Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1919-04-17

| person singular III NOBODY OpJects' ~
liz easier told that way rs II Is mainly
personal experiences during two
weeks hitch with the American Red
Cross on the welfare side at Fort Des
Moines where 700 disabled men from
overseas, battle worn and wound
SCARED from st. Mihiel, Chateau
Thierry, scissors and the Argonne,
men OF the middle west are waiting In
the eddy of disablement that lies be-
tween them and their final discharge.
There are boys there from Iowa
Nebraska, Illinois, Oklahoma and
Kansas, from Montana, California and
Idaho and practically all tho states
west of the big river and north Of the
Rio Grande, torn by high explosive,
shattered by shrapnel and pierced by
rife and machine gun fire. Shell shock
cases there are most pitiful of all. The
war is not over at Fort Des Moines or
in the general hospitals everywhere. II
is not over for the $4,000 wounded that
still flow towards the hospitals of the
states from the hospitals of Europe.
Just Boys But Such Boys.
The hospitals like that at Fort Des
Moines are the last stage between the
men and their homes. It may not seem
long to us since our own lighting men
| flung themselves against the German
onrush and stopped it In it's tracks
at Chateau Thierry and who met the
Brandenburgers and the shock troops
of an invincible military machine only
to, drive them swapping and crinsing
| A. u l. l.,,t IL Al
weary time to the lads who have laid
and sat and suffered in hospitals since
then. whose only outlook has been
from one bed and another in a dozen
or more hospital wards on the way
from the hurried attentions of the
bloody field station on thru one and
another experience. over 1000 miles or
land and ocean, to the neatness and
skill and kindly attention of Fort Des
Moines.
Most of these boys-they are mere
boys. their ages will run close to Il
| years-have not seen a home face for
nearly two years. Don't imagine, how
ever, that gloom and tears mark this
hospital. In fifteen days never saw
tear or heard whine or a complaint
| country had coming from him.
l., Soldiers Of Type.
They are the most wonderful men In
| the world, those lads from the little
towns and the prairies and the masses
the gamest, finest and most lovable
that ever drev breath. And they are
q type. They are your boy and my boy
and all our boys, as our boy and my
boy and all our boys would have been
had they paid the price of victory. the
bloody purchase of the woods and hills
THAT for four years France and Brit
ain refused to pay.
| Pride in American achievement is
common to us but to know and mingle
IL tn these boys, to see daily the
| splendid courage and fortitude they
do not display, but which they prad-
tice, is to take on a new pride or
i american birth and citizenship. To
feel that you are of the land that bred
II and will breed such men as these stirs
a pride and thankfulness that goes so
II deep that the pleasure of it is akin to
pain.
n Work Of Red Cross Man,
Il ! did routine work in the wards. The
Red Cross workers see personally
n every incoming case. One man, meets
1.-THE detail whatever time Of day or
night the transfer may arrive. He gets
h names and so far as practicable. finds
what ward each is assigned to. Those
] names are furnished the ward
workers as early as possible next day.
i The ward worker must see each one
II y; vi IF
must be a personal interview. He
must get the name, rank regiment
1 and company Of each, his emergency
Il address, the nature of the wound He
talks with each one, finds out when ne
has written home, when he has heard
| from home, writes a letter to his
| dictation, if the soldier desires, takes
notes and dictates a letter relating
what the soldier says of his condition,
state of mind. ETC., to the mother or
whomsoever he has made his emer-
gency address The Red Cross man
takes the money that the boys wish TO
deposit and gives them a voucher.
! Some Have Money.
4 1t is astonishing how much money
| some of the lads dig out of their
ilHOncy "ptllS. 1llOSc al 2 tiC OtCo "Aio
missed pay abroad and have been paid
off since coming to this side. He does
errands for the bed cases, distributes
Icigarets among the smokers confined
to wards, sees that the lad gets the
book from the library that he desires.
| CThe library at Fort Des MONIES. oy
the way, is excellently selected and
we'll supplied)
| He sends kilograms thru the Red
iCrcss office in emergency. If not
lease Of actual seriousness, however,
the boys are expected to pay for their
own telegrams. He gathers up any
Iletters that the broke" soldier may
have written and carries them up to
the r. c. headquarters where they
are mailed out.
Stamps, however the Red, Cross does
not distribute as the fund for stamps
must be strictly accounted for and
among so many men some are inclined
/ to ask Tor gratis stamps when tney
have money or for purposes other
| than mailing letters. The Red Cross
man is, in fact, the willing servant or