HEROES IN HOSPITAL.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 221, 27 October 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

HEROES IN HOSPITAL.

HUMOUR AND PLUCK OF OUR | WOUNDED TOMMIES. The extraordinary courage and cheerfulness of our wounded soldiers has amazed everyone who las been privileged to see these "very gallant gentlemen" "in dock", as Tommy terms the war hospital where he has been taken "for repairs. Doctors and nurses vie with each other in their whole-hearted adm'.ra- . tion of tho wonderful spirit and forti- '' tudo with which our broken and maimed heroes bear the most awful wounds of war. "Splendid! I should think he is! said a nurse who has done magnificent work in ministering to stricken soldiers. " I have nursed French and Belgian, German and Austrian; but for pluck and cheenness our own Tomm» beats them all hollow. He is the Mark Tapley of the world's fighting men, in* champion optimist, with a laugh ani a joke on his lips though he may bo suffering agony and though he may be crippled for life." Yes there is not the slightest sliodow of a doubt about it, whether in the trenches, in the charge, or in the hospital, Tommy is quite in a class by himself Sa. : d a famous surgeon at tho front:—"lf peopl'e of the United Kingdom could see the conditions under which our fellows fight, how they fight, and how they die, 1 swear that every head would uncover to the colours of any regiment bearing flic name of a battle, because that name had been won through the bfood of real heroes. Believe me, tho Victoria Cross is won over and over again in a single day. lhey are brave! What if you were to see how the wounded act after the excitement of battle! They suffer their wounds, great and small, without a murmur; they get their wounds dressed, take chloroform, give consent to have tho : r limbs amputated, just as if they were going to have their hair cut. They are gloriously brave. Men who have been in the thick of the fight all day, Seen their chums wounded and killed, their own lives not worth a second's insurance, still these men cook their food and go off to sleep, and, most wonderful of all, go back to the thic.i of it next day." . The grand work which is being accomplished on all our fronts of war by the men of the R.A.M.C. is only pe.haps surpassed by the number of almost incredible stories which they ten of the enormous vitality as well as tho bravery of our wounded men.

A TERRIBLE ORDEAL. What, for example, could surpass the pluck of the wounded infantryman who survived an ordeal probably as remarkalbe as anv in the whole war? He lay in "No Man's Land," betwce.i the German and the British trenches, in terrible woather, and, owr'ng to the enemy's fire, it was impossible to bring him in. His' shoulder was blown away, and lie had Inst much blond. However, he managed to crawl about four yards to a stream, and was able to obta'n water and a little grass. Thus ha lived for eight days, and then a German sniper came along, and, seeing the state of the Britisher, he offered to put him out ■.•!' his ntserv . But the man said he preferred to' stick it a bit longer, so the German (a "whvte" one thank God!) left him some food and passed on. On tho tenth clay another German sni,per made a smilar offer, but lite was still dear to the Tommy, and shortly afterwards the R.A.M.C. men we;') able to bring him in. His shoulder was smashed to bits, and the wound was full of. maggots. The ro.-fd to the base was being heavily shelled, so it was impossible to send'the patient clown to a hospital, and it was 14 days after he received the wound betore he got safely into a bed. After a night's rest he was quite cheerful, and whispered that he was pretty lit. Questioned as to h'.s experience, ho said that near him lavfour dead Germans, and that seeing that thev were dead while he still lived, and that their state was therefore worse than his, lie never lost heart.

CHEERFU LNESS UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

A nursing s'stcr tolls of one of the brave W'nnricks. He .was a "twelve years' man," with a n'ue and two kiddies, but "'when Jvtchener wanted more men" Ito rejoined. In o;ie of tlw big ''stunts - ' he got an explosive buljet through his arm, smashing it up to rags above the elbow. "Ho told me/ said the sister, "lie got a man 'to tie the torn muscles up,' and then started to trawl out, dragging h'-a arm behind him. After some hours ho came upon one of his own officers wounded, who said, 'Good God, sonny, you'll be bleeding to ueath •{ ve don t get you out of this; catch 1 old of me and the chapla'n. So he eddied me and 1 cuddled the chaplain, and we got as far as the doctor. "At tho clearing house his arm was taken off through the shoulder-joinr. but I'm afraid it was too late Ho is now a pallid wreck, dying ot gangrene. But he would discuss tlie war and when it would end, and ask whe'i he'd '« strong enough to s:t up and write to that officer, and apologised for want'ng drinks so often. He is one ol the most top-class, gallant gentlemen it's ever been my jolly good luck to meet. An J there arc hundreds of them." A few days later a young officer, "such a hoy," gave an exhibition ol the same spirit. When he was put into clean pyjamas, and had a clean hanky nitii eau-de-Cologne, he said, "By .love, it's worth getting hit for th&, after the smell of dead horses, dead men, dead everything." He said no one could get inr - Messinos, where there is only one house standing, becau.se of the unburied dead then'. He couldn't move his arms, but he loved being fed with pieces of tangerine oranges, and, like so many, he was cliM'fly concerned with "giving so mitcn trouble. " He looked awfully ill, but seldom stopped smiling. "Of such," says the nurse, "are the K'ngdoiii of Heaven."

