The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1917-07-14

''It was at held hospital, some
three kilOmeters behind the frcrcn
lines at There were five Of us,
fol,c women and a doctor, besides a
handful Of orderlles, In tiny stone
cottage, selected chiefly because 1t was
placed in a hollow. out Of sight Of the
prylng eyes of brother Boche. and the
only habitatlon with roof for many
miles, Three Of US slept by day In the
hayloft over the clubhouse the
fourth made dressings and took her
rest by night.
"We had become so hardened 10 the
thunder Of the guns, that it took quite
a furious cannonading to lure us out to
watch the shells dropping over the
horizon. The busiest time was at
sunset, when lie Hun sings a special
song Of hate, before BE subsidies for his
nights sleep. The darkness brought
a snakelike procession Of stretcher-
bearers up from the communicating
trenches that wound back and forth
until dawn. The men were laid on
straw on the earthen floor of the sta
Bile, while two Of us, as fast as they
came in, cut of clothing, bound up
slight wounds and gave them water
some we never even touched,
and before morning there would be
fresh-made graves in the cemetery be-
meath the cottonwood by the door. AS
the men were ready, they were passed
into the only room that the house
boasted where the doctor, assisted by
the fourth nurse. operated, or dressed,
as the case required then
they were shifted into the ambulances
that hummed up to the door all night
long, and hurried away to the base.
or the sanitary trains l have
seen two hundred brought in In
nsght.
1T was one still, sunny day In April,
when a bright-eyed German snlper
from his roost in a tree, must have
sighted our Red Cross, floating from
its pole. and communicated our range
TO headquarters. l remember think.
ing, as I climbed the ladder, dog-ured,
TO our loft, how unusually peaceful
If seemed, under the blue spring sky.
Brief peace / was dragged out
Of a sound sleep an hour later, by an
orderly, who announced that the doe
tor thought that the 'Sacres Boches'
were trying for us, and that we were
to evacuate at once they had
already teiephoned for the ambu.
lances.
''Trying for us thought 1t looked
more like successl AS 1 came down,
q shell whined in my ear, and sheared
off limb Of the cottonwood; the time
made info that house would have
delighted the heart Of track coach
We had some twenty men in there,
and by the time the first ambulance
drew up, they were ready, wrapped in
blankets.
I'VE loaded them in, spurred on by /
uneomfortably close plops Z.
and bangs behind US no one
stopped to look .,.. sightseeing
wasn't healthy just thenl Doctor X.
and three orderlies were taking down
the operating table. and gathering up
the instruments we women
jumped into the next-to-last car, and
I took the head of wounded man
on my knees to ease the jolts.
I've couldn't have gone more than
300 feet, when something dropped out
of the sky with a shrek, and the whole
cottage few apart in a. geyser of
stones and timber, overturning the mo-
tor on top Of the driver incidentally
saving his llfe) and riddllng our can
vas top with debris. Instinctively.
I had dropped my head on the breast
Of the soldier on my knee, but as the
storm OF fragments subsided, he
me by the arm. Madame,
he gasped, 'voyez le drapeaur
Il followed his finger. Over
the smoking ruins. against the sunset,
serene on its staff, still fioated our
flag, with its blood-red cross r'-Caro.
line S. Weed.
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