The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1918-08-21
MIRACLE Of BATTLEFIELD BURNS
ALL SELF-TH0UCHT OUT or YANKS
HardBo Boys Dropped Into the Furnace Of War; Come Out
With the Dross Burned Away, SeIf-Sacrifcng Heroes
Hold Back in Suffering for One in Greater Suffer-
ing to Be Cared for First.
nv CLARENCE BURLINGTON KeLuANp.

Y. M. G. A.
Cant you do something for these
Boys who are being brought in hereT
the officer in charge demanded.
"What can we dor"
Something to eat and smoke. COf-
fee. A bite and smoke do a wound
ed man more good than anything else.
Do you know, some of those boys have
been out there in that for two days
with nothing to eat but hardtack"
So the Y sent its men and its trucks;
It made coffee, II brought such fruit
as 1t could; 1t carried chocolate bars.
"Here you are, sport" said one of
them. coming into the courtyard.
Here's cup of chocolate"
The boy raised himself painfully
on his elbow and reached for the cup
then he motioned it away.
81 hain't hurt much-and there's n
lot of guys here that's messed bad.
You hain't got enough to go around.
Git busy"
"Fve got smokes and hot chocolate
for every man. Go ahead"
"Honest? I won't be robbin' none
Of them birds?"
"Honest."
The boy drank-and was transform
| ed.
"That's livin'." he said softly.
One boy was brought i'm with
broken leg. 1t had been an accident
and not a wound won in battle. He
had got In the way of motor
truck.
"Jest fix me up out here what you
can" he said.
"You go to the hospital, son."
mix. Hospitals for those fellows
that's hurt. I just got busted pin.
You fix me here and leave me here
When you git a chance"
Language Needs New Word.
Somewhere, some time, they had all
got this thing. 1t had come to
them out of the fame and crash of
battle; it had been carried to them
on clouds of soaring. noxious gas; it
had awakened i'm them through suffer-
ing and through the sight of suffering
They were the same, yet they were
not the same. They were not gentle,
yet one fancied he could detect gen.
t.eness in their voices. But out of
the battle and the suffering, something
better than they had ever known came
to them. There was utter ignoring of
self. and it was thing wonderful to
witness.
"We've got to have a new word in
the language" said a captain-surgeOn.
"Game won't do. These boys are some
thing more than game. I've never seen
anything like it. / don't know what
it is" Even he, Injured to suffering
and to scenes of bloodshed, wiped his
eyes. They're--they're-w damn
it all, they're Something! Nobody
was ever like them"
One boy lay inside on mattress
on the floor. His chest was rising
and falling as he struggled for breath.
"He's on his way" said the doctor
to a Y man who was acting as orderly,
nurse, assistant, anything.
The man went over and touched
the boys forehead.
"How about 1t, old MANI" he said.
"Kind Of-lonesome Maybe
you could sit here
till ="
The Y man sat down and hand
struggled toward him. He took it
and held it in his own, and he whls-
pered to the boy a moment. Maybe
it was prayer. Whatever the words,
it was prayer. The wounded man |
lay still, his hand in the hand of the |
friend who had come to him in his |
last dark moment-his last glorious |
moment
Another Kind Of Courage.
The courage of the battlefield seems |
to be a common commodity; but the |
courage to bear pain without fiinching
to realize the approach Of death with
out crying out; to reach moment
when you know you must face life
manned, without arm, leg, eye-and
not to curse with black rage or cry
out with despair-that is another kind
of courage. But II was there. Not
one man had 1t, but 1t seemed as II
all those wounded had tit was not
the gameness Of the bulldog. It was
something that had to do with the
soul. II was greatness 1t was fine
ness. 1t was a thing that compelled
the watcher to uncover his head and
stand barred In its presence.
They We're Americans. Perhaps II
was their birthright More likely 1t
was a new thing; newly born of the
day and the business of the day. What
ever II was, whenever and however
II came, 1t was present. This has
been written with repression, with
striving for understatement, with a
wish to tell the truth. The thing was
there. They brought 1t back with
them.
"How are you making 1t, SPORT
f. Here's cup of coffee"
"You come around TO me after
you've given some to the boys over