Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-05-29

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 Nladivostok
10 Petrograd.
There was one young soldier from
Pragus, Bohemia, who had had ter
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 OPP
Grating table. He emerged with one
leg gone and the other so broken,
bent and twisted that it but little re-
sembled human form.
And yet the man had pleaded with
the doctors for that remnant of a limb.
They wanted to cut 1t off, too, as
we'll as my nsnt hand, but / heard
them talking and l said, Please, good
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 217 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 a 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
six or seven days. All this time he
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 a
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
icumstances. There were the days OF
exposure on the battlefelds which
could not be helped, the poor field ac-
commodations for the wounded, who
had to be cared for in far greater
numbers than anyone had ever antici-
pated, and the hours of neglect due to
I the fact that the doctors had more
work than they could possibly handle
Blood Was His Bed
one prisoner said he lay on the floor
Of house or stable for two days and
the only soft thing about him was his
own blood. His uniform had been
entirely shot away by the explosive
which had cost him leg. Some OF
the soldiers said they had been robbed
by Cossacks as they lay wounded in
the field. money and little trinkets OF
jewelry Icing ruthlessly snatched from
them. II became a custom, the
Austrians said, for the wounded to
turn their pockets inside out as they
lay upon the frozen ground to show
they had nothing and thus escape a
bayonet prod
The Swedish doctors in charge OF
the hospital trains listen to these
stories with indulgent smiles. They
say undoubtedly there have been cases
of great hardship, but the wounded
soldier as a rule is very keen for
sympathy and talks accordingly
There were two pitiful eases of tu-
berculosis on the train. The sands