The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1920-04-30

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-
Il problem to the surgeons, problem
TO the nurses and (if the expression in
his eyes meant anything), an over
whelming problem to himself. 1t APP
peared that, after all, 1t 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 freighted 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
FLIP sidelong to the floor religious
post card rendered him by a devout
and sentimental passer-by, and he did
1t In her presence, unashamed. Later,
when smiling orderly picked up that
post card and tucked 1t under his pill
low he was no less contemptuous In
permitting It 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
headwounds who were reborn ut Neu-
lily that spring and summer, he was
the only one who had never asked for
a mirror.
This. Of itself, wouldn't have been
astonishing as long as he delayed In
the preliminary stages Of recovery, for
now and then a man with head-wounds
proves to be representative but In
the second stage II was remarkable,
and In the third stage 1t was unique.
The stan held II to be extraordinary
from social as well as from path
illogical viewpoint, that man so ter
ribly disfigured should have no inter-
est-not even a 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 flinched, and potioned 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 hef 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 abb
sorbed In learning to write with his
left hand.
"What FORT" he muttered.
'Why," said the nurse, cheerfully.
"for model. To help the surgeons.
They'll take your picture for guide
and make you look almost exactly the
way you did before"
The Individual from America sat mp
straight, SO that the nurse was startled
by his animation. which was without
parallel in his local history.
"Whati" 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 Queeriy
manageable and strained. "You
mean to say they're going to make me
look the way /. y. :. Could they do that /?
Could theyf Even now7'
"why, of course" she assured him.
You never told me thati" he said,
passionately. 'why didn't your Why
couldn't you have told mel And here
I've been :" He put his hands TO
his bandaged face and SEEMED to
shrink within himself. Then all at once