Norwich bulletin., 1918-04-27

Writing from a base hospital in France, Dr. Leslie Tracy Gager, form erly of The Bulletin reportorial staff, bears witness to the high quality of the men in the. American Expedition ary force who have come under his ob servation in hospital work.
 He writes as follows:
 Base Hospital IS,
 A. E. F., France.
 March 2e, 1918. Dear MT. Oat: A day or two ago box from you and Mrs. Oat made its appearance at our company post office, and l can assure both of you that it was highly appreciated and that. it's contents are pleasing to a number oe palates that get more or less weary with the 112notonous-though abund- ant-army ''chow'' Although rather delay in a. quarterrnaster' depot ;n Paris-everythi was in ex- cellent condition.
 It is half a year, I think, since last wrote you, and during this time many things have happened, most of them having little of the spectacular but of fundamental importance iii preparing for what now is just ahead of us. We | have seen hospital wards spring up a1- y around us, other hospital units have come into this area f~om time to time along with infantry and engineers the ! colorei troops of a draft regiment be- i ing our latest arrivals. The newcom 1 CTS arrive, stay a while and train and 1 then pass on, leaving us behind. have been in the zone of advance-so- called-since July 11th--and my first war service chevrons fell due on Jan uary 11th. There are not many in the army who are ahead of us-just a few 1 companies out of Pershing's First 4di i vision who marched in Paris on July 1 4th and then came up here week
 ahead of us.
 In a professional way the past few months have been particularly illum- mating to a young medical student fresh to ward work and the close touch with q wide variety of very human pa tients. The more I see of the rank
 and file of our Expeditionary Force, the lhigher my opinion goes up. They are 8 splendid body of men. think of men had on my medical ward last fall There was powerful chap who could hardly speak English and we thought he was pretty poor material until we i learned he had seven languages other than ours on his tongue, was an ex- J and had come to New York a year ol
 So ago, only to get drawn back into
 army life again. Opposite him was an
 other trooper-a sergeant in the Head
 quarters troop of a division that has
 long since been at the front. He was a Harvard graduate, the son of a dis
 tinguished Boston physician, and wa:
 learning the cotton manufacturing business when the guard was called
 out-and soon after-quite unexpect edly put on ship-while oStensibiy or the way to g southern training sta
 tion-and brought over. Next was :
 Brown man, the manager of a fac l tory-the Page and Shaw candy fac
 tory to be exact-and next to him wa! l another chap who couldn't talk goot , English-though he could Italian ant : French, and was a competent bridgt worker and 50 it went down the ward , My old medical ward, there will neve be another like it, with our fights ant arguments over diagnoses. and ou
 glory in successes, and our sorrows too, for not all who die for their coun try fall in the trenches or over tn
 top. Will not forget the young en gineer, a. Boston Tech seIricf and so1 of a millionaire who struggled so des
 perately and so bravely to the las : | W1Si1 eb tIldL uIluo the conditions of France, became al
 most 6 new disease entirely Nor on of my own classmates and best friend
 who, while working in the hosptta . laboratory got in a way we've neve fathomed-an overdose Of typhoi
 bacilli, He ran a most severe cours of the fever. The night we discovers
 his first intestinal heInorrhage is in delible in my mind. It was Decen ! ber cold beyond freezing. It was clear star-lit night, the Boche cam
 over on an air raia, every light in tn
 camp went out. We had to work wit . a feeble lantern; we made our dis 7 covery with the aid of a match later there was a perforation, we operate , l within two hours; but he died. Onl n last week I got letter from hi Q mother out in North Dakota-full e q gratefulness for what little we'd done $ almost heart-broken. but very, yer
 proud of her son in France
 : But I'm way off the track with thes 5, hospital happenings of what is go!n d on outside. We'll, we don't know muc
 lrno7-e about the war tIaar YOU do-