The night after San Juan. WITH THE KILLED AND WOUNDED.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Issue 39, 18 February 1899, Page 1

The night after San Juan. WITH THE KILLED AND WOUNDED.

In the Contempoiary Magazine for December, Mr Stephen Bonsai wntes an account of the scene among the fallen which now and then mals in intetest Tolstoi's pathetic and thrilling skutch of the dead and dying in his " Sevastopol," and eveiyone who has studied that sketch knows something of battle. P n iom the Cuban nariative of jir Bonsai— a voiy full one, eveiy line of which is readable —we take the following passage : — "It was a stiange and moving picture this •teat amphitheatie in the gorge, wheie the moonlight fell so coldly upon the upturned faces of a thousand crippled men, who weie waiting there quietly foi the explanation upon the result of which so much depended for them, " Heie, under the light that beat upon the opeiating table and the cold, searching eya of the surgeon, the wounded aie divided into two classes— those whose wounds are dressed, and foi whom a legular tieatment is ordeied and wntten out upon the little tags that are tied round each man's sum, and those who aiB past saung and for whom nothing can be done. I lemember the fust of those I saw that came into this csvtegoiy of the hopelessly wounded, of those whose injuries weie so obYioudy mortal that the overwoiked surgeons did not feel justified in wasting & moment upon them. His face was livid, and the attendants diew him over the table as though he had beau a sack of meal. ' Why do you bung a man heie looking like that '• asked the suigeon-major somewhat sternly, of the young contiact buigeon whose orders, At, they &aid, tho hospital attendants were tauying out. " ' Because, major,' he answered, ' I think we can save this fellow's life with laparotomy.' " The major giew interested. ( Very pretty case ; nice operation, indeed." Then losing interest, l And peihapa we might save his life ; but did you e>er hear of a man recuperating after the shock of iaparotomy on a diet of haid tack and bacon ?" " The cpntraet surgson admitted with a laugh that he never had, and nerer tipected to. '"Anyhow, 1 continued the imvjor, with the confidence of a man awa,rc that his reason is. unanswerable, ' we can't waste time on doubtful cp,ses. It would be hardly a kindness to cut this man all to pieces, and then j;o let him di,e by inches of starvation, or from want of piopei food to his condition. Besides, we must do the greatest good for the greatest numbsr, and there aie stacks of soldiers who t if we get at thorn to-night, may live, and if w« don't will die. So no moie wauted time on doubtful cases, if you pleaue.' "The attendants hurrjed the hopelessly wounded man away fiom the zone of light aiound the operating table, find laid him down under the grep,t epiba tree, with a blanket wiapped about him and with a bundle of guinea giass whereon to pillow his head. It a quiet place, secluded from all the hurry and bustle by a hedge-like thicket. Here, fetched out in a semi-circle, lay all those upon whom it was thought not fair to their comrades to waste a moment's labour. H«re each man is dying his own death, as different

from his neighbour as his life has been. Some fall gently, falling asleep like tired children, and for soma the hand of time is turned back, and it is given them to live one moment betoie they go into the vanished yesfceiday. These ai c babbling the dear names which with the passing of tune have become unfamiliar, and their faoes giovr ioit as they htar agam the voices tor which they have listened in -vain, and see again the faces that passed beyond their ken long ago. And some theie aie who etiuggle, who moan pitcously and cry aloud, and shanking back fiom the great transfoimation die the teinble death of conscious agony. Gi)d speed them to the bourne towaid which they bail, and spare ns the death of conscious agony. ... To His beloved He giveth sleep and the beauty which is Hot all of this woijd; they lie theie so calmly, with arms crossed, and a stiange hghfc falls upon their upturned faces, out of which by a process not known to alchemy, all the 4ross and worldliness hag been refined. Np, it is not the moonlight, but the pale leflection of those beacons which they alone who aie dying there can see. " Now and again a rough soldier, heavily booted and bearded like the pard, but softened by the scenes of suffering that surround him into the most tender of nurses, picks his way carefully in and out among the rows of the djing, pouring upon their parched lips the precious drops of water, and mopping frqm the cold foreheads great beads of perspiration, with a sponge steeped in alcohol and vinegar, which gives the strength to bear manfully the pangs of dissolution, No\r and again they aie aroused by the steady tramp of the burying detail, and you see the sergeant as he passes down the line throwing the light of his lantern upon the white marble faces, and quietly bidding his men carry away those human shells from which the brave souls have fled even while you stand there and wonder, so near to, and jet so far from the understanding of, the mystery of life and dea.th."

Au^ong the Eiffian pirates of Morooco the women do all the agricultural and other hard work, while the men, when at home, do the cooking and mend the clothes, including the women's. Steels tapes for measuring are made in lengths varying from 3ft. to 1000 ft. Tapes of 1000 ft. in length are made only oneeighth of an inch in width, sp as to save Weight, and are usually made to qrder.