New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-06-18
THE. AMERICAN AMBULANCE. HOoPlIAL
Mr. is and the Su" ills fa"ns
in Treating Wounds and Na'xIay Fractures

etans Of the French colonies who mus. be
specially fed because their religion does no.
permit them TO eat Of the unholy food o.
unbelievers. So a hospital provides proper
menu for them.
Add tho figures and you have 262 solder,
on stretchers 20 be handled by the squad o.
thirty-eight men from the American Ambu-
lance. They marched up the platform In ex.
cellent military formation. The train roilsd
In. and they jumped In, four 10 each o. r.
eight large cars, holding thirty-six men sa4s
In twenty-seven minutes they had cleared
the train and deposited the stretchers on the
platforms. There the wounded pass into the
hands Of French orderlies, who carry them 70
the French doctors in waiting In the station
As quickly as the doctor passed the wounded
the boys took hold again and loaded the an
balances en- route 10 Paris hospitals. 10 vas
all breathless, perspiring work, but w.thog,
a slip.
There is never a slip, and that rs why they
are doing this work The American Ambs-
lance has the job Of unloading thr'e-fourths
of all the wounded that come INFO Paris.
The boys are strong and sure handed, and
the War Ministry rests easy in Letting them
deal with this delicate, important work. They
feel pride in a prompt clean-cu- lob. But,
more than that, they have deep, .rart.clate
desire to make things easier for q man In
pain. saw the boys pick up stre.cher after
stretcher as it lay on the platform and hurry
il 20 the doctor. That wasn't their OBJ a, all
Their job was only 70 unload The .ran bu,
they could not let a wounded man lie waiting
for red tape I watched one lo1g-egged chap
who ran from the job he had just completed
70 each new place OF need. doing three times
as much work as even his strenuous duty
called for.
The Stretcher Carriers.
These boys Of ours, shifting ssretchers,
wheeling legless men 20 place IN the sun,
driving ambulances, are the most fortunate
youth in fifty years. They are being IN.
fected by finer air than any that has blown
through our consciousness since John Browns
time And the older Americans over here
have that Civil War tradition in their blood.
They are gray haired, and some Of them white
haired. For, all over our country, individual
Americans are breaking from the tame herd
and taking the old trail again, the trail OF
hardshps and sacrifce. They have found
something wrong with America. and want 20
make it right. I found it in the man from
a well-to-do lawyer who crossed
in the boat with me. He was gray haired, the
father Of three children, one boy Of twenty
one. He was taking his first real vacation
after a lifetime of concentrated. successful
work. Two days ago / saw him lifting
stretchers out of the Verdun train.
Boys and old men with an equal faith. The
generation that isn't much represented over
here is that Of the in-betweeners men be-
tween thirty-hve and fifty years They
grew up in a time when our national patriot
Ism was sagging, when security and fat profits
looked more inviting than sacrifice for the
common good. Our country will not soon be
so low again as in the period that bred these
total abstaners from the public welfare. The
men and boys who have worked here are going
TO return TO our community Several hundred
have already returned) with profound dis
satisfaction with our national life as 10 has
been conducted in recent years.
have left the American train standing AZ
the platform all this time, but IL rests there
till the afternoon. for IL takes three hours 20
clean it for is trip beck 20 the front Only
three hours-one more swift job for our con-
tingent. II is the best ambulance train IN
France. The huge luggage vans Of the trans
continental expresses were requisitioned. Two
American surgeons and one French mcdicin
chef travel with the wounded men. II carries
240 stretchers and p sitting cases in ire eight
cars for "les bless6s" The five other cars are
devoted to an operating room, a kitchen FOR
bouillon, dining car, a sleeping car for the
surgeons. and the other details OF administra-
ton. Safety, speed and comfort are lbs slogan.
Village and town along It's route turn out
and throng the station 20 see the Train
The exterior Of the cars carries
a French flag at one end and az the other
the American flag. ! like TO think Of our flag.
painted on the brown panel of every car Of
the great train. and brightly secured each
day. going riding through France from Ner-
dun 70 Paris. from Biarritz 20 Revgry and
the thousands Of simple people watching ir
progress. knowing its precious freight Of
wounded, saying lie train American as
they sight the painted emblem T. is where
il belongs side by side with the Trcolor
There isn't great question loose on the
planet to-day where the best Of as isn't IN
accord with the best Of France.
Our Biggest Service to America.
That is the biggest thing We are doing over
here, carrying a message Of good viii from
the User 10 Belfort, up and down and clear
across France. and every town and every
hamlet mas neard not our trumpet Nlaelf
but the whirr Of our rescue motors and the
sweetly running wheels Of our express. To
is one with the work of the Ambulance Hos
pital, where, after the bitter weeks 81 healing
the young soldier Of France receives his dis
charge. Looking on the photograph and p.as-
ter cast of what shell fire had made of him.
and seeing himself restored % 'he old man
ner of man, he has feeling % frend.ness
Americans uyho saved
horror that might have been. The man
whose bed lay next walks OUT on Dds own
two legs instead Of hobbiing crippled fo- fr'
rest Of his life, and he remembers those cu-
rious devices Of swinging spns which
eased the pain and saved The leg Hc GOO.
holds a kindly feeling for The nation thar