Baxter Springs news., 1918-08-30

dying. The first two or three days
I was In the hospital / thought surely
he would be up and gone long before
/ was, but blood poisoning set In
about that time. and just a few hours
before I left for Courtrai he died.
One Of those days. while my wound
was still very troublesome. / was
given an apple; whether II was Just TO
torment me. knowing that could not
eat Il, or whether for some other rea-
son, do not know. But anyway .
German flying officer there had several
In his pockets and gave me q nice one.
OF course there was no chance Of my
eating II, so when the ofiicer had gone
and / discovered this San Francisco
fellow looking at II rather longingly,
I picked II up, intending to toss It
over TO him. But he shook his head
and said, IF this was San Francisco
l would take II, but ! cannot take It
from you here" ! was never able to
understand Just why he refused the
apple, for he was usually sociable and
q good fellow to talk to, but appar-
emily he could not forget that I was
his enemy. However, that did not stop
one Of the orderlies from eating the
apple.
One practice about the hospital i'm
pressed me particularly. That was,
II a German soldier did not stand
much chance Of recovering sufficiently
to take his place again in the war, the
doctors did not exert themselves to see
that he got well. But II a man had
a fairly good chance Of recovering and
they thought he might be Of some fur
ther use, everything that medical skin
could possibly do was done for him.
don't know whether this was done
under orders or whether the doctors
Just followed their own lnclinati0nS
In such cases.
My teeth had been badly Jared up
from the shot, and hoped that might
have a chance to have them fixed
when I reached Courtrai. the prison
where I was to be taken. So ! asked
the doctor II It would be possible for
me to have this work done there, but
he very curtly told me that, although
there were several dentists at C0ur-
trai. they were busy enough fixing the
teeth of their own men without both
ering about mine. He also added that
l would not have to worry about my
teeth; that l wouldn't be getting 30
much food that they would be put out
Of commission by working overtime. I
wanted to tell him that from the way
things looked he would not be wear
ing his out very soon either.
My condition improved during the
next two days, and on the fourth day
Of my captivity I was well enough to
write q brief message to my squad
ron, reporting that was prisoner Of
war and feeling fine" although. as q
matter of fact, I was never 80 de-
pressed in my life. / realized, how
ever, that II the message reached my
comrades It would be relayed to my
mother In MOmence, ILL.,, and ] did not
want to worry her more than was abb
solutely necessary. 1t was enough for
her to know that was prisoner. She
did not have to know that I was
wounded.
had hopes that my message would
be carried over the lines and dropped
by one Of the German flying officers.
That is a courtesy which is usually
practlced on both sides. I recalled
how patiently we had waited In our
airdrome for news Of our men who had
failed to return, and could picture
my squadron speculatlng on my fate.
That Is one of the saddest things
connected with service In the r. F. @.
You don't care much what happens to
you, but the constant casualties among
your friends are very depressing.
You go out with your "1ight" and
get into q muss. You get scattered,
and when your formation Is broken up
you finally wing your way home alone.
Perhaps you are the first to land.
Soon another machine shows In the
sky, then another. and you patiently
wait for the rest to appear. Within an
hour, perhaps, all have shown up save
one, and you begin to speculate and
wonder what has happened to him.
Has he lost his way2 Has he landed
at some other alrdrome1 Did the
Huns get himi
CONTINUED in next weeks News)