PEPPERED WITH COAE-BOXEh. The stoicism of some of these dauntless men is nbsolutel ymarvellous. Due of the H.A.M.C. who was at Neuve Chapelle sp'aks of one case in particular which he will always r< number ;i line Siots Guardsman who was brought in alter lying on the held ior four days without, food, and having -i v : wounds, all bad. Not a moan, gioun. or complaint took li all cheerfully and as a matter of course. '" We made as big •! fuss of 111 in a- we could and tune would allow, but I was not tin only on • who thanked God I wis a Hrtisl when we looked at this monument n| pluck and national spirit." No wonder the doctors agree that Tommy is a grand fellow. There w:>s one brought into one of I he held Imm>tills one night. lie was pepp: i d ail over, and a doi tor aid to him. as he lay mii the lid.lv. " Wiia' happi i-««I t" VOU '?" "I got three d - d I box ." Ilia name Tommy gives to tin big, Rlaci; .Maria G< rman shells. "Why did you try to stop them:-" "I couldn't get out of the way." They dressed him in the load, the

back, the right shoulder, and the outtock, mostly nasty wounds, and then the doctor said, "Are you bit anywhere else?" "Well, I think there are two or three on my right, feg, but they don't matter. Will you give men cigarette?" The doctor gave him one, and ho '.Bi|[oo ft uij 'siifl 0} posn tuj,, 'ptus and I've been twice in pit accidents, but I'd sooner go through those than run up against another coal box." Ho told the doctor he had got five Germans himself, and they never moved again after lie hit them. He asked Ik,iv long it would be before he could go back again. "We meet dozens like this," said the doctor, writing home. " I always thought Tommy Atkins a grand fellow, but I have an intense admiration for him now."

MAN WHO REFUSED TO DIE. In tho " b;g push" at the beginning )t July a sergeant was dreadfully wounded by shell fire. At clearing hospital" the surgeons found it necessary to amputate below the knee joint both his legs, as well as his lejt arm near tho shoulder. He had also some superficial wounds on the head. A week or so later, a press correspondent saw him propped up in bed, wnen he was sucking a cigarette, which he held between the fingers of the one limb that was left to him. He was able to talk a little. "I refuse to die," he sad. "No Bocho can kill me. I'm going to live and see the blighters well beaten." Was it possible, the correcspondonl inquired of the surgeon, that tins; man could live? "Oh, yes," ho replied; '1 am con vinced he will get through all rign... His physique is fine. He is in perteob health, his heart-boats show no sign if failure. Above all, he has a spirt which is almost superhuman. He has made up his mind that ho won't die. and I don't think he will. Men wui. lack his spirit die of funk." Such nerve, such super-heroism is bound to tell —is telling every day—and no one can possibly have the ver\' slightest doubt as to the way in nhici the Titanic conflict will end W.iti such men to "carry on," and in such a cause, how could we fail to win through -

From every source comes the saim gloriously inspiring story of our heroes in hospital—their courage, tx.o : r cheerfulness, their humour. A French journalist who had inspected the British Army Medical Service 'n France recently wrote in pra. ; se i* the excellence of all branches of the service and of the men with whom he camo in contact. He was particularly struck with one badly wounded soldier, who, on noticing a man in French uniform pass, started singing the "Marsedlaise," while another, a Highlander, who had lost his left arm, remarked to him with a smile, "I shall be nil right tor opening taxi doors in the Strand. ■ Similarly a Glasgow lad, who ran away from school to join the Army at the outrbeak of war, on being commiaserated with on the loss of his right hand the other day. remarked, "Oh, It's all right; I can play "tenns with my left already!' No; there is no whimpering, no whining, no murmuring, no weak self-com numeration with Tommy. One moment you may see his face twitch with pa/n, '. n nd the next break into a cheery wni'o of good humour . It really takes hold of one to see how brave they are anl how superbly they can meet "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." QUEER CONSOLATIONS.

A chaplain was asked by cno of th» nurses to go to a young lellow and break the news that ho was w have liu foot taken oif. Lying in bed on tho oppn a :te sv'de of the ward was a man who had had his own foot amputate.l the day before. He overheard wnit was satd, and called across jocularly. "Why, mate, we snail be able to have a pair of boots between us now—y.j i the left and me the right!" Assuredly, had Dickens bee 1 alive today he wouldn't have created one Mar. - Tnplcy— there are battalions, manned and otherwise, in khaki in Europe and other places. One gallant warrior win was n ct the other day w.th one leg, a crutch, and a "stick is surely entitled to a (emission in one of those battalion", of optimists. "Only one trousers lee to put in the press now," he grinne*. Sir Janus Kingston Fowle- recently related some interesting stories oj: lit-.; in a military hospital. It was he said, almost a doctor's meal to see plenty or empty beds, and in one case in France a medical director went around the hospit.il and saw a man who looked very well. "How are you " lie asked. "Quite well, thank vou," replied the solder. "Well, would you like to go home:'" "Yes, sir." "All right; I will have your boots fetched and will see how you get on." "All right, sir; but you need om'r bring one, because 1 had a leg off the clay before yesterday-" It was wonderful how cheerful the men were.- Four he knew of had eaca lost lus right leg, and they delighted !ii walking down a wooden passage, banging then- wooden legs on the floor and crying " Left!" At a hospital near Boulogne there were two young fellows, each having lost a leg. One day a nurse overheard a conversation betwee these two ikijs, crippled for life, and what do you thmi; it was about? It seemed each boy was proud of his running prowess, each thought ho could beat the other, an.l they were actually arranging a match over a quarter-of-a-mile after they had recovered tho use of fffoir one remaining leg! As the nursc'said, "I assuie you, as 1 listened l felt half-inclined to weep and half to gve tne two bravehearbed lads 41 good hug and a kiss." And the Tommies, bless them ! wouldn't have objected to these good things!

