Elbert County tribune and Elbert County banner., 1920-07-09

want you to take my Croix de
Guerre. When go nowhere"
Even when speech returned to the
Individual he was a man of curt re-
sponses and stinging monosyllables-
problem to the surgeons, a problem
to the nurses and III the expression In
his eyes meant anything). an over
whelming problem to himself. 1t ap-
peared that. after all. It wasn't simply
women that he hated-it was the uni
verse
His military book implied that he
had no parents, no close relations. no
friends to notify. no fixed abode. He
received no visitors. no letters, no
| packages frsighted with magical de-
light. But to those who pitied him in
all his loneliness he was utterly con-
| temptuous: he even went SO far as to
fllip sidelong to the floor religious
post card rendered him by devout
and sentimental passer-by. and he did
1t in her presence. unashamed. Later
when smiling orderly picked up that
post card and tucked It under his pill
low he was no less contemptuous In
permitting 1t to remain. But the one
stupendous fact which. more than all
else combined. made him an object of
bewildered curiosity was this-that of
the scores and scores of men with
head-wounds who were reborn at Neu-
lily that spring and summer, he was
the only one who had never asked for
q mirror.
This. of itself, wouldn't have been
astonishing as long as he delayed In
the preliminary stages of recovery, for
now and then man with head-wounds
proves to be super-sensitive; but In
the second stage It was remarkable.
and In the third stage 1t was unique
The staff held 1t to be extraordinary
from social as well as from a path
illogical viewpoint, that a man so ter
ribly disf1gured should have no inter
est-not even morbid interest-in
his own appearance. And 1t wasn't
that the Individual was simply indif-
ferent to the mirror; on the contrary.
his aversion to 1t was active and ener-
getic; he finched, and motioned 1t
frantically away as though the mere
conception Of seeing himself as others
saw him was too repellant. and too
unthinkable to endure.
There came a day In April when a
photograph was requested of him.
Surely he knew where there was a
likeness of himself, didn't her His
old passport photograph, which had
mysterously disappeared, or
The Individual glanced up from his
present task: the wound In his arm
was still annoying and he was alb
sorbed In learning to write with his
left hand.
"What for7" he muttered.
why" said the nurse, cheerfully.
"for a model. To help the surgeons.
They'll take your picture for a guide
way you did before"
The Individual from America sat up
straight, SO that the nurse was startled
by his animation, which was without
a parallel in his local history.
"Whatl" he said.
Certainly - The nurse spoke in
the tone one uses to an ailing child.
you've known that, haven't your
The Individuals voice was queerly
unmanageable and strained. you
mean to say they're going to make me
look the way Fl. Could they do that7
Could they? Even now?'
"Why, of course" she assured him.
You never told me thatl" he said,
passionately. "Why didn't your Why
couldn't you have told me And here
I've been :" he put his hands to
his bandaged face and seemed to
shrink within himself. Then all Mt once