Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-01-07
WHENCE this Spirit?
A Mystery That Is Recognized as
Beyond Explanation
WHERE ones SELF Is FORGOTTEN
American Soldiers In Battle Regard
Not Life, Comfort or Any Other
Consideration Except That Com
rades Must Be Looked After Before

rades Must Be Looked After Sefore
Themselves.
Out amid the battle of agony; in
the holocaust of gassed, tortured,
torn, and dying men; fighting, daring,
and struggling in the heart of swirl
ing pestilent vapors a something has
come which is so trenchantly splendid
and heroic that it's hard to find a
word strong enough, tender enough,
to adequately describe it. It makes
men out of boys; more, it shows it
self-this something the
"toughs." the hard-boiled eggs" This
is the theme of a virile and vigorous
yarn which we quote from Association
Men:
Hard luck, pal?" said the doctor
interrogatively, as the bearers set
down a 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.
Comm fine If can get you fellows
10 save lIdI lOOl- oAC oAhooiSo PASA-
ty. II you can't-all the same"
We'll run you right in"
mix, bo, not me. I'm getting past
all right, nothing but my foot. You
Jest Iemme be here and git busy
with them guys that's hurt I'm on
the waiting list"
They were coming back out Of the
hot blast of the great battle-those
boys Of a certain division now famous
throughout France and one day to be
famous throughout the world. They
were not coming back because they
wanted to not because they had had
enough Of it; they were being
brought on stretchers wounded, gassed.
she'll shocked, to an advanced dress
ing station. Some Of them seemed
just boys. One could see them grind
their teeth to hold back the moan Of
pain.
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 outer
most. If you had seen them a month
before, or two months before, when
they had not had their purifying in
blood and fire, you would not have
prophesied that they would hold back
in suffering to wait for one in greater
suffering to be cared for first. It was
an attitude that was not apparent to
the casual eye. Hard-boiled, you
would have agreed. and you. might
have felt trifle sorry for the enemy
that had to encounter 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!"
But now they have felt the scorch-
ing breath Of war. Suddenly they had
been dropped into the furnace and had
come out with the dross burned away.
They were still hard boiled. Their
language was made UP of the same
words, but the words had taken on a
new meaning, their faces had taken
on a new aspect. In spite Of blood and
CRIME, and the discoloration and burn
of gas, you could see that something
was present there which had been alb
sent before-until you could not see
at all for the food in your eyes.
Crude may be their language, but
the words come clean from the heart.
Last words Of great men, some true
some doctored and polished. are trum-
peted to a listening world; but for
heroism, blended With tender
thoughts for others, none can surpass
the last words of one Of the "toughs":
"I-got mines mo use-sport
.Can't do-nothin' for me-
Git busy with some Gof 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.
Each passed it on.
The dressing-stat was small and
many must lie until the men who were
taken in first could be evacuated. You
heard groans, but amid the groans you
heard CHEEKY, gritty words. "Oow'
that leg, SLOWS Charlie maxim
it? Anybody know? 1 seen him git
II. sOow =!
They just took Charlie in. He
wasn't sayin' much"
Say, them stretcher-bearer ought
to git thec Croy de Gerr, them birds
ought to- See 'em fetch me back with
them shells Dustin like it was rainin?
And would they hurry? Not darn
bit. I hollers to them to git a move
on or they'd git busted in the dome
but that little shrimp says for me to
mind my own business, he was carry
in that stretcher" Afraid II ne
hustled he'd shake me up and hurt me
some. Can you beat that?'
Ooowi"
Two Of them stretcher-bearers was
Y. M. c. A. guys. What they dom
in that gamer"
Volunteered one of them told me.
l asked him. He's been workin' up IN
that dressin'-station right where she's
happenin' ever since this busted out. [
seen him there. Hain't had his clothes
off for weeks Looks to me like he's
about ready to crack: But he's al
ways there with a cup of coffee a
cake of chocolate or a cigarette. Now
he's totin' stretcher Needs a
stretcher himself, seems as though
You're next, son." said lieuten-
ant-doctor. "Whered you get it?"
Leg and chunk somewhere in the
chest"
"Out of luck"
"Out of luck nothin'. Didn't 1 bay
onet three of them Germans before
they got me? Eh? 'Luck."
The story goes that this division
was called upon to stop the rush OF
five times its number. The story goes
further and says they not only stopped