Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1918-08-09
GUNNER DEpEW

their wounds much, and everybody
tries to be happy and show 1t. The
food was fine. and there was lots of it..
l do not think there were any doc
tors In the world better than ours, and
1 they were always trying to make
things easy for us. They did not rip
the dressings Off your wounds like
some OF the butchers do In some of our
dispensaries that / know of, but took
them Off carefully. Everything was
very clean and sanitary. and some of
the hospitals had sun parlors, which
were well used, you can be sure.
Some OF the men made toys and
fancy articles. such as button hooks
and paper knives. They made the
handles from empty shell cases, or
shrapnel. or pieces of Zeppelins, or
anything else picked up along the
! front.
When they are getting well, the men
learn harness making, mechanical
drawing, telegraphy. gardening, poul.
try raising, typewriting, bookkeeping
and the men teach the nurses how to
rings of aluminium, and slippers and
gloves out of blankets.
The nurses certainly work hard.
They always have more to do than
they ought to, but they never complain,
and are always cheerful and ready to
play games when they have the time,
or read to some poilu. And their work
is pretty dirty too would not like
to have to do 1t. They say there were
lots of French society ladies working
as nurses, but you never heard much
about society, or any talk about Lord
Helpus, or Count Whosis. or pink teas
or anything like that from these
nurses.
A few shells landed near our hos
pital, while I was there, but no patient
was hit. They knocked shrine of Our
Lady to splinters, though. and bowled
over a big crucifix. The kitchen was
near by, and 1t was just the chefs luck
that he had walked over to our ward
to see pal Of his. when a shell landed
plumb in the center of the kitchen.
and all you could see all over the bar
ruCkS WIS stew.
That was regular eatless day for
us, until they rugged up bogies and got
some more dixies, and mixed up some
cornmeal for us. The chef made up
for 1t the next day, though. The chef
was a great little guy. He was a
"blesse" himself, and guess his stom-
ach sympathized with ours.
There was Frenchman in the bed
next to me who had the whole side of
his face torn off. He told me he had
been next to bomber, who had Just
lit fuse and did not think 1t was
burning fast enough, so he blew on 1t.
1t burned fast enough after that, and
there he was.
There was Belgian in one Of the
other wards. whom got to know pretty
well, and he would often come over
and visit me. He asked many ques-
lions about Dixmude. for he had had
relatives there, though he had lost
track of them. He often tried to de-
scribe the house they had lived in, so
that / might tell him whether 1t was
still standing or not. but / could not
remember the place he spoke of. Dur
ing our talks, he told me about many
atrocities. Some of the things he told
me l had heard before, and some of
them / heard of afterward. Here are
some things that he either saw or
heard Of from victims:
He said that when the Germans en-
tered the town of st. Quentin, they
started firing into the windows as they
passed along. First, after they had oc-
Coupled the town, they bayoneted every
workingman they could find. Then
they took about half of the children
that they could find, and killed them
with their musket butts. After this,
they marched the remainder of the chill
dren and the women to the square,
where they had lined up row of male
citizens against n wall. The women
and children were told that If they
moved, they would all be shot. An
other file of men was brought up, and
made to kneel in front of the other
men against the wall.
The women and children began to
| beg for the lives of the men, and many