Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1918-09-09
UNCLE SANS YOUNGSTERS
SHOW GRIT AND GAMENESS

They were coming back out of the
hot blast of the great battle. those
Toys of a certain division now IA
NOUS throughout France, and one
day to be famous throughout the
world, writes a correspondent from
over there" They were not coming
lack because they wanted to, nor be-
cause they had had enough Of 1t;
they were being brought on stretch
ere, wounded, gassed, shell-shocked,
to an advanced dressing station.
Some Of them seemed Just boys. One
could see them grit their teeth to
hold back the moan of pain.
Hard luck, pal?" said a doctor
interrogatively as the bearer set
down a stretcher in the court yard.
The boy shrugged his shoulders,
actually shrugged them, as well as he
could, bundled up in that stretcher,
and grinned wanely.
Comm fine If | can get you fell
lere to save that foot. She's smash
cd plenty. If you caH't-all the
sac"
Wen run you right in"
mix, bo, not me. I'm gettin past
al right, nothin but my foot. You
Jest lemme be here and git busy
with them guys that's hurt. I'm on
the watin' list"
That was one boy. He belonged
to an outfit that bears a name far
and wide for being "boiled hard.
Tough birds" you hear them called
rough talking boys with the crust
outermost. If you had seen them
month before or two months before
when they had not had their purify
ing in blood and fire, you would not
have prophesied that they would
hold back in suffering to wait for
one in greater suffering to be cered
for first.
But now they had felt the scorch-
ing breath of war. Suddenly they
had been dropped into the furnace
and had come out with dross burned
away. Something had happened.
T'hey were still hard-boiled. Their
language was made up of the same
words, but the words had taken on
q new meaning, their very faces hal
taken on new aspect. In spite OF
blood and CRIME, and the dlscolora-
tion and burn of gas, you could see
tnat something was present there
which had been absent before.
The story goes that this division
vas called upon to stop the rush of
five times its number. The story
goes farther and says they not only
stopped the rush, but caused move
lncnt in the other direction. 1t was
not an affair of hours but of days,
days Of constant, bitter hand-to-
hand fighting with horrors added
Ey the Hun that no American sold
led has ever been called upon to
face But they had damned the
flood; had even swept it back for
little, and they were proud.
But their achievement on the field
was not the great thing that came
into view in those days. 1t was the
spirit that famed up in their hearts,
not merely spirit of courage, of
daring, of heroism against odds, but
q spirit Of altruism, of love for the
other fellow. Somewhere in that
holocaust those hard-boiled boys had
gotten it, and the manifestations of
Il that night in the little court yard
before the dressing station made the
spot one never to be forgotten by
those who witnessed it.
One boy was brought in with
broken leg. 1t had been an acci-
dent and not wound won in bat
tie. He had gotten in the the way
of a motor truck.
Jest fix me up out here what you
can" he said.
You get to the hospital, son."
mix. Hospitals for those fell
lows that's hurt. just got a busted
pin You fix me here and leave me
here. q" When you git chance"
Somewhere. some time, they had