The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-05-08
Agonies of War Related BY
Dr.. 7: c: Stone, of Aiken

operations of the immortal second di-
vision was presented by DR.. T. G.
Stone, of Aiken, S. c., in an informal
talk before the recent annual session
of the Association of Surgeons of the
Southern Railway, held in New Or
leans with headquarters at the St.
Charles hotel.
DR.. Stone ranked as captain in the
expeditionary forces and recently has
been released from the service. He
was regimental surgeon of the seven
teenth field artillery, one of the prin-
cipal units of the second division.
He was overseas 13 months, nine of
which were spent on the firing line.
At the close of DR.. Stones simple
address, DR.. Cooper Holtzclaw of
Chattanooga, Tenn, former president
of the association, characterized DR..
Stones address as the first concrete
revelation with which he had come in
contact, of things as they really were
on the fighting fronts.
"I have read description and de-
scription in the newspapers and the
magazines which tried to paint things
as they were over there" DR.. Holtz-
claw said. But DR.. Stones simple
talk here, giving us first-hand knowl-
edge of them, has given me my first
concrete notion of just what it was
like over there. He has been through
the thick of the hardest fighting and
has told it with no attempt at adorn-
ment."
A rising vote of thanks was given
DR.. Stone by the audience he had en-
lightened. Other addresses before
the convention had provoked assent
or dissent or discussion. DR.. Stones
address alone called forth unanimous
gratitude.
Entering the thick of the fight with
the second division, March 20, last,
Captain Stone saw duty, trying as
best he could in the mud and the
blood and the pitchy darkness to re-
lieve the infinite suffering of the
shell-torn Americans of the division.
The duty carried him through the
mingled beauty and horror of the red
blood and the ruddy blaze and glare
of the booming artillery fronts in the
night assaults at Scissors through
the fire and pitchy, raining blackness
of the Chateau Thierry engagements
through the dramatic hell of wip-
ing out the st. Mihiel salient-and
through the wild, weirdness of the
Champagne sector, where he says,
the debris and the dead and the
mangled were scattered broadcast on
a ghastly stretch of shell-torn lime
stone, where with the rising of the
sun it all appeared like wrecks and
driftwood on a mighty sea of white
caps. He struggled and mingled
through the glory and the horror that
was Argonne. Emerging from this
he was in the thick of the hell met
by the second division even after the
signing of the armistice, and saw the
destruction of American life that in
tervened between the time of the
signing Of the papers at Senlis and
the going into effect of the order to
cease firing at II a. m. the next day.
In his talk DR.. Stone made no at
tempt at oratory before the conven-
tion of surgeons He spoke simply
largely in conversational tone, paus-
ing and blushing and apologizing to
the ladies present when, inadvertent-
ly, the red blooded profanity of the
fighting man crept into his speech. 1t
was the profanity that was not pro-
fame. He took not the name of his
God in vain-nor had the boys done
so over there whom he was quoting,
who done to death in the thick of
the struggle, and fell-and smiled
and snarled- laughed and jested
and bled and cursed again-and
struggled and strained-and, at
times, had gone insane in the wild
ness of it all.
And the surgeons and their wives
and their sisters that heard him tell
it cried, "Go on" when DR.. Stone
stopped and began apologizing for
using a real crossword" in one in
stance, when he recounted how hun
dreds of voices had cursed him
through the blackness of the night
and the rain at Scissors for flashing
for an instant his searchlight in his
attempt to stop the arteries of
wounded comrade that were squirting
and befouling his hands with the
blood and the mud and the CRIME of
the fight, so that in the horror of it
all he con1dnst 1ocato tha arteries in