The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1917-12-24
WHAT WAR REALLY
| MEANS IS TOLD BY
| ENGLISH VISITOR
American People Will Not
Feel Results Like People
of Europe, Is Stated
RED CROSS WORK WILL
REMEDY WAR HORRORS
Trucks Bearing Red Cross Insignia
Carry Desperately Wounded Men
Through the Streets of
London

the Red Cross is doing cover there" is
the opinion of Robert Badham who has
four stalwart sons in the army service
OF the United States, and some of them
in the war stricken French zone. The
article in question is Lady Marys an
swer to the question as to whether she
believed that the American people were
realizing what the war meant In speak
ing of the matter, Mr.. Badham request
ed the reproduction of the article in
question as means of further Impress
ing the people here with the realization
of what a nation at war really means
and the great necessity Of Red Cross
work. The article follows:
REALIZING THE WAR
Somebody asked me the other day
if / thought that American, was real
izing the war L took minute or two
to consider the question and then my
answer was that as a nation she was
aroused to her depths, but that super
ficially she regarded it merely as a
rather elusive, though disturbing fact.
"Of course individually the war and
| it's horrors strikes a note that few of
us can escape, but it is impossible at
this distance across a waste of waters
for the mass of humanity to feel the
| result of war as people in England and
France feel it and hear it and know it,
"You lucky people over here will never
stand at railway depots watching Red
Cross trains come in from seaport towns
bearing their burden of wounded men,
YnII will "a he rf
railway yard looking at a grim process
sion of army ambulances filled with
mangled, suffering men who have been
through it, and have come back to Eng
land to be nursed into something APP
preaching health and strength.
SICKENING TRAGEDIES
when your soldiers return they will
be on the fair road to recovery and
you will feel the splendid triumphs
rather than the sickening tragedies Of
their heroic deeds
Il watched many loads of United
Ftates army men the other day driv-
ling along Fifth avenue in motor
buses. They were all whole men, men
whose hardships had SO far been
bounded only by the life in train
ing camp. The sight took my mind
/ back to London, where motor omni-
busses lumber along laden with men
without legs or arms or eyes, with
| men whose faces have been shot into
horrible travesties of humanity, men
who have just escaped with their lives
Then it is that those who watch
and wait in the safe security of their
homes know what war really means.
Then it is, you women of America,
that you need to take your courag sc
| in both hands and try to control the
madness of your sorrow
OUTSIDE CHARITY WORK
"Once I stood in a crowded outside
Charing Cross station when hos
pital train was unloading it's terrible
freight. Beside me was girl and with
her an elderly woman. The girl was
the wife of her companions son and
| they were waiting to see if he ar
rived with other wounded men by this
special train. The elder woman was
trembling; the tears were rolling down
her cheeks. The girl was white as
death and her eyes looked like living
Goals burning in the ashy whiteness
Soon an ambulance slowly rolled
through the gates and the old woman
moaned. saw the girl stiffen and lay
hold of her arm Her lips opened and
l heard a harsh, hoarse voice say,
Smile, damn you, smile" and the old
woman and the young girl stood there
with their stiff lips set into smile
lest the man they both loved should
see the agony they were suffering.
And that, to my mind. is the hero
ism of supreme unselfishness the sort
of feeling that this war is begettinS
in the hearts of all real women. While
our men fight with their bodies we
with our souls and hearts must fight
to Tighten their mental burdens. This
is the lesson the war is teaching the
women of France, the women of Eng
land, Of Italy, of America-"SmiIe,
damn you, smiler"