains?
Few men have availed themselves
of the present extraordinary opportu-
nifty for analytic research. Few have
taken the trouble to recall the emo
tons with which they went to war,
One who has done so is a young Aus
trian lawyer, who has been taken to
Vienna from the battle fields of Ga
licia because he is suffering from a
flesh wound
While lying on his cot he has taken
the time to plot his feelings in the
various experiences through which he
passed in the last few months, and
here it is, translated almost word for
word from the German in which he
told it to a man at his bedside:
when we we're called out | remem-
Der distinctly having two ideas con-
corning the war. First | was filled
with great patriotic enthusiasm, with
| joy that Austria was about to wage
war against our old enemy, Russia.
cat the same time l felt a want of
; confidence in myself l had been, as
1t happened, a long time an officer OF
! the reserves, but felt that l was little
better than an ordinary civilian and
! also was the possessor of a delicate
| taste for the sedentary life. l was a
bit afraid of my own ability to accom-
plish anything, for even If I viewed
myself in the most favorable light it
did not occur to me that I had any he
roic qualities.
"The change that took place in me
was a surprise even to myself. 1 be-
! came commander of a body of sol
diers of a regiment of the landsturmA
largely men of middle age and fathers
! of families, who placed the greatest
confidence in their officer, fact that
! caused me to wish to rise to their
measure Of me. They looked to me
for their safety; thereupon my feel
| ing of responsibility increased and
my military capacity, too.
81 stood drawn to my full height
| in front of the trenches in which my
men sought shelter, and studied the
country with my field glass in tbs
hope of locating the artillery of the
enemy. I did not do this in boast.
full spirit I had only the good of my
men at heart, desiring to make them
perfectly safe.
Gas for life in the trenches, will
you believe that I slept excellently,
even while lying within range of the
enemy's artillery, whose bombs struck
| behind our lines? I became so used
to their noise that fell asleep from
the very monotony of the shots
81 slept and dreamed of a palm in
my own home about which l was wor-
rying because I thought the plant had
not been watered in my absence.
also dreamed I possessed a parrot
and was amusing myself with the
bird
/ "These were only tvas of the peace
full dreams that came to me while /
slept in the field. But my first night
in a quiet place and in a freshly made
bed in Vienna was full of tortures.
Il awoke at 1 a. m. laboring under
the most intense excitement.
dreamed that I had been hit by a
| shrapneI shot. And the bullet hit me
in the arm. Before me, so it appeared,
stood an array Of the enemy's ma
chine guns, belching fire and smoke
I seemed to sink down on the field
and felt a subordinate take the COM
| mand from me.
MANY Of my dreams in the hospital
| have been of this character"