The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-13

iis the papers here of the wonderful good humor and patience" of the wounded
 British "Tommies' had been somewhat
 magnified in the telling, but Robert de Bruce, the American singer, who has been contributing to the entertainment of the wounded men, tells me that their stoicism and good spirits would be diff cult to overestimate.
 De Bruce, whose compositions as well as his singing have gained him an en- viable reputation over here, spent Christ mas at Ascot, where lot of the wounded men are in hospital. not to mention hum dreds more who are waiting to go to the front, and took prominent part in what was practically a continuous performance for their entertainment performance that began on Christmas eve and did not wind up until the close of New Years
 Day.
 "I have never seen," said hc, "such an
 exhibition of pluck and inextinguishabie
 sunniness of temper as was displayed by
 those Tommies, many of them shocking ly wounded and mangled by shrapne
 Only one man out of some j0 was un- deniably moody, and he was fine speci-
 men of manhood who will be forced to have on of his legs amputated. The thought of his future existence without l his limb appeared to be perpetually be- | fore him, and it seemed impossible to 1 cheer him up Determined to do so, how ever, we made him tOastmaster or the dinner which we gave the men on New Years eve with the result that, resolved not to put a wet blanket on the proceed ings he pulled himself together in a marvellous fashion and laughed. joked and told funny stories with the best. "One man in particular who astonished us all,'' added de Bduce, twas Tommy who had been partially paralyzed by a shrapnel wound in the head, piece of the shrapnel being lodged in his brain He had been obliged to teach himself to walk all over again, but had accomplished this after many futile and discouraging attempts, and was as pleased as Punch in consequence. There was another sol dier in the hospital who was in simi- lar case but had not been able to force himself to use his limbs, and who was l decidedly sick in consequence. Up to him one day came the man who could walk with the greeting, Now, old man, you've got to use your pins, too "T can't said the second. mournfully I've tried again and again ana Just can't
 "sYes YOU can, old son. replied the op- timist Now listen to me. I'm paralyzed
 on the right side and you're paralyzed on the left That makes just one normal pair of legs and arms. So you catch hold of me round the waist, and I'll do ditto with you and we'll try few steps "So together they essayed walk, ana with such eventual success that the sec ond man soon gained confidence. and now is able to hobble round by himself, mak- ing better fist of it every day. Kitchener Perturbs Fellow Peers From a back seat in the press gal lery of the House of Lords, (the best that a mere American may obtain) l heard Lord Kitchener deliver, or rather read, his recent big speech about the war, and, like my colleagues, found extreme difficulty in following hiDl. He reads off his typewritten manuscript with great rapidity in anything but powerful voice. and skips over Russian names in particular with disconcerting rapidity.
 The note of rosy optimism which characterized the speech, however, was quite in keeping with Kitchcner's extreme happiness of demeanor. Never has one seen him in brighter spirits. He smiled on his colleagues, smiled on the house, and when Lord Curzon un- successfully tried to draw" him. he smiled most benignly on him also. Kit chener and the Superior purzon, as Lord Curzon has been called. are old foes. of course, who failed to seee eye to eye" when both were in India. with the result that the husband of the late
 Mary Letter of Chicago had to get out. hear, by the way, that the British war lords fellow peers are immensely
 disgruntled by his lack of considera-
 tion for them and the house together.
 They dearly would like to "heckle' d.
 e. cross question him) as they would
 an ordinary war minister, but for this
 they get no chance. Kitchener never
 stays any longer in the painted cham
 ber' than is absolutely necessary. He
 makes his speech-which is always q
 model of concise and soldierly Eng
 lish--listens with Sphinx-like face to
 critics, and then strides out, leaving
 other peers to babble on minor matters
 and less illistrious colleagues to
 smooth the noble critics down.
 The week, by the by. has given us
 two interesting statements by Kitchen
 CT. albeit both at second hand. The
 first was made by the British war
 lords sister. Mrs. Parker. who per
 formed the inauguration of . Tipperary
 club for the wives and mothers of sol
 diers and sailors at Stratford, (not the
 one "on-Avon, but the one in the grub
 by East End of London) the other
 day
 From all can pick up in 1O-ininute
 conversations once a fortnight with
 my brother" she added, "I gather that
 he thinks 1t will last bit ionser--in
 fact. good bit longer. Tho longer it
 lasts the more men will be required,
 and more men we must haye."
 The other statemetn K attributed to
 Lord Kitchener was related by an Eng fish officer at a French officers mess.
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