The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1918-07-15
WOUNDED BOYS '
SHOW AMERICAS
SPIRIT IN WAR
Hope of New Chance Is the Dom
inant Note.
IN PAIN DO NOT MyRMUR

Chief Interest is In Outcome at Bat.
tie In Which They We're Hur9--Hos-
pltal Crowded With Men From All
Sections Who Were Barring the Way
to Paris When They Got Their
Wounds-Trleks With Red Cross.
The minute ! entered the long hos.
ptal corridor | was aware OF Il pair
of eyes. They were Wlstful; they We're
searching They wanted something.
This was one of our base hospitals,
and / was there because II was crowd,
ed with wounded Americans, writes
Mary Brush Williams IN the Chicago
Tribune. Our boys had smelled the
smoke of battle and borGe It's wounds.
Swathed in bandages, they crowded
the wards whose swinging doors watt
ed the heavy QdOrs of i0d0f0rm. Not
nearly all of them could get into The
rooms, and the overflow lined the cor
rldors in a lane Of cots stretched end
to end
Men from the Mississippi basin and
the wheat fields Of the Northwest,
from California, New York and Ken
lucky filled that hospital, and it was
no light skirmlshlng that had brought
them there They were barring the
way to Paris when they got their
wounds.
In a cot against an end wall sat a
boy whose gaze Fascinated me. One
leg lay stiffly in a cast outside the
bedclothes and one arm swung from
pulley. His pallid face was framed
In strong, black hair that reached
backward against the upright pillow.
Only his eyes showed any animation,
and, although we were fully a half
block apart, they reached out and
spanned the distance, stretching an in
visible bridge between him and me.
I said to myself he wanted some
thing and that I would go and fetch it
for him. / hurried as fast as I could,
which wasn't very fast, because of tho
congestion of the corridor by blan-
keted men on stretchers who were
being wheeled along the narrow path
between the cots. Nurses hurried
along with thermometers and Red
Cross men with cups of Cruel.
''There's a good deal of traffic along
this boulevard" grlnned boy from
behind a diagonal bandage with which
they had hound his head
Wants News of Regiment.
All through my slow progress those
eyes never left my face. They kept |
and shortening the bridge be.
tween us. AS I neared his bed in the |
last lap of that trip l pushed past
doctor and all but upset a cup Of cof-
fee on a chair beside cot. so urgent
seemed this one boys need.
easy, ladyr' He threw out his voice !
toward me. "Could you possibly tell |
me have they got any news of my
regiment. Do you know whether they |
heldT He made no personal request.
AS I was gasping to recover from
the question so unforeseen another
voice re-enforced him. 1t came from
q man lying fiat on his back in the
the next cot with his eyes bandaged
over and his face wearing the with
drawn, unparticlpative look Of those
who cannot see.
"What / want to know Is, did they
hold the railroad station in front of
-? That is the important question.
[f they did, we're all right. and those
Boches could never get another foot
nearer Paris along that front"
A ON v1aTghhdrsf1rr auf q
gesture to indicate to me that this
mans sight was forever gone. Only
MS upper forehead and his lower Jaw
we're visible beyond the bandage, but
hey were set and square. ~ wish /
could get back at that, doggone it, l
couldn't have stood it if those swine
lad got to Paris"
later got his record He was Will
lam Myers of Louisville and he tray-
led for his father, who is in the liquor
Foe Avoids Open Fight.
"Tm so interested in my regiment"
aid the blind boy. His neighbor beck
med to me and whispered that he nev-
r thought about anything else. He
Ieyer talked about himself, nor made
personal request nor asked if his
light was gone forever. Tie wanted to
nov If his regiment had been re-
ieved A visitor had cnme and asked
i'm if he wanted anything. and be
sked her to please find out anything
he could about his regiment. She
cad the papers of three consecutive
lays which mentioned them. Then all
ews ceased. But the blind boys only
omment was that they must have
cen relieved. l
Y vas invited to sit down and the /
hecame general. s
HThose Boches can't fight in the ]
pen" said Franl, Deluca, boy from ]
lew York state, who had been shot in {
he lung He panied a little as he II
alked. 'This was an open scrap and c
put four Of them on the run with my l
ayonet. They can't stand The sight '
+ bayOnet Individually. they amt q
0 brave. It's that they're organized "
nd go in great lots or else they stay
q the woods or in the trenches and il
nder cover. whore they are dead safe. Il