WITHOUT A I.EC; LO STAND OX Quite one of the cheeriest of all the patients in this particular hospital was a hero of "bloody Wipers," where both legs had been smashed, and both had been amputated. Wei leducated, the young fallow delighted in nothing better than to draw the nurse, into an argument on any conceivable subject. One day nurse got the better of him, and jokingly said, "Don't you think yon had better give in? You know you are beaten 1" "Well. I Fiippse i had,'" he answered iwtli a smile. "Indeed, I can't do any. thing els.' sine, as you sec. 1 haven't a leg to stand on." Imagine turning a tenable calamity like that into a joke. Truly, the grit of these heroes i> inmost beyond belief. Another poor chap one of the gunners- had been proprietor of a school for hoys n civilian life. He had lost both li-'s eyes, but in s|ftt.> of this tragic misfortune he was the brightest and best-humoured man in the whole ward. Talking to nurse about his school, which be had I. ft ill the hands of i Friend, lie said, " I don't think schoolmasters ought to take to soldiering.'' •• Why ?" inquired nur.se. " Well," was" his answ, r. " look at my ca-->. I hadn't been lighting more than a week bclore 1 had lost two of my 'i,i|;, : |. ■ " Tb ■ punning proclivities of this hippy warrior were a caution. On another occasion he was telling a nurse of .'l college! friend of Irs who had been wounded a few days earlier than liim.-ed'.

"One of the most amusing follows in tho world," he said; "makes you die With laughing with, his funny sayings and stories. But," he added sadly, "I'm afraid he'll never be funny again." "How is that?" nurse inquired sympathetically. "Why, "he answered, "he .was shot through the humerus." TO SAVE TROUBLE!

The unique "spirit of the trenches'' is indeed well exemplified by many of tho little incidents that occur in our war hospitals. Take this one as a case m point. The nurses on day duty in ji Glasgow hospital left the ward one evening saddened over the condition ■ f a new arrival, a young sollier with a shattered thigh. The wound was very bad, and his danger only too evident. When they came back next morning lie was their first thought. They found him sitting up in hed playing "Johnny Cope" on a mouth organ. We are not quite prepared to "go bsyi" for the absolute veracity of the following, but it is so typical of Tommy that it might easily be the candid truth. In any case, the story recently went tho rounds, and is to the that a solder in Hospital, Glasgow, iias been operated on four tun s in an endeavour to extract a bull:t from tha vichvty of his lower ribs. On the last occasion he slid he hai a request to make before go.ng unaer chloroform. Permission having bee l granted him to make it, he remarked to thd surgeon—" Oh, it's nacthng nuic.i. I jist want to suggest that it you are unsuccessful this time, and think ym. will have to try again, don't row me up. Jist put buttons on me!" George A. Kcssler, one of the lew survivors of the Lusitanta, speaking i-t a dinner in New York, said, "The heroism of the private soldier is a splendid thin<* 1 saw in a London hospital a soldier with a very terribly scarred face. 'You poor, poor lad!' a lady sad to him. 'Don't pity me, mi/am' said the soldier. 'Pity Bill, there, who s hit in the log where it don't show. •But,' said the lady, 'surely you don't like to be disfigured?' The brave young soldier laughed and answered. •Disfigured? I ain't disfigured, ma'amI'm decorated.' " Game to the heels every t'.mo, and there is scarcely a wounded Tommy, no matter what lie may have been in civ.l life but who is the sama—ready to make light, to even make fun, of his misfortune. Occasionally the dry humour of lorn my finds nn outlet when lie comes in contact with ofhcia'Mom. Thus some wounded soldiers were waiting to go before the Invaliding Board, with % view to getting sick leave. Among them was a private Who had lost ins leg, and when his name was called he hobbled into the room. " What's the matter with you, my man?" asked thd presiding officer, speaking from force ot habit. The soldier was surpised, but, with n straight face, he remarked quietly—"Aa'm shair, sir. but Aa think it's ma hearin that's bad." Then there is the story of Tommy i "gift from tha enemy." IVnimy was in hospital, and by Ins "bedside lay a watch of curious and foreign design. The attending doctor was interested "Where did your watch come from? he asked. "A German giv it me," answered Tommy. A little piqued, the doctor irquired how the foe had come to convoy his token of esteem and affection ' "'E 'ad to," was the laconic re-