Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1920-04-09
CHAPTER |.

In the beginning of things, he was
merely a number; but even that was
creditable, because his number was
low enough to signify that he had re-
sponded pretty promptly to the rally
ing call After that, and with the
cataclysmic suddenness which marked
all changes of military status on the
western front, he became, one frosty
morning, a Case, and got himself
roughly classified (and tenderly han
dled) as a Stretcher Case, Grand
Blesse, and, in consequence, a proper
temporary inmate of a field hospital
on the Belgian plains
There, he was unofficially known as
Joyeaux, or Joyous One; not because
he displayed very buoyant DISPOSE
tion-far from it!-but because he be-
Ionged to the Foreign legion; and in
the course of another day or two he
was routine-ticketed as an Evacue,
and provided with lukewarm hot
water bottle and couple Of evil
smelling cigarettes to console, him on
the road to the base hospital at Neu-
lily.
At Neuilly he became, for the first
time since his enlistment, an Individ-
ual, and at the very outset he was dis
tinguished by certain qualities which
had passed unnOticed in the frying pan
and fire OF the trenches. For one
thing, he was obviously immune to
ltd ord for onofhnr no x,oc on
parently immune to hope. He was a
man of inveterate silence; not the
grim silence of fortitude in suffering
(Which is altogether too common a vir-
tue in base hospitals to earn any es-
pecial meritl, but rather the logged
bitterness. To be sure, speech was
physically difficult to him, but other
men with similar misfortunes spoke
blessings with their eyes, and gave
back gratitude in voiceless murmurs
Not so the Joyous One. From the day
of his arrival he demanded nothing,
desired nothing, but to brood sullenly
aIoof and so, when he became an In
dividual, he also became mystery to
the nursing staff. 1t was rumored that
he was an implacable woman Halter,
and there seemed to be- something in
It.
Regardless of the care of the Amer
lean nurses Gall hoveringly attentive
TO one of their own nation who had
fought for France), his spirit remained
nbysmal and clouded in gloom. Only
twice. in the initial month of his con-
finement, did he betray the weakness
Of an ordinary emotion; on each occa-
sion a gold-laced general had come to
salute, IN the name of the republic, one
of the individuals neighbors, and to
deliver bit of bronze which dangled
from a ribbon striped red and green.
It was said~land doubted by those who
hadn't seen it) that at these ceremo-
MES the Individual had grown fever
ish. and let tears come to his eyes, but
subsequently he had relapsed into
still greater depths Of stoicism than
before; his own bed-jacket was inno-
cent of cross or medal, and his depres-
sion was apparent, and acute. The
nurses, arguing that perhaps his pride
was wounded as seriously as his flesh,
offered quick coincidence and got them
selves rebuffed with shrugs of the In
dividuals shoulders, and inarticulate
sounds which had all the earmar6s of
suppressed profanity. He didn't even
soften when Pierre Dutout, hard-hit
territorial in the next bed, ,squandered
1 days supply of energy to lean across
and whisper sympathetically to him:
"Oid man Vieux espece de ckoux-
croute l know how it is
and l haven't got any friends either.
want you to take my Croix de
Guerre. =. When go nowhere"
Even when speech returned to the
Individual he was man of curt re-
sponses and singing monosyllables-
q problem K the surgeons, problem
to the nurses and (if the expression in
Us eyes meant anything), an over
wheming problem to himself. It APP
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. M fxed abode. He