Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-05-19
HOPELESSLY HURT
MEN EXCHANGED
Germans and Austrians Sent
From Russia; Constant
Line of Trains

Stockholm, Sweden. April -, Glad
in great coats of West Point gray, the
first of the hopelessly wounded Ger
man and Austrian prisoners of war
to come out of Russia this year. pass
exchange for the helpless and hapless
Russians who had been sent home
from the German hospital camps. The
Austrians and Germans were a more
cheerful lot than the stolid, silent
Russians and seemed to have a more
definite idea of their future life.
"It Is nothing" said one young
Austrian with his right leg gone and
two fearful scars on his face; II am
a jeweler by trade and my hands are
as good as ever"
undertaken by the Swedish Red Cross
is a gigantic affair. Effective May 15
three trains running weekly in each
direction from the Finnish frontier to
the southern reaches of the Baltic can
handle but comparatively few of the
men so hopelessly used up that the
warning nations are glad to get rid
of them. Some statistician claiming
to have knowledge of the situation has
declared that with trains running
daily all the year round ii would take
ten years to complete the transport of
the human WaStrel or war now neld
in Russia and Germany.
"Must Be Millions"
One of the wounded Austrians on
the first train coming from Russia
was asked how many of his comrades
were left in Russia.
oh" he replied, there must be
a million of them"
This prisoner said he had been "all
over Russia" and that few war pris-
oners, either wounded or whole of
skin and limb, were permitted to re-
main in one camp more than month
or two. He was wounded in August
last and said he must have been in
every hospital camp from Vladivostok
to Petrograd.
There was one young soldier from
/ Pragus, Bohemia, who had had a ter
I rible experience. He was in the
cavalry and was riding in a charge
when a shrapnel shell burst just be-
meath him. The horse was killed
and the rider was wounded 81 times.
/ Seven times he was placed on the op-
Grating table. He emerged with one
leg gone and the other so broken,
| bent and twisted that 1t but little re-
sembled human form.
And yet the man had pleaded with
! the doctors for that remnant of limb.
They wanted to cut it off, too, as
we'll as my rISnt hand, but | heard
]
Mr.. Doctor, don't cut off my other
leg and my hand! At last they let me
go he said.
The hand was SCARED in many
places but seemed otherwise to be
perfectly useful. But in time of war
amputation is such an effective and
expeditions treatment.
Manned and Mangled
Each man of the pit on board the
train from Russia had his own thrill
ing story to tell Each one had tasted
the utmost of the bitterness of war
and some seemed so badly manned
and mangled that even Death had re-
fused to accept them.
There was one poor fellow moving
about the train with sheepskin pads
on his knees and both feet gone.
ME no go any more" he smiled in
broken English when he learned that
The Associated Press correspondent on
board the hospital train was an Amer
lean.
And boom, boom, boom no good
either" he added. mImicking the roar
of battle This man had lain wound
ed for days with his feet in half
frozen stream. When found he was
more dead than alive. Up to the
time he lost consciousness he said he
must have been lying out of doors for
heard the screech and roar of shells
passing above his head and occasion
ally exploding about him. Anyone of
them, he said, would have been q
welcome end to his agony But now
he was smiling and cheerful on his
way "home." He did not know what
he could do when he got there for he
had been a horseshoer by trade and
a horse-shoer without feet is not of
much account.
Some of the prisoners complained
bitterly of their treatment at the hands
of the Russians, but the more intelli-
gent of the wounded soldiers declared
that while their lots had been hard
they realized the Russians had done
all they possibly could under the cir
cumstances. There were the days of
exposure on the battlefields which
could not be helped, the poor field ac-
commodations for the wounded, who