Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1918-07-19
THE MOTHERS
ARE REASSURED
(By Rheta Childe Dorr.)

(By Rheta Childe Dorr3
Somewhere in France the soldier
son for whom / wear my pinbgk
son for whom wear my service pin
lies wounded. A few hours before I
sat down to write this article l heard
the news, and almost as soon as the
first shock had passed l thought to
myself how much worse / should feel
did l not know what wonderful things
were being done for him at that hour.
said, must hurry, hurry and tell
all the women l can reach, other
women whose sons have been wound
ed, some of the reasons l can think
about my soldier with q heart full
of quiet confidence.
My Julian was one of the splendid
regiment of young men, untried
American soldiers who Oil May 26
stormed their way into the village of
Cantigny and who, in spite of re-
peated German counter-aGtacks have
held that part of the line like a stone
wall ever since.
1t was only minor engagement,
to be sure, but it was so gallantly
fought that it gained the highest ad-
miration of the French and British
commanders. 1t showed the civilized
world what is going to happen with
in few months, when the American
army gets over in full force. l am
proud to have had son in that glo-
rious fight at Cantigny.
Two Helpless Hours.
OF what happened to him l know
little. He went over the top with his
comrades into the face of a trcmen-
dous machine gun fire. He must have
been in the front ranks, for he was
among the first to fall. 81 tried to
keep on going" he told the New York
World correspondent who sow him in
the hospital "but it was no use. 1 had
to flop"
Two hours he lay helpless in No
| Mans Land, shells bursting near him.
and with the prospect of being bayo-
netcd If the Germans were allowed to
regain that ground. don't let my
self think about those two hours.
know, all too we'll, what they must
have been like. | won't think about
the pain of the wounded leg, nor the
burning sun. the tormcntine thirst,
the anxiety and impotence before the
stretcher bearers came. The wound
ed, thank God, soon forgot all these,
anu so we must at home
have not heard directly from my
son since the beginning of this great
second battle of the Somme. l was
very near his division for time and
was never much farther away than
Paris until sailed for home, but no
letters came through. was like hun
dreds of thousands of other women
here in America in not knowing
whether my solier was in action or
otu of danger in the rear.
Now that know, l am glad, for /
sympathized with his intense desire
to have q first hand share in this war
OF liberation. When we entered the
war my son was too young for the
draft, and in fact he would only this
spring have been called upon to regis
ter. Knowing that he might have tc
wait year and half before going
ever. he enlisted in the old army and
went to France in one of the earliest
units. He had to take service in a
workink contingent, and like all those
valuable but usually non-combatant
soldiers he feared that he would new
er be given a chance to fight. I am
very grateful that they gave him his
chance, and so soon. / have seen
something of the work in the I'M
speakable. Since then l have never
been sorry for our fighting men. The
only men / am sorry for are those
who live in these times and never
have chance to join the Allied ar
mics.
l am thankful that my son lived
through the first battle, and l am
especially relieved to hear that he is
m an American hospital. have Wis
tied many of those hospitals in France
and | am going to devote this article
to telling other women who have
wounded men over there how our SOL
diers are cared for when German
gunfire strikes them down. can
not think of anything else today, nor
write of anything else.
The woundede are picked up as
quickly as possible, the stretcher
bearers and ambulance men working
bravely under fire, and often at great
danger. All musicians, military bands
men, are stretcher bearers, and the
same service is part of the work of
the medical corps. They bring the
wounded to what are called advanced
dressing stations or regimental aid
posts, directly behind the lines. These
stations indeed are in the trenches,
ard the doctors work to the noise of
bursting shells and exploding shrap-
mel. In these trench dressing stations
minor wounds are dressed, and first
aid is given to the seriously injured.
One very important thing is done in
the first aid posts. Every wounded
man is inoculated against tetanus.
Lockjaw-that most horrible of all
wound complications now prac-
ticaally thing of the past. Our hos
pitfalls will possibly never see a case,
because our surgeons take immediate
precautions against wound shock, the
mysterious cause of many deaths in
this war. One of the first symptoms
of would shock is cold and the sur
geons and dressers have hot, sweet
tea on hand and many blankets. Pa
tients are given cups of hot tea as
soons as they come inf end if the
weather is cold they are wrapped ND