Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-12-15
Special Correspondence OF The Star.
TWO SOMEWHERES IN FRANCE,
December 5, 1913.

science, murmured as We passed it:
"All the same. the byo In that bed
does not like jam!" Later she explain
ounce, he seldom touches it, but pass
es the little glass dish on the quiet,
as he thinks. to one OF other of two
lads in cots adjoining. They are bears
1t was one of the first humorous
'signs," becoming a feature of our
Army in France.
The humor is high camouflage of SEN
timent and heart.
In the same ward you read:
GO EASY
HERE!
BY ORDER
OF
DEFENSE!
Here there are healing wounds
which culver when the bed is Jared.
A common type of sign reads:
NOTICE!
KEEP CLEAR OF
THIS BED!
One rather lively boy Cfor he was
rolling and wriggling under the Gov
ers) had put up an extra bic warning
to the world:
BEWARE
GEORGES BED!
THIS MEANS YOU!
Delicious fraud" whispered Miss
Muldoon; The lads are charming mna
one hasn't a pain, but his left-hand
neighbor suffers at the slightest jar.
even the vibration of heavy foot
step, but is one of those quiet western
fellows. too timid to put up notice
of his own. George is not timid,' she
laughed. Like myself, he is from
Brooklyn"
Il <
A non committal form. widespread
in wards and hospitals quito uncon-
nected, so that it must have come to
the boys minds naturally, is the old
railroad-crossing notice:
STOP!
LOOK.
LISTEN.
others are original. boy named
Walter J. Moon had his leg held in
modification of the Thomas splint.
compound fracture with infection, do
ing marvelously we'll with Dakin
fluid. But. nevertheless. Walter
shrinks from movement. His notice
is:
MAKE THE MOON RISE!
GO EASY
Others refer to their deeds of war,
as if excusing themselves for being
wounded. One Montana fellow, seem
ed almost moody. until one day an
a sign up--he who had been so un-
communicative and modest. He won't
tell anybody what it means. but takes
real comfort in these words:
WHAT
DO YOU SUPPOSE
WAS DOING?
AS he has Ave bayonet holes in
arms, hip and side, he must have
held out quite long time at 1T. what
been. Five cots from him is a thinker
from San Antonio who declares that:
THE KRONPRINZ
DO THIS!
What he means, you can have the
pleasure of guessing-whether the
he who did 1t" "a nasty bayonet
thrust in the shoulder-blade) was one
Of four million German democrats
strayed accidentally into north France.
This was still in the surgical ward,
where things are temporarily painful,
but you will see that the boys carry
their old signs with them to their
gayer convalescent quarters. while
many make new notices to express
their state Of soul.
One had his fingers in banjo
splint" Those poor fingers seemed
withered and contracted like birds
claws, by nerve injury. He could
not stratghten them, but by fastening
a pulley to each finger and gradually
Tightening the pull from day to pay,
the fingers become straight and get
nutrition. and as cells renew the boy
is getting power to wiggle. His first
act was to inscfibe clumsily q new
foot -of-the- sign:
NOW
BRING THE ORANGES!
'You have not seen many sad faces,
have your" said Maj. II. J. Estelle
from Lexington, Ky. 1t was originally
the unit of the New York Postgraduate
Hospital. The commanding oflicer OF
the center, Lieut.. Col. w. Il. Cooper, a
Regular Army M. c., stood smiling and
approving.
1.-THE finest lot Of boys ever saw"
said he. Never in civilian life did
see such unfailing fortitude. So much
less complaint for the same amount
of suffering--for in civilian life people
suffer. too, you must remember. W.