The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-08-06

THE BIRMINGHAM AG wounded too, inspire cheers. for they are jolly, smiling, cheerful lot
 There are three kinds of wounded in the technical sense-"cot cases" where men are unable to sit up; "sitters' and walkers" It all depends on the nature of their wounds. They are brought to London from the coast in fine hospital trains all specially built since the begin ming of the war. At the stations the wounded are taken to waiting ambu- lances, for the more seriously wounded, and to ordinary motor cars for the sit ters and walkers. Everything is made ready in advance. Officers on the plat form direct the distribution of the wound ed with methodical precision. The public is excluded from the railway platforms.
 But they are not excluded from the streets outside and there the people as- semble in hundreds waiting for the wounded to arrive. At Charing Cross sta- tion, which Is in the heart of London, there are scenes every day as a cheer ing crowd lines the Strand and gives the wounded welcome. Outside Charing Cross station there are always to be found number of women flower sellers. They are of a pronounced cockney type. They seem to be invariably fat, wear rough clothes and always, winter and summer flat straw hats, and they all bear evidence of strong penchant for beer. They cry their wares with !n- sistent vociferousness. One would scarce ly expect from them much emotion, but the stream of wounded which passes their way has moved them to it and every day now they fling roses into passing ambulances Their example has been taken up by others. so their sales are all the greater, and many a wounded soldier has found himself pelted by flow CTS as he was driven slowly through the gates of Charing Cross into the street. The same sort of thing has struck the aged newspaper sellers who stand in that vicinity and often they hurl free copies of their papers into passing ambulances, that the wounded may have the very latest news of what is going on in the place they left behind.
 ABOUT THE NURSES
 Enough will never be said about the British nurses. They have done wonder full work, as heroic, in it's own way, as anything the troops have done in the field.
 The stories the wounded have brought home are wonderful. The censor has lift ed the ban. to a very material degree, and Tommy is allowed to talk. His sim
 
 war correspondents on the spot write, and the finest part of it all is their utter forgetfulness of their own troubles and their cheery optimism as to what has happened and as to what will happen The British army waited for year and a half for this moment and now Tommy Atkins is making the most of it. Of the scores of stories brought home and pub lished in the papers few equal one told by tall, thin private of a North Coun- try regiment wounded in hand, arm and thigh He had bombs to throw had he, when they started out, and this is what happened:
 Aye, it were half-past seven when we started, sir. Twas in a kind of a bit wood, ye know, sir The third line, like, we was; B and company bein' afore us. ye see we could see them movin' in the open, like, past the wood-till the fire caught 'em an they went down like grass. 1 was beside the colonel in the front trench. I carried bombs, ye see. The colonel he was to go wi the last line, after us But when he sees the sec ond line cut down that way an our time come 'Oh damn!' says he-just like that an he ups an over the parapet. Come on, me lads,' he said-like that-an' just that moment he was hit, and kind of staggered, an afore I could get till him, like, he fell backward into the trench again. I doubt it killed him. But we had to go. I had me bombs. We was singing John Peel like mad, all but two or three near. who saw the colonel, an cheerin' to raise the dead.
 T got bullet in me arm here directly l was on parapet, an somehow 1t made me stumble like, an I fell. But I went on as quick as I could, me havin' the bombs, ye see. But yed have wondered to hear how loud our lads were singh an cheering, like at a football match Aye, twas a pity I lost me rifle an bayonet an me cap an all, when I fell then. But I'd the bombs, ye see. I knew we'll we'd need the bombs. Wonderful thick them bullets flew, to be sure. You'd hardly believe it, not havin' bin there, like. Aye, but ye know that part, too. Aye. There's nae trees left there now I'm thinking. It was just past their first line got this one in me hand. bit sore like that was more than the arm; but not so very bad, but what got on all right; till this third one got me here fell in shell hole near by the second line. The pity was, I could ha' used me bombs, like; aye, I could from there, but was afeard o'killin' our own lads. But Lance-Corporai -, he took em on from me, an I lay a long while Near along evening time I could see our stretch CT bearers coin out behind, an hoppin' back wi a wounded man when they could. But them Boches is dirty devils They saw the stretchers, an every time the bearers showed up they turned a gun on 'em. an they swep' the ground very low to kill off the wounded. They got all our stretcher bearers that way, after a bit, just one after the other, as they tried to work. They've no decency like, they Germans.
 'So just kind ohumped myself along, as ye might say But they fired when they saw a move an then I got into trench, an they couldn't see me crawl. I came to where the dead lay blockin' the way, an I didn't like to crawl on top O they. But I saw they was Huns, 1 an outside, ye see, the bullets come pretty thick. so I crawled on 'em, till I found