The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-03-19

Trench Digging.
Killed or captured.
Speaking of stretcher bearers ard
wounded, it is very hard for the aver
age civilian to comprehend the enor-
nous cost of taking care of wounded
aad the war in general. He or she gets
81 accustomed to seeing billions of dol
lars in print that the significance o.
the amount is passed over without
thought.
From an official statement published
ia one of the London papers. it is
stated that it costs between six and
seven thousand pounds 100000 to $50.
900 to kill or wound soldier. This
result was attained by taking the cosr
of the war to date and dividing it by
the killed and wounded.
II may sound heartleSs and inhUnan.
but it is a fact nevertheless that from
a military standpoint it is better for a
man to be killed than wounded.
If man is killed no is bnriad. and
tiie responsibility of the government
ceases. excepting for the fact that his
people receive pension. But If man
Is wounded it takes three men from
ne firing line. the wounded man and
two men to carry him to the rear To
the advanced first-aid post. Here he Is
attended by doctor. perhaps assist.
ed by two r. A. NJ c. men. Then he is
put into a motor ambulance, manned
by a crew of two or three. At the field
hospital. where he generally goes IN
der an anesthetic. either TO have his
wounds cleaned or to be operated on,
he requires the services of about three
to five persons. From this point an
other ambulance ride impresSes more
men in his service, and then at the am
bulance train, another corps of doc
tors, r. A. NJ. c. men, Red Cross nurses
and the trains crew. From the train
he enters the base hospital or casualty
clearing station, where a good-siZed
corps of doctors. nurses. ETC., are kept
busy. Another ambulance journey Is
next in order-this time to the hospital
ship. He crosses the channel, arrives
n Blighty-more ambulances and per-
haps ride for five hours on an Eng
fish Red Cross train with it's crew of
Red Cross workers. and at last he
reaches the hospital. Generally he
stays from two to six months, or long
er. in this hospital. From here he is
sent to a convalescent home for six
weeks.
If by wounds he is untitled for fur
Their service, he is discharged, given
pension, or committed TO soldiers
home for the rest of his life-and still
the expense piles up. When you real
ize that all the ambulances, trains and
ships, not to mention the man power,
used in transporting wounded man.
could be used for supplies, ammunition
and re-enforcements for the troops at
the front, it will not appear strange
that from a strictly military stand
point, dead man is sometimes better
than a live one (if wounded).
Not long after the first digging party.
our general decided, after q careful
tour Of inspection of the communica-
ton trenches, upon IAN ideal spot" as
he termed it, for a machine-gun en-
placement took his map, made a dot
on it, and as he was wont, wrote dig
here" and the next night we dug.
There were twenty in the party, my
self included. Armed with picks.
shovels and empty sandbags we ar
rived at the ideal spot and started
digging. The moon was very bright,
but we did not care as we we're well
out of sight of the German lines.
We had gotten about three feet
down, when the fellow next to me, aft
er mighty stroke with his pick, let go
of the handle, and pinched his nose
with his thumb and forefnger, at the
same time letting out the explosion,
"Gott strafe me pink, Tn bloody well
gassed, not 'alf I amt" I quickly
turned in his direction with an inquir-
ing look, at the same instant reaching
for my gas bag. l soon found out what
was ailing him. One Whit was enough
and lost no time in also pinching my
nose. The stencil was awful. The resi-
Of the digging party dropped their
picks and shovels and beat it for the
weather side of that solitary pick. The
officer came over and inquired why the
work had suddenly ceased, holding our
noses. we simply pointed in the direc-
ton of the smell. He went over to the
pick, Immediately clapped his hand
over his nole, made an "about turn"
and came back. Just then our cap-
tain came along and investigated, but
after about minute said we had bet
ter carry on with the digging. that he
did not see why we should have
stopped as the odor was very faint
nut if necessary he would allow US our
gas helmets while digging. He would
stay and see the thing through, but ne
had to report back to brigade head
quarters Immediately. We wished that
we We're captains and also had a date
at brigade headquarters. With our gas
helmets on we again attacked that hole
and uncovered the decomposed body Of
German; the pick was sticking in his
chest. One of the men tainted. was
that one. Upon this our lieutenant
matted proceedings and sent word back
to headquarters and word came back
that after we filled in the hole we could
knock off for the night. This was well
come tfdings to us, because
Next day the general changed the
dot on his map and another emplace-
ment was completed the following
night.
The odor from the dug-up, decom-
posed human body has an effect which
is hard to describe. 1t first produces
nauseating feeling, which, especially