Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1915-01-14
AVERAGE NUMBER
OF
SHOW DECREASE
Since hostiIities Have Settled Down TO
Siege Along Rivers and Canals of North
France Number Of Deaths Seem to be
lessening.
AMBULANCE WORK IS MADE
ALL MORE HAZARDOUS
Men Who Fell in Pitched Battles Often
Lost In Concealed Place@They Are
Often Forced to lie In Sight for Days
Before Being Picked Up.

Correspondence of the Associated Press.)
Paris Jan. li.-Since hositilities have
settled down To a siege along the rivers
aud canals of the north, the average num-
Der of casualties per day seems to have
lessened. But the work of the ambulance
department, il all the more hazardous.
Men who fell in pitched battle, were often
lost in concealed places, but what is worse
now j. that they often lie in plain sight
obliged To wait for hours, sometimes for
days before IT is possible for their com
rades TO pick them up. Ii is often too late.
When a man il WOUNDED in the trenches
be is able 10 get back TO the field hospital,
If he can walk; if not he must wait until
night because the trenches are so narrow
that the strenrher bearers can not carry
a wounded man through them: he must he
lifted out and carried back above ground.
When u charge j. made between the lines
of trenches and proves Ia he unsuccessful,
the wounded of course must be left IN too
many cass they are actually sacrificed and
their comrades obliged 10 see them lying
helplcssly between two fires. Sometimes
they see them raise q Ind and occasionally
they hear their despairing crIcs, but To at
tempt TO save them IL out of the question.
Cases have been reported in which men
charging against harbed wire deicnSes and
wounded in the attempt have been left for
days hanging in the tangled wires. The
chaplain Of 4 French regiment. describing
the work Of an ambulance corps after a
great battle. says:
" had a long evening tour 10 make as
We were obliged to visit the advance posts
of Rozcllcres. kcmenon,illc and GMbvil-
srs. Without lanterns, in order not } be
tny our position we advanced Slowl,
over roads gashed by shells and deeply
rutted by heavy artillery. From the hill
tops We saw a rudy glow from burning
villages.
followed by the explosions NJ shells and
through the sky veritable burrows of fire.
ID was all that revealed the sinister pres
ence of hostile armies. The silence wa
impressive at times; cut only by the cav
ing of crows and the reports of artillery.
w ioAHu h'HtiltIfN' uf~fTltN. ruined I.
only q few houses still standing and they
were burning. Renonville was unrccogniz-
able. We found thirty wounded but We
could take only ten of the worst. The
road 10 Gerbervillers. bordercd Nv tall
poplars, runs along the Pru~Sian lines: in
daylight we should nave been wiped out
at was nearly midnight when We
reached The entrance t. the village-ihe
thcater of deadly conflicts fo, ten day.
"Thc hospital there seemed ~ asylum
III hell; alone II stood in the mide, Of the
collapsed town, saved thanks ~ the pres
ence of wounded Germans. Suit 'o ac-
commodate thirty. II sheltered 40 aud
rcekcd with the oder Of blood. powder and
drugs: ue could take only thirty Of the
most serious eases. The task Of sorting
them out was heartrendinc: they were all
IN such sore need. A. we started out The
shells began to fall again thick and fast
all around n and between the roaring
crashes we heard the groanS md ,upplica-
tions of the wounded in the a~mbulancc>
behind: one CRYING constantly for
mother"