Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1915-11-20
SEES WAR HORRORS
stretcher Bearer Gives tTprss.
sions of Life at Front.
10 Nearly Overcome by Sight Of First
Operation Till Given SLAP BY sur
peon--Dare Not Tell Men
Truth.

Vtllers- Cotterete.--We had Just ien
the hospital and had reached the sta
ton. We were exchanging chances Of
Joy and shaking hands, saying Paris!
We are going TO see Paris again" The
train was waiting on o siding. We
climbed into 1t; the hospital atten-
dants placed US In our seats.
There l heard D conversation that
struck me more than has any other
since the beginning OF the war. Ono
of the soldiers In our carriage. doubt.
less In confidential mood that day.
began to relate the Impressions Of his
life as a military hospital Attendant.
1T was In the early days Of the war.
I had received q commission AZ
stretcher bearer In a hospital ut Nice.
The first wounded arrived; long trains
we're filled with them; they had lain
on the straw or the cara throughout
the interminable Journey across
France In slow military trains, which
we're constantly delayed. Many died
on the way; others were landed here
and there In heaps. How feverishfy
we had to work; there was not min
ute to be lost.
II remember the terrible slap the
head surgeon gave me the first day he
entered the operating room, when !
was ordered to hold wounded sol
| der whose leg was being amputated,
| The odor, the cruel sight of the opera
| ton, caused me to turn as white az
death, and was about to faint. That
blow brought me quickly to my
senses. | have seen worse sights
| since!
I'VE spent some terrible moments
| OF anguish there. We had no anti
tetanus serum; we had written and
telegraphed everywhere TOR It, but the
hospitals which had II kept II jeal-
ously and 1t was impossible to obtain
any.
II recall one OF the finest men ]
have ever known, charming com.
rade, who was wounded In the foot.
| His wound was not serious; at the
end OF two weeks II had healed. Then
one night he felt a stiffness In his
| neck; his mind began to wander, his
muscles to contract. He was done
for All we could do was to relieve
| his suffering.
| Whenever q patient had an attack
| OF this nature we dared not tell him
what 1t was. He was sent to spe-
cial hospital; II wasn't Q hospital, II
was a morgue. He went there to die.
! Finally, one day we heard that
serum could be procured at fantas.
tic price in Italy. The doctor immedi-
ately requisitioned the swittest auto
mobiles he could find in Nice. The
next day we had serum and tetanua
disappeared.
/ THE recollection of this period 10
/ not more terrible than that Of the
/ days | spent In Arras as stretcher
bearer during the fierce combats OF
i Notre Dame de Lorette. / was there
month gathering the dead and
wounded; witnessing the most terri
BILE mutilations; my ears filled with
the groans Of men. The work WAS
hard; we had to carry the Aen away
on our backs, for the approaches were
too narrow to permit OF the use OF
stretchers. More than one died on
my back.
Il am old; I'm forty-six. I was taken
from the trenches, and am now one
OF the conductors OF this train Of
wounded.
DAY before yesterday we had 4
wounded soldier whose head was q
mass OF bandages, with Q little hole
in the place of his mouth. Another
hospital attendant and were curious
enough to raise his bandage. His taa
indicated that his nose and the lower
part of his face had been torn away
by the splinter of shell. BY luck
he had not lost his sight, His wounds
had been cleaned and disinfected; q
pieea of skin had been removed from
his back and applied to his face; In
this q round hole was made through
WHICH ITO Wun hVus nhN @eiStMef
through which he breathed. Liquid
food was given him by means Of q
/ rubber tube.
And those poor unfortunates whose
limbs have been amputated! / saw
one whose two arms and q leg had
been cut of. He had received more
than 200 shell splinters;. the greater
| part were small, like pinheads."
AS we listened to this man, sad and
serious, fine tall Moroccan, who WA
wounded, got up from his seat Hin
eyes were filled with tears and b
started to talk with fierce energy;
| why French take care boch'
wounded7 After war they 20 home
have many children; begin war agair
| with children, and war NO good
Fronch stupid. Boches. kill ail. al
bad men. Whsn no more bocnes, ns