Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1924-07-24
"Reminiscences of a
Red Cross Nurse
Lillian K. Robinson
Chaplain Am. Legion Post, Pdyette

only man present who had more thai
one leg 10 the nearest hut for n priest
before the priest came there was
decided change in my paint and
knew was about to die. Sister
sister. he called get my-get my
his hand wandered to his BOSOM
trying to find something, | found
for him and held it up it was small
cross which | placed to his dying lip
and. oh, the wonderful light and smil'
that came to his dear face as h;
kissed the cross and one more prec
ious life had been given for France
The army was composed of all sort'
of people, both men and women, wht
had planned their lives all so differ
emily. The thought that some of then
should kill was -conservable, i
was worse than that, ii was a terror
One had to sink personality and am
bilious thoughts aside, everything fol
which he had been trained. take up {
way of living which was adherent t
his nature, place himself in a position
where he must be inefficient ano
stand the strong chance Of dying
shortly in a manner which seemed in
commensurate obscure and out oil
proportion CHASTITY and why? Because
Calyery had repeated itself after 200t
years to die for others had again be-
come worth while.
! Were we every bombed. oh yes
several times | never VIII forget the
first time, it was night; every light
extinguished and the streets a stag
nant river of blackness, no sound. nc
life, a habitation of the dead. Then
! the sudden commotion in the sky, the
rattle of machine guns, the glare OF
a plane descending in flames and the
crash of bombs on the house tops. 1t
was terrible experience, but il was
/ the best thing that could have hap
pened to me. 1t taught me in an in
slant, how badly l was needed. We
women were just as exaultant over
our jobs as the men in the front line.
1t is the immense chance for sacrifice
that intrigues one. | suppose even
in peace times the chance was al
ways there. only ones eyes were
blinded, perhaps the sacrifice demand
ed wasn't large enough. To save
France Joan of Arc charged on
horseback into battle The nurses
went with less drama. but with an
equal herOiSm, our charger was
Ford ambulance and we exchanged
our armour for uniform of the Red
Cross We don't kill we rescue as
we waided through the back wash of
an army. Some of our friends at
home made too much of what we wo-
men were doing, when it was really
very ordinary. 1t was ordinary in
France, grant you. In France lay
ing down ones life for some one else
had become a hibit. The English used
to say that we Americans were not
romantic, we were too terribly COM
mon sense, TAX yourself for instance,
they would say you come 5000 miles
to do your work and perhaps to die,
yet, you don't thrill at it, you be-
little your heroism by taking it utter
~ for granted The French are so
different. Their feet are never on
the ground. They view the war in
the light of history and see their blood
pouring like a crimson tide down the
future ages. The English are uqite |
conscious of their spendour, only |
they don't talk about it. They do |
magnificent things and voice them in |
he language OF stable boys, they are
30 terribly afraid of self-praise and |
sentiment. They feel intensity but |
leep UP a pretense of carelessness.
We Americans are too honest for pre-
ense. We went in for resciing lives
With the same determination, we ap-
,ly to jass only somehow we don't |
zee the difference. II is the deter |
nination with which we set about a /
OBJ that fascinates us. We don't CON
ratulate ourselves on the job itself /
We rever loose our heads. Military |
discipline gave us all a purpose, TO
i've bravely, dare cheerfully and il
eeded, die gratefully. We were all
r nearly all of us young with the
World before us but we jeopardized 4
owe and youth, for an ideal which
onsumed us most triumphant of all 4
re would not have things otherwise.
he chief horror OF modern warfare II
; that 1t is so anonymous and me- 4
homcot, one rarely sees the land that |
trikes Cromwells' ironsides faced /
1eir opponents. They went into I
attic chanting the Psalms of David. r
VI boys OF the late war stole out of (
ieir trenches behind smoke bar I,
age and did all their calufing in n
Hence. The ywaited long hours toI v
Ike chances to destroy. In putres- n
ice and destruction unimaginable I
icy sometimes lived. Their spirits l
)se above the pity and squaller. The II;
lest thing in history hoppened about 4
em but because they were there to ii
'mbat 1t, their spirits grew in status s
)an of Arc saw her visions in the1 8,
Gods around Donnremy, we nurses k
w OURS in our hospital walls. our k
'irit was the same though centuries W
yided us. ] think the thing ] found lT
trdest of all was to keep up the oil
'irit OF few of "the boys How F
nelly and homesicl some of them al
ere. And in the loneliness Of their W
lstance the knowledge that there is w
Ie woman who cared supreu1ely II
lped. Self pity is the worst enemy dc
at soldier can have, the only way &c
70 could endure 1t was to be for LA
tful OF self, to consider his body, WI
pain. everything personal as Of be
account. The game, the establish TT
OF the ideal for which they fought ltr
Us the only thing that mattered. re
ere came a point In the career of as
cry fighting man and l may also It'll
d the nurses when they could, en- pl
re no further. He may be perfect tn
healthy but he knows that the day lin
surely coming when he will break, lint
may not come for a long time. but lac
} certainty that the break was or