The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1919-01-03

like he's about ready to crack. But
he's always there with cup of coffee,
a cake of chocolate or cigaret. Now
he's totin a stretcher Needs a
stretcher himself, seems as tho"
"You'r next son." said lieutenant
doctor, "Where'd you get it?"
"Leg and a chunk somewhere in
the chest"
"Out of luck"
"Out of luck, nothin' Didn't bay
onet three of them Germans before
they got me? Eh?. q. 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 stopt
the rush but caused a movement in
the other direction. 1t was not an af-
fair of hours, but of days, days of
constant, bitter, hand-to-hand fight
ing, with horrors added by the Hun
that no American soldier has ever
been called upon to face. But they
had damned the flood; had even
swept it back for little, and they
were proud.
Great as were the achievements on
the field, glorious tho the courage
againsto odds and fiendish treachery,
above all scars the shining spirit of
thought for the other fellow, that the
''hard-boiled" found in that hell of
hate. The writer continues:
A hurry call was sent to the dis
tant Y. M. C. A.
Cant you do something for these
boys that are being brought in here?"
the officer in charge demanded.
"What can we do?
Something to eat and smokes.
Coffee. A bite and smoke do a
wounded man more good than any
thing else. Do you know, some of
those boys have been out there in that
for days with nothing to eat but
hardtack!"
So the "Y" sent its men and it's
trucks; it made coffee, it brought such
fruit as it could; it carried chocolate
bars.
"Here you are, sport" said one of
them, coming into the courtyard.
"Here's cup of chocolate
The boy raised himself painfully on
his elbow and reached for the cup
then he motioned it away.
~ haint hurt much and there's a
lot of guys here tha's messed bad.
You hain't etognout oeN -cibIgf
You hain't got enough to go round.
Git busy"
give got smokes and hot chocolate
for every man. Go ahead"
Honest? l won't be Robin none
of them birds ?"
Honest"
The boy drank and was trans
formed. He lay back with cigaret
between his lips, with his eyes closed,
and the expression on his dirty face
was such a reward as few men ever
earn.
"That's livin'," he said softly.
One boy was brought in with a bro
ken leg. 1t had been an accident and
not wound won in BATTLE. He had
got in the way of motor truck.
Gust fix me up out here what you
can," he said.
"You get to the hospital, son"
mix. Hospitals for those fellows
that's hurt. | just got a busted pin.
You fix me here and leave me here.
. . When you git chance"
Everybody appears to have this
something" The strangeness of it
all-out of screaming, murderous gun
fire, scorching flames, noxious gases,
frightful suffering, something better
than they had ever known came to
them. There is utter ignoring of self,
thing wonderful to witness. To con-
tinue:
VIC VIC 6Ot w nave d lCN WOiu III
the language" said a captain-surgeon.
"Game won't do. These boys are
something more than game. I've
never seen anything like it. don't
know what it is" Even he, Injured to
suffering and to scenes of bloodshed,
wiped his eyes. "They're-they're-
why, hang it all, there something!
Nobody was ever like themi"
One man slay inside on a mattress
on the floor. His chest was rising and
falling as he struggled for breath.
"He's on his way" said the doctor
to "Y" man who was acting orderly,
nurse, assistant, anything.
The "Y" man bent over and touched
the boys forehead.
"How about it, old man ?" he said
"Kind Of lonesome Maybe
you . could sit here still. :.
The "Y" man sat down and hand
struggled toward him. He took it
and held it in his own, and he whis-
pered to the boy a moment. Maybe
it was a prayer. Whatever the words,