The Hawaiian gazette., 1918-08-20
FlashIigbt On Dcinqs '0ver There
When BackWash Of War Sets
10 Towards Field Hospitals J
BY CLARENoB BUDrNaToN
nv ~ II. KBLLAND

.Aas ~ SIa .fr AbAlsAND
| They we're. coming back out Of the
hot blast of the great battIe--those
boys of a certain division now famous
throughout France and one day to be
famous throughout the world. They
were not coming back. because ,theN
wanted ID, nor because they had iliilI
enough of II; they were being brought
on stretehers wounded, gassed, shell
shocked, 20 an advanced dressing sta.
tion. Some Of them seemed just boys
One could see them grit. their teeth
TO hold back the moan Of pain. go
Hard luck, palfp said a doctor
interrogatively, as the bearers set down
a streteher in the courtyard.
The boy shrugged his shoulder, actu-
ally shrugged them as well as he could,
bundled up in that streteher, and grin
ned wanly. q, -.@..' -. $50
Comm ine if 1 can set you fellers
to save that foot. She 5 smashed
plenty. II you ean't-lall the same"
"Wem run you. right in" ..
"Nix, DO, NOT me. Pm gettin' past
all right, nofhin'' but my foot. You
jest lemme be here and git busy with
them guys that's hurt. I'm on the
waitiny ist.'s ., -,
A Real Tough Guy ... I
That !was one boy. He belonged, to
IN outfit that bears q namc far and
wide for being boiled hard. Tough
birds, you hear them called, rough talk
ing boys with the crust OutemOst.
II you had seen them month before
or two months before when, they had
not had their purifying in blood and
Ere, 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 at.
tribute that was not apparent to the
casual eye. HArd.bOiled, you would
have agreed, and you might have felt
tribe sorry for the enemy that had
TO encounter them. But you would
not have stood by with tears in your
eyes-not in your eyes but rolling
down your eheeks--and have muttered
again and a;sain, ttHere are menl''
But now they had felt the seorch-
ing breath of war. Suddenly they 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
aspect In spite Of blood and CRIME,
and the. .discoloration and burn of gas,
you could see that something was pres
ent there which had been absent be
fore-until you could not see at all for
the flooding Of your eyes.
Tho Spirit Of All
"I-got mine. No use-spOrt
Can't 70 do-hothin' 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 il on. ''.''
The dressing station was small and
many must lie outside until the man
who were taken in first could be eva.
euated. You heard groans, but amid
the groans you heard CHEEKY, gritty,
words 'Oow, that damn leg. FIow's
Charlie maxim itf Anybody knowf
1 seen him git II. Cow. 49,.
b. They just took Charlie in. He
wash I sHyin' 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 raipin =
And would they hurryi Not a damn
DIT. hollers to them to git move
on or they'd git busted one on the
dome, but that little shrimp says for
me to mind my own business, he was
"arryln that stretcheT. Afraid il he
hustled he'd shake me up and hurt
me some" Can you beat thatf.
Ooow."
Two of them stretcher bearers was
Y. M. c. A. buys. What they doin in
hat gamef'
Volunteered for Duty
Volunteered, one of them told me,
l asked him. He's been workin' up
In that dressin' station right where
she 8 happenin' ever since this busted
out. l seen him there. Hahn t had his
clothes of for week. Looks TO me
like he's about ready to crack. But
he s always there with cigarette or
cup OF coffee, or a cake of chocolate.
Now he's tOtin stretcber. Needs a
streteher himself, seems as though"
you re next, son. said a lieuten.
ant doctor. Where d you get itf"
q" leg and a chunk somewhere in the
chest" 1HV'
"Out Of luck"
"Out Of luck nothin'.. Didn't /
bayonet three of them Germans before
they got met Ehf-Luck!"
Five TO Ono Shot
The story goes that this division was
called upon to stop the rush of FIVE
times its number. The story goes far.
ther 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'hdnd lighting with hor-
snmoto was paid $1,000 for leaving his
land vacant