The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1918-11-14
MIRACLE OF BATTLEFIELD BURNS
ALL SELF-THOUCHT OUT OF YANkS
Hard-Boled Boys, Dropped Into the Furnace Of War; Come Out
With the Dress Burned Away, Set-Sacrdicing Heroes
Hold Back in Suffering for One in Greater Suffer-
ina to Be Cared for First. 49,.
av CLARENCE BURLINGTON KELIANn.

~
hot blast of the great battle-those
boys of q certain division nov famous
throughout France and one day to be
famous throughout the world. They
were not coming back because they
wanted to, nor because they had had
enough of it; they were being brought
on stretchers, wounded, gassed, she'll
shocked, to an advanced dressing sta
ton. Some of them seemed just boys.
One could see them grit their teeth
to hold back the moan of pain.
"Hard luck, pal?" said a doctor in
terrogatively, as the bearers set down
a stretcher in the courtyard.
The boy shrugged his shoulders, act
ually shrugged them as we'll as he
could, bundled up on that stretcher,
and grinned wanly.
"Comin' fine, if I can get you fell
lers to save that foot. She's smashed
plenty. If you can't-all the same"
"Well run you right in"
"Nix, DO, not me. I'm gettin' past
all right, nothin' but my foot. You
Jest femme be here and git busy with
them guys that's hurt. I'm on the
waitin' list"
That was one boy. He belonged to
an outfit that bears a name far and
wide for being boiled hard. Tough
birds, you hear them called, rough
talking boys with the crust outermost.
If you had seen them a month before
or two months before when they had
not had their purifying in blood and
fire, 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 attribute
that was not apparent to the casual
eye. Hard-boiled, you would have
agreed, and you might have felt a trifle
sorry for the enemy that had to en-
counter them. But you would not have
stood by with tears in your eyes-not
in your eyes, but rolling down your
cheeks-and have muttered again and
again: "Here are Een!"
Dross Burned Away.
But now they have felt the scorch-
ing breath of war. Suddenly they
had been dropped. into the furnace ard
had come ont with dross burned away.
Something had happened. They were
still %hard-boiled. Their language was
made up of the an words, but the
words had taken On a new meaning,
their very faces had taken on q new as
pect. In spite Of blood and CRIME, and
the discoloration ard burn Of gas, you
on,111 c0n that .Oy,>n+|ir, II wa r,,ocnrf
there which had been absent before
until you could not see 1T all for the
flooding of your eyes.
"1-got mine No use-sport
f. Can't do-nothin' for-me
f.. Git-busy with solae of them
boys-you ki,l-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 it on.
The dressing station was small and
many must lie outside until the men
who were taken in first could be evac-
uated. You heard groans, but amid
the groans you heard CHEEKY, gritty
words. "Oow, that d leg :.
How's Charlie maxim it? Anybody
know? Iseen him git it +. Cow
"They just took Charlie in. He
wasn't .sayin' 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 rainin'?
And would they hurry? Not Il d
bit. I hollercd to thera to git a move
on or they'd git busted on the dome,
but that little shrimp says for me to
mind my own business, he was carryin'
that stretcher . >. Afraid if he
hustled he'd shake me up and hurt
me some. Can you beat that?
OOow"
"out Of Luck Nothing"
"You're next, son." said a lieutenant
doctor. 'Where'd you get it?"
LEG and a chunk somewhere in the
chest"
"Out of luck"
"Out Of luck nothin'. Didn't I bay
onet three Of them Germans before
they got me? Eth? o.. Luck?"
The story goes that this division
was called upon to stop the rush of
five times it's lumber. The story goes
farther, and says they rot only
stopped the rush but caused a
movement in the other direction. It
was not an affair Of hours but Of days,
days Of constant, bitter, h~and-to-hand
fighting, with horrors added by the
Hun that no American soldier has
ever been called upon to face. But
they had damned the flood; had even
swept it back for a little, and they
were proud.
But their achievement on the field
was not the great thing that came into
view in those days. It was the spirit
that famed up in their hearts-not
merely q spirit Of courage, Of daring.