The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-05-11
HER FIRST WOUNDED
SOLDIER IN BATTLE
THE EXPERIENCE BEHIND TEFE
FIRING LINE OF AN ANIERT~
CAN RED CROSS NURSE.
THOUGHT DOCTOR uNHUMAN
Stretchar Bearers Unfeelmgly Drop
Their Wounded ComP&de on the
Rough Streets. Thought Dressing
of Wound Delicate Process

Rough Streets. Thought Dressing
of Wound Delicate Process.
LONDON.-An American girl who
recently volunteered for service with
Red Gross ambulance in Belgium
sends the following account of her
first case:
THE eommandant doctor with
whom 1 was assigned to work had
taken me far up toward the trent,
where a Belgian battery was station
ed. While he attended to some trif-
ling injuries there came the sound
of cannonading, and news that the
Germans were attacking the very sec
ton where we were working.
Suddenly, at what seemed the last
minute of safety, two Belgian stretch
er-bearers, without a stretcher, rush
man badly wounded somewhere up
the road. l found a stretcher and
went off with them to look for him.
1--WE went on and on. 1t probably
wasn't more than 500 yards, but it
seemed like a very long ways-it
seemed impossible to find the man.
Then some women came running and
pointed out the place. The stretcher
bearers hurried off with their stretch
err. / followed.
Looked Horribly Torn.
"The man, harribly hurt, with a
wound like red pit below lis shout
der blades, was brought and laid on
the stretcher. He lay there quietly
on his side, in posture of utter
resignation to anguish.
He was a Belgium peasant, clum-
silly built, he had a broad, rather ugly
face, narrowing suddenly as the
fringe of his whiskers became a lit
tie struggling beard. But to me he
was the most beautiful person 1 had
ever seen. l loved him. He was
my first wounded man.
81 tried-I still try-tO persuade
myself that if l hadn't bullied my
two bearers and repulsed an attempt
to get my stretcher away for some
other patients, he would have been
left behind in that little house. We
got him out of the yard all right, and
horror. the bearers dumped him down
on the paving stones. They said he
was much too heavy They cOuldn'
possibly carry him unless they rest
ed.
81 didn't think it was exactly the
moment for resting, and told them
so in several languages. The Ger
mans were likely to come around the
turn in the road at any time. You
never know!
''But the bearers stood stolidly in
| the middle of the road and mOpped
their faces and puffed. The situation
began to be as absurd and terrible
as a nightmare. So I grabbed on one
end of the stretcher and said | would
carry it myself, l said I wasn't very
strong, and perhaps couldn't do it,
| but anyhow / would try.
Dumped Wounded Man in Street.
"They picked it up at once then
and started off at swinging trot
over the rough paving stones, jolting
NV poor patient horribly. I suggest
ed that they walk on the smooth path
at the side. They hailed this sug-
gestion as most brilliant and origi-
nal idea.
"As my patient was brought into
/ the village where the battery was sta
toned, the ambulance had got the
wounded and ready to go. But he
had to have his wound dressed. He
lay there in the middle of the street
and 1 had to watch while the surgeon
stuffed his wound with antiseptiC
gauze. I always supposed that the
dressing of a wound was cautious
and delicate process. But it wasn't
There was a careless audacity about
it. The surgeon worked rapidly, un-
moved, as if he were stuffing an old
crate with stray. And it was all over
in a moment or two. There seemed
something indecent in the haste with
which my Belgian was disposed of.
'Then the surgeon remarked casu-
ally that my patients wound didn't
amount to much. 1T looks much
worse than it really is he said.
felt hurt as if this beloved person had
been sighted, also as if there had
been some subtle disparagement of
my find"