The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-08-24
MIRACLE Of battlefield BURNS
ALL SELF THOUGHT out Of YANkS|
Hard Boiled 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-
inq to Be Cared for First.
BY CLARENCE BURLINGTON KELLANp.

They were coming Dack u OF the
hot blast Of the great b~attle-those
boys Of q certain division o famous
throughout France and one day to be
famous throughout the world. They
were not coming back because they
wanted to, mol because they had had
enough OF 1t; they were being brought
on s~tretchers, 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.
sHard luck, pal?' said a doctor in
terrogatively, as the bearers set down
4 stretcher In the courtyard.
The boy shrugged his shoulders, act
ually shrugged them as well as he
could, bundled up on that stretcher,
and grinned wanly.
"Comin' fine, II I can get you fell
lers to save that foot. She's smashed
plenty. II you can't-all the same"
"Well run you right In"
"Nix, DO, not me. Tn 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.
X you had seen them a month before
or two months before when they had
not had their purifying In blood and
Ore. you would not have prophesied
that they would hold back In suffering
to walt 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 Q trifie
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 men"
Dross Burned Away.
But nov they have felt the scorch-
Ing breath OF war. Suddenly they
had been dropped into the furnace and
had come out with dross burned away.
Something had happened. They were
still hard-boiled. Their language was
made up Of the same words, but the
words had taken on a new meaning,
their very faces had taken on a new as
pect. In spite Of blood and CRIME, and
the d~lscoloration and burn of gas, you
could zee that something vas present
there which had been absent before
until you could not see at all for the
flooding Of your eyes.
sI-got mine No use-sport
h. Can't do-nothin' for-me
49,. Git-busy with some OF them
boys-you kin-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.
zach passed It on.
The dressing station was small and
many must lie outside until the men
who were taken In first could be v
uated. You heard groans. but amid
the groans you heard CHEEKY, gritty
words. Sow. that d. leg !.
How's Charlie maxim it? Anybody
knowa Iseen him git 1t . Cow
sThey just took Charlie in. Ha
wasn't sayin' much"
sSay, them stretcher bearers ought
70 git the Croy de Gerr. them birds
ought to. See 'eni fetch me back with
them shells Dustin like 1t was rainin'?
And would they hurry? Not a d.
htt. hollered to them 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 gtretcher Afraid IL he
hustled he'd shake me up and hurt
M some. Can you beat that? . . ].
Ooowt~
Aout 81 Luck Nothing"
sYou're next, son." said a lieutenant
doctor. sWhere'd you get it,"
LEG and . chunk somewhere in the
chest.~
"Out Of luck"
'tOut Of luck nothin'. Didn't I bay
met three Of them Germans before
they got met Ehf. . LuckY
The story goes that this division
waa called upon to stop the rush Of
lve times its number. The story goes
further. and says they not only
stopped the rush but caused a
novelnent IN the other direction. 1t
~ not IN affair Of hours but of days,
dnys of constant. bitter, h~and-to-hand
0ynting. with horrors added by the
Hun that no American soldier has
&yoE been called upon to face. But
11o1 ~ damned the Hood: had even
&pGvE 4 hack Tor ! little, and they
~ D6oud-
III their achievement on the field
ynG ~ - great thing that came into
Uooe 11eys. Il was the spirit
11< me1 ~ n their hearts-not
& $3.50 ~ 1870 - ~&.n&-MX a--s--