Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-09-26
Those Heroes
Hardest ried
By Frederic ]. Haskin

| never psFNa1rs fftif lilatss nv tihi'H'
enters il but the friendly darkness o.
night Yet those who live here have
eternal night for their portion.
IT is the estate of Mrs. 7. Harrison
Garrett wealthy woman Of Baltimore
and for the period of war, Inns been
taken over by the government aa a
hospital for blinded soldiers. II Is known
as General Hospital No. Z. There arc
now twenty siehtess patients at the
| hospital
II the veteran who has seen much
of war, who has fought with his comrades
| dropping about him. who has bcheld
from all angles the cruel suffering wrought
by war if such soldier were asked
what he most feared very likely he
would answer That | may lose my
| sight
DARk rtfruRE Nor HOPELESS.
| II may be hat those men who are
now IN the hospital at Roland Park
held something of the same fear IN their
| hearts II may be that realization came
to them first with terrible and over
| powering sense of hclpeesncss But
| II they had grief. they hd IL we'll, and
now they have genuinely lost il They
spend their time learning things which
| will ft them for the rcst of life. not
| desperately. bpt cheerfully and with
n cheerfulness not born or stimulation
A middle-aEed man. accompanied by
Young woman. was lraving the hospital
few DAYS ago pefore passing through
The gate the man spoke to ono Of the
medical officers
"G'eorgr is happy he said, almost
with q ztnile 1t first thought he
didn't want us fo know how badly il
hurt HIM Hut now ! believe he's really
happy
lie spoke Of George Calvert IF Syracuse
who lost his sight in the fighting If
| early June Ills father with a daughter
was IN Detroit when q notification from
the War Department reached him that
his son had hecn blinded and was in
vnlided home The journey 10 Halti-
more WINS filled with heart breaking
tnlsgivinga lie fanoied bis son crushed
untler the aiilctlon which had brfalien
him lie pictured him hopeless end
helpless for The rest Of his davz lie
found him confident. cheerful with
boyish eage,nesq to display the things
he had learned IN the hospital These
things viii form tho means ~ an in
dependent livelihood affot his discharge
RESILIENT nuN4N NATURE.
Without exception. this attitude ia
true uf al tho patients Dependency
often disappears after the first week
IN tho hospital rhlq may bc caused
hy association with men similarly afflicted
or hv the realization that they may
regain place as useful members Of
soriotv Perhaps Il Is both
4 visitor offered his arm to ono of tho
patients who was going from a barracks
"a tho moss hall
"Yon needn't 10 that sad The soldier
gently ] can show you anywhere IN
the hospital
Among the patients at Hospital No
:. Is Sergeant William II Zimmerman.
the first American soldier to be blinded
~ action He was in charge of truck
which was taking supplies 10 the front
line, when the truck overturned and
pitched hlm INTO shell hole Most Of
tho truck fell atop nf hlm
Il never sec again, SAID the sergeant.
hut | hope Il wont be that II never
work again There's chance for me
10 yet back INTO everyday life and |
mca4, 20 make that chance good
" hen | went over had a girl Nv
first Thought when they told me | was
blinded Tor good was that Ia have TO
glXe her NJ | didn't know blind men
could make living III always thought
OF them as selling lead pencils and shoe
laccs
THE rHREE NUsKETEER~."
1t has been SAID that adversely makes
strange bcdfeIlow- 1t might better
have been sad that common aifliction
makes for closer communion between
man and man Among the blinded
soldiers at Roland Park are three known
To the officers and nurses and the rest
Of the patlCnts rs the three muskctcerS
The friendship between these ih cr
soldiers OF misfortune IS as strange As
It Is complete The three were widely
separated when misfortune came to them,
and IT came 10 each at a different time
Each Is Of a distinctive American Army
type and IN the ordinary course of events,
rs events went before the war, none
Of them would have come to know the
others
The first muskoteer. to whom the
nurses have given the pame Of Porthos
Is typically representative of the regular
American army of pre-war days He
might even be described rs "a hard
boiled lie went to France with the
first detatchments and hlS name appeared
ON the earliest American casualty lists
The second musketeer whose aifiiction
good nature Is called ID Artagnan,
He is Il well built, smooth-faced boy of
eighteen or nineteen who went over
with the Rainbow Division of Natioal
Guard troops.
The third, who suggests something
OF both Aramis and Athos, belongs to
that group of Americans who disdaincd
commissions and entered the ranks
Evidently a college man, grave and
thoughtful and possessed Of "A delicate
refinement, his most noticeable char
acteristic is his affection for the other two
ALI FOR ONE; ONE FOR ALL"
These men are constantly together
They pace the corridors, or walk about
the gardens They share their secrets
as they share the gifts and little Iuxuries
which are sent or given to them Each |
musketeer seems to live for the others
As soon rs the United States went
INTO the war, even before American /
soldiers had been landed in France, |
L was realized by the War Department +
and the public, that it was the nation /
iuty toward the soldiers who were
disabled, To reconstruct and fit them
for Yiaaae IN ottyff4 lfo V-sth