The Cordova daily times., 1918-08-05


the largest of all Although | never
looked into this wing" of the hospital,
patients lying on beds of straw around
on the ground. DO not know whether
they, too, were officers or privntes
The room in which | found myself
contained eight beds. three of whkh
were occupied by wounded German Of
ficers. The other rooms, | imagined,
had about the same number of beds as
mine. There We're no Red Cross nurses
In attendance, just orderlieS, for this
was only an emergency hospital and
too near the firing line for nurses. The
ortierlies were not old men nor very
young boys, rs had expected to find.
but young men in the prime of life,
who evidently had been medical stu
dents. One or tive of them, | discOv-
cred, were able To talk English, but
for some reason they would not talk
Perhaps they were forbidden by the
officer In charge to do so.
In addition To the bullet wound In
my mouth / had swelling from my
forehead to the back OF my head al
most as big as my shoe-and that Is
saying considerable. ! couldn't move
an inch without suffering intense pain,
and when the doctor told me that
had no bones broken l wondered how
IA fellow would feel who had.
German officers visited me that
morning and told me that my machine
went down in Il spinning nose dive
from a height of between 5000 and
5000 feet, and they had the surprise
Of their lives when they discovered
that ! had not been dashed to pieces.
They had TO cut me out of my machine.
which was riddled with shots and shat
tered To bits.
A German doctor removed the bullet
from my throat. and the first thing he
said to me when came to was, You
are an American
Their" was no denying IL, because
the metal identification disk on my
wrist bore the inscription:
"P. OBJ.
u. s. A.
r. c."
Although l was suffering intense
agony, the doctor, who spoke perfect
English. insisted upon conversing with
me.
You may be all right AS sports
man." he declared, but you are
id murderer just the same for be-
ing here. You Americans who got into
this thing before America came into
the war are no better than common
and YOU ought to be treated
the same way ~
The wound In my mouth made II i'm
possible for me to answer him, and l
was suffering too much pain to be
hurt very much by anything he could
say.
He asked me If | would like an
apple! | could just as easily have
eaten n brick.
When he got no answers out of me,
he walked away disgustedly.
"You don't have to worry any more"
ne utNiui''' aH iiiiN Nio'. wa
YOU the war Is over"
l was given a little broth later in
the day, and as | began TO collect my
thoughts | wondered what had hap
pened to my comrades In the battle
which had resulted so disastrously to
me. As ! began to realize my plight
worried less about my physical con-
iition than the fact that, as the doc
.od had pointed out, for me the war
vas practically over. had been in 1t
,ut n short time, and now would be
/ prisoner for the duration of the war!
The next day some German flying
,fiicers visited me. and must say they
reated me with great consideration.
They told me Of the man had brought
Town. They said he was Bavarian
md fairly good pilot. They gave me
Ills hat as a souvenir and compliment
ID me on the fight had put up.
my. helmet, which was of soft I
Gather. was split from front to back