The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1918-09-05
MIRACLE OF BATTLEFIELD BURNS
ALL SELF THOUGHT OUT OF YANkS
Hard Boiled Boys, Dropped Into the Furnace OF war; Tome u"
With the Dross Burned Away, Seff-SacrficIng heroes
Hold Back in Suffering for One in Greater Suffer-
ing to Be Cared for First.
av CLARENCE BURLINGTON KELrANo.

They were coming bdCh VNe
hot blast of the great battle-those
bovs of a certain division now FAMOUS
,brouobout France and one day 10 De
fauous throughout the world. Ihey
vara not coming back because they
wanted IN. nor because they had had
enough Of II: they were being brought
on stretehers, wounded, gassed' shell-
shocked, to an advanced dressing sta
tion Some of them seemed just boys
| Ono could see them grit their teeth
m hold back the moan Of pain.
"Hard luck, pal?' said a doctor In
t~errogatively, as the bearers set GOWN
a stretcher in the courtyard.
The boy shrugged his shoulders act
ually shrugged them as well as ne
could. bundled up on that streteher'
and grinned wanly.
"Comin' fine, if I can get you fell
lers to save that foot. She's smashed
plenty. If you can't-all the same"
"Wem run you right In"
"Nix. DO. not me. Pm gettin' past
all right. nothin' but my foot. You
lest femme be here and git busy with
them guys that's hurt. I'm on the
waitin' list"
That was one boy. He belonged to
an outfit that bears a name far ana
wide for being boiled hard. Tough
birds. you hear them called, rough
talking boys with the crust outermost.
If you had seen them a month before
or two months before when they had
not had their purifying in blood ana
fire, you would not have ~prophesied
that they would hold back in suffering
to wait for one in greater suffering TO
be cared for first. 1t was an attribute
that was not apparent to the casual
eye. Hard-boiled, you would have
agreed, and you might have felt a trifie
sorry for the enemy that had to en-
counter them. But you would not have
stood by with tears in your eyes-not
in your eyes, but rolling down your
cheeks-and have muttered again and
again: "Here are menI"
Dross Burned Away.
But now they have felt the scorch-
Ing DEedIn VI war oNftbNAAS NAtS
had been dropped into the furnace and
had come out with dross burned away.
Something had happened. They were
still hard-boiled. Their language was
made up of the same words, but the
words had taken on a new meaning,
their very faces had taken on a new as
pect. In spite of blood and CRIME, and
the discoloration and burn of gas, you
could see that something vas present
there which had been absent before
until you could not see at all for the
flooding of your eyes.
"I-got mine . No use-sport
Ia. Can't do-nothin' for-me
Git-busy with some Of them
boys-you kin-help."
That was the spirit. That was the
thing that had been burned into their
souls by the hot breath of war. They
had forgotten themselves. Jim was
not thinking of Jim but of Mike. Mike
was not thinking of Mike, but of Jack.
Each passed 1t on.
The dressing station was small and
many must lie outside until the men
who were taken In first could be
uated. You heard groans, but amid
the groans you heard CHEEKY, gritty
words. "Oow, that d leg
How's Charlie maxim 1t? Anybody
know? Iseen him git 1t Dow
'They just took Charlie in. He
wasn't sayin' much"
"Say, them stretcher bearers ought
to git the Croy de Gerr. them birds
ought to. See 'em fetch me back with
them shells Dustin like it was rainin'2
And would they hurry? Not a d.
bit. / hollered to them to git a move
on or they'd git busted on the dome,
but that little shrimp says for me to
mind my own business, he was carryin'
that stretcher Afraid If he
hustled he'd shake me up and hurt
me some. Can you beat thatf . . +.
Oooww
"Out of Luck Nothing"
you're next, son." said a lieutenant
doctor. "Where'd you get itT"
LEG and a chunk somewhere in the
chest"
"Out Of luck"
"Out of luck nothln'. Didn't I bay
Onet three of them Germans before
they got me? Eli? . LuckT
The story goes that this division
was 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 a
movement 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 by the
Hun that no American soldier has
ever been called upon to face. But
they had damned the flood; had even
swept it back for a little, and they
were proud.
But their achievement ON the field
was not the great thing that came into
view in those days. II was the spirit
that famed up In their hearts-not