The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-08-19
SOIL OF TRENCHES
State Journal Correspondent
Tells of Wounded in Paris.
Herbert Flint Helped Unload a
Train From Front.
SOLDIERS BRAVE AND PATIENT
No Complaint of Pain Despite
Their Sorry Condition.
Bandaged Heads Out of Every
Window of Train.
SOLDIERS BRAVE AND PATIENT
BY HERBERT FLINT.
axe .IournaI CORRESPONDENT.

unload a train of wounded from the
Somme front reaching Paris at La
ChappelIe station, at the north end
of the city. I thought you might
like to know how the wounded are
handled: so here goes
I was enabled to go through the
kindness of A. Piatt Andrew, the di-
rector of the field ambulance service
at the American hospital here, and
personally accompanied Alfred
WadeIl, K. q. 1914, who is q member
of the ambulance squad At the hos
pital at &c minutes to five we received
notice that a train of wounded would
land in Paris at SIS; SO things began
to hum at once in the yard full of big
Buick ambulances- Wadeu got me an
old uniform overcoat and cap and
thanks to Andrews got me through
the police surveillance without any
difficulty.
There were about twenty ambu-
lances in the convoy In order to pre-
serve order We went all in string,
about forty feet apart, and unbelieve-
ably, even appallingly fast through
the crowded streets. half way across
Paris from the west to the northeast
| We stopped for nobody and incidental
| ly were always running down some
| old man or lot of women loaded
down with cabbage and radishes and
so on. And we were always at war
] with the drivers of the innumerable
red taxis, between whom there has
grown up a deadly feud- An am
bulance always has the right of way
over all other cars, and may break all
traffic regulations, but of course the
taxis are the street urchins of the
automobile world, and they try to run
all sorts of bluffs on the ambulance
boys But we got there without kill
ing anybody just in time to marshal
our cars in the waiting room Of the
station before the hospital train back
ed in.
The Receiving Station
The receiving station for the wound
| ed Is an old freight station rooted
over and touched up especially for
this work, and is the only one Of the
sort in Paris On the west side of it
| is a single track. At the north end
of the enclosure the cars are station
/ ed and opened down ready for the
wounded. Then to the south end of
the platform is the actual receiving
place. Here the wounded are brought
from the train and laid out and fed
little something before being taken
away; a process which in all takes
about an hour from the time the train
arrives. This part of the station Is
adorned more or less with ferns and
flowers and made to look as cheerful
large corps of nurses and doctors who
feed the poor devils and see that they
are in good shape for a rough trip in
the ambulances.
7 Hang Them In Stretchers.
The laying out of the wounded
| taken from the train is interesting.
/ The receiving section on the south has
number of small buildings filled
with rude cots without bottoms, on
which the stretchers containing the
wounded are hung up These houses
are mostly for winter use. Then there
! fe T0S
of green poles every so often where
| the wounded are also hung up" in
stretchers while being fed Two posts
will be just as far apart as 4 stretcher
is long On one side of these there
| is q notch to hold one side of the
stretcher. Then down from the top
of each post runs a short rope which
| loops over the outside handle of the
stretcher, singing his cot upthere, you
see. Just as an upper Pullman berth
is suspended from one side of the rail-
way car. It was a marvel to me that
| the ropes didn't break or the loops
slip off and let some poor fellows fall
to the floor. But on the other hand,
you should see how carefully the
awkward college bows are with these
wounded-always letting the stretcher
down as carefully as one would a sick
baby, and taking the greatest care to
keep the stretcher level, the two main
points of stretcher work.
Bandaged Heads Everywhere.
Well, just before the train rolled
in the boys were lined up and num-
! oered off and marched to their posi-
tons on the platform to take the
| wounded out of the train. As the train
| slowly backed in 1 could see bandage
| heads everywhere along its length.
| However, It happened to be a very
small train. with only about 125
| wounded on 1t was not one of the
fine specially designed hospital trains,
either, but one improvised from the
small French box cars, which are
Just one half as long as an American
oox car and six times as hard riding
In each of these dinky cars there
were eight hunks, uppers and lowers,
pretty rude, you bet, the actual COM
rorts or Pullman bedding and springs
l being supplied by lots of heavy blau-
kets and pillows to rest broken legs
and cracked heads. OF course there
were doctors and nurses with the
train, but at that il must be HI to
ride hundred and fifty miles in those
Things, over the none too smooth
French railways, with little ventiIa-
ton and fragments of German shells in
your marrow.
i Many We're "Sitters."
i 1t happened this time that most of
the wounded were not serious cases
but were "sitters" able to walk from
the train with little assistance But
found plenty of others unable to get
out, and grabbing one end of a
stretcher with a IA year old French
boy scout at the other, 1 did my Bit
and cleaned out most of the uppers in
one car.
Sometimes we merely held the
lstretcher up and the man was able to
drag himself upon it; at other times a
third man had to assist the poor devil
| over onto the cot Then we gently
Il lowered him to the floor and when
the path was clear lifted him off onto
the platform and laid him down to one
side From this. place a lot of French
stretcher bearers took him out and
hung him up in the feed lott already
| described where the doctors and
/ nurses did the rest.