The Dolores star., 1920-07-30

l want you to take my Croix de
Guerre. :. When l go nowhere"
Even when speech returned To the
Individual he was man of curt re-
sponses and singing monosyllables-
a problem to the surgeons, a problem
to the nurses and (if the expression In
his eyes meant anything. an over
whelming problem to himself. 1t ap
peared that, after all. 1t wasn't simply
women that he hated-lt 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 freighted with magical de-
light. But to those who pted him In
all his loneliness he was utterly con-
temptuous: he even went so far as to
flllip sIdelong to the floor religious
post card rendered him by devout
and sentimental passer-by. and he did
It 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 II 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 II was remarkable.
and In the third stage 1t was unique.
The staff held 1t to be extraordinary
from social as well as from path
illogical viewpoint. that man 80 ter
ribly disfigured should have no Inter
est-nOt even morbid lnterest-ln
his own appearance. And 1t wasn't
that the Individual was simply tndlf-
ferent to the mirror; on the contrary.
his aversion to It was active and ener-
getic; he fInched. and motioned
franticaliy 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
photograph was requested OF MIN.
Surely he knew where there was
likeness Of himself. didn't he1 his
old passport photograph. which had
mysteriously disappeared. Or
The Individual glanced up from his
present task: the wound In his arm
was still annoying and he was an
sorbed In learning to write with MS
left hand.
"what fort" he muttered.
.Why." said the nurse. cheerfuiiy'
"for a model. To help the surgeons.
They'll take your picture for a sulae
and make you look almost exactly the
way you did before.
The Individual from America sat up
straight % that the nurse was stat'leu
nv his animation, which was without
. parallel In his local history.
swhatw he said. T.,
"CertainIyw The nurse spoke IN
the tone one uses to an alling cni'u'
you've known that, haven't your
The Individuals voice was Queery
unmanaeeable and strained. you
mean to say they're going to MAKE ms
look tho why IT.. Could they 90 tna''
Gould theyf Even nowT
"why, Of course" she assured ni%'
~Ynu eever tsld me that" he SAID
nas1aouatsiy. .why didn't you' why
ee.lds't You have told mol And mere
fve been :" He put his hasos 70
es bandassd fhes and se
sArask within hlDosf1. Then I'll q ses