The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-09-05

! All lhlSl OollhS dSSOuht VI
the work of the American ambulance
during the Verdun attack is given
in an article written for the Septem-
der Southern Woman's Magazine by
Frank Hoyt Gailor, who was for some
time member of the field service of
the American ambulance at Neuilly.
| Mr.. Gailor, who is son of Bishop
Gailor, is grduate of Sewanee, where
he won many honors as an athlete
and student. He draws many strik-
F., ing pictures, one of which follows:
| 1.-THE picture of the attack that will
, stay with me always is that of the
Grande route north from Barbecue;
covered with snow and ice Of the
last days of February. The road was
always filled with two columns Of
trucks, one going north and the other
coming south. The trucks, loaded
with troops, shells and bread, rolled
and bobbled back and forth with the
,graceless,u ncertain strength of baby
elephants. 1t was almost impossible
to steer them on the icy roads. Many
of them fell by the wayside, over
turned, burned up, or were left appar-
emily unnoticed in the ceaseless tide
lof traffic that never seemed to hurry
or stop.
"At nights on the main road I have
watched for hours the dimmed lights
of the 'camions' winding away north
and south like the coils of some giant
and luminous snake which never
stopped and never ended. 1t was i'm
,pressive evidence of great organiza-
ton that depended and was founded
on the initiative of it's members. Be-
hind each light was unit, the driver,
whose monetary negligence might
throw the whole line into confusion.
Yet there were no fixed rules to save
!him from using his brain quickly and
surely as each crisis presented itself.
III must be continually awake to avoid
any one of a thousand possible mis-
chances. The holes and ice on the
road, his skidding car, the cars pass
ing in the same and opposite direc-
ltions, the cars in front and behind,
the cars broken down on the side OF
the road-all these and many other
things he had to consider before US.
ing brake or throttle or making his
way along"
One Man to a Car.
Mr.. Gailor was connected with the
Service des Autos" as a driver in
section No. 2 of the field service of
Neuilly. "We had the usual French
Isection of twenty ambulances and one
staff car, but, unlike the other sec.
tons, we had only one man to car, "
he said. There were two officers
one the chief of section, Walter Low
ell, graduate of Harvard university
and formerly a member of the Bos
ton Stock exchange, and George Rod
err mechanical officer in charge of the
: supply parts and the repair of cars
: Before the war he took his Phi. d
; land was a promising bacteriologist Of
the Rockefeller institute.
/ "In such a crisis as those first days
, around Verdun, ammunition and fresh
men are the all-essential things. The
wounded are the 'has-beens' and sc
Z must take second p lace; but the
J French are too gallant and tender
hearted not to make sacrifices.
81 remember one morning l was
slapped off the road with broker
axle, while passing a solitary cannon
The driver got down and apologize(
for the accident, which was easily hal
: my fault. Then we unloaded foul
q cases of 'seventy-five' shells that h,
5 was carrying and put my three wound
9 ed men in on the floor of his car HI
sat out slowly and carefully up tn,
ice-covered road, saying to me will
u a smile as he left, Don't let tn,
Boches get my "marmites" while
d am gone
i Misery Of Peasants.
Mr. Gatlor vividly described thu
misery of the peasants when thei
homes were destroyed and they wer
/ forced to seek refuge in other towns
l. He tells of their pitiful attempts t
save some of their household furnish
( ings as their homes we're being d.
L stroyed by shells and fire. and Of thei
~ terror during the heavy lombard
ments.
One of the finest and most beaut
full decorations in the story is tina
D. of the Smelling of the cathedra
. when the shells fell on the cath,
dral." writes Mr. Gailor, "ther
sprang up white cloud, while on til
= red tiles and zinc roofs they explode