The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-07-17
STRENGTH OF Will
AMONG WOUNDED
HEROES IN HOSPITAL ARE ALL
CHEERFUL.
Home Girls Fidelity
ANY Visitor Can See Spirit That
Shines Through All Their
Talk.

will, such as has won everything
worth having in life on this earth, a
wounded soldier sat on the edge of
his cot in the big military hospital in
Gun Hill Road, and frankly ignoring
his terrible wounds, explained:
81 had to pull through, just had
to. I had some people waiting back
here for me, my father and mother
and
"And a girl" smiling visitor sug-
gested.
Eyes, a girl" said the patient ear
nestly, "and I want to say, she stuck
to me, stuck to me fine, through all
this as he passed his hands over his
burnt and defeatured face. I'll come
through all right if they'll only not
transfer me-"
Assured by one of the medical
staff that they had no intention of
doing so, he frightened up.
"You, see, I've gotten along fine
here-best doctors ever-and then
my folk can come here to see me, and
that helps; it helps a lot.''
It was not difficult to analyze the
spirit that lay behind these words.
Burned by shell fire, almost beyond
recognition, last September on one of
the busy American fronts in France,
this young hero admitted there were
days when his life hung in the bal
ance, 'but somehow I had a feeling
would pull through" he said. 81
wanted to so bad, that guess that is
the reason why did,
To find on his return that the girl
he had become engaged to before 60
ing to France had kept faith, in spite
of his great affliction, had put him on
the road to recovery with a will that
surprised the most conservative men,
bers of the hospital staff. Skin graft
ing, a few more operations, and time,
will heal the wounds and repair the
damage, the doctors have assured
him, and with that will power which
he possesses, they are of the opin-
ion that nothing is impossibltthat
no case is hopeless.
Spirit Overides.
Go up and down the length of the
wards in the big military hospitals,
and a visitor will observe the kind of
spirit that, overriding all obstacles
smashed the German lines.
'I figured it out, lying there in a
big hospital in France" said young
private, who was terribly burned by
powder explosion on the Verdun
front last autumn. He is Henry u.
Ludeman of No. 57s East 163d Street.
81 came to the conclusion that might
as we'll be philosophical about the
whole thing" he said. ''For nearly
two weeks I couldn't see anything
and, then when my sight slowly came
back, was so grateful for this, that
what I suffered from my burns and
injuries was really small matter.
And from that time on decided to
be as happy as lark. You see, be-
ing a hospital patient is really a
matter of comparison. I believe all
the boys feel the same way about 1T.
No matter how badly they have been
injured, they feel they should con-
slider themselves lucky to be living
after what they have gone through,
and so they make up their minds to
be cheerful. And, besides, when you
feel happy-we've all tried tit
helps to make the days pass quicker.
And besides, what's the use of worry
ing. Worry won't bring back a lost
eye or a shattered arm or foot, so
we're all determined,t to make the best
Of it,
Young Ludeman, VINO is only ~
years of age, was a salesman for a
coffee house before he enlisted to fight
''The Hun" In the accident which
has temporarily cost him his good
looks, his left ear was burned off.
my face was so badly burned it
was swollen for weeks twice its nor
NAL size," he said.
New skin, which nature has such
a wonderful way of restoring in the
young, is beginning to replace the
burned tissues of his hands and arms.
Just Escaped Death.
"Shows how near fellow can come
to death without knowing it, and es-
Gaping it," he said brightly, as he
glanced at his wounded hands. "But
I'm coming along fine. Doctors say it
will take some time but 1 will be as
good as new some of these days."
A young New York boy who has