World War, 1914-1918 -- France
It was my first morning at the hospital. The clock in the _vestiaire_ stood at five minutes to eight. At eight I was to begin work. “Report for duty” was the way the formal summons ran. I was to report to Ward Eighty-three, the biggest, the heaviest and the most interesting wa...
It was my first morning at the hospital. The clock in the _vestiaire_ stood at five minutes to eight. At eight I was to begin work. “Report for duty” was the way the formal summ...
2. Part 2The dressings, meantime, continued, with their unceasing accompaniment of groans and cries of “_Doucement!_” A young surgeon told me that _doucement_ was the first French word h...
3. Part 3“My leg is no good,” he writes, “and I never shall be able to use it to work. What shall I do? I shall have to ride that leg all day in a carriage! But where am I to get the car...
4. Part 4But sooner or later the _cafard_, lying in wait, gets them. That Georges, however, witty, jeering, pungent as Javelle water, should fall a victim filled me with surprise. But on...
5. Part 5Shortly after this he was wounded again and went to the hospital; a month later he was back in the lines. Threatened with a relapse, he was sent to a shelter behind the trenches...
6. Part 6And that, for us, is the end of Miss Greenhorn, save to mention that she is a real person. She told me the tale herself six months later, with tears only half of laughter in her...
7. Part 7And when the Boches became enraged at their failure in locating the French batteries which roared nightly defiance they would deliberately turn their guns upon the defenseless c...
8. Part 8“And we’re going to beat them still more before we’re through. Here in this small settlement we are trying to achieve a model community. Already we have a clinic, an infirmary,...
9. Part 9These hospitals for children, established in needy zones throughout all France as fast as may be, constitute one of the most effective and long-range pieces of work that the Ame...
10. Part 10“_Ja_,” admitted the one called Otto, and jerked a thick dirty thumb toward his working blouse, on the chest of which was inscribed in big black letters “P G” with a slim little...
11. Part 11“No; but it’s this way, ma’am. My wife, she’s went and divorced me. And it’s all along of my bad die-ges-tion. I don’t blame her no way. I reckon that bad die-ges-tion did sort...
12. Part 12Well, here were the men, hundreds of thousands of them, scattered over a vast camp ground. We met battalions of them swinging along the roads in step and singing a lively marchi...
13. Part 13He led the way to the nearest tunnel entrance to the citadel. With the others I followed, eagerly listening to his explanations. But my mind was still in a whirl. That dark and...
14. Part 14The second step consists of getting him to a dressing station, usually in some _abri_, where he is bandaged, given a hot drink, an injection of anti-tetanus serum, and an iodine...
15. Part 15Upon the afternoon of my arrival patients were scattered throughout many of the wards, bringing up the total to quite a considerable figure. In company with the commanding offic...
16. Part 16“Yes, suh, we called that outfit the Midnight Regiment. I reckon yuh-all heard of them; they was stationed a while at B----. They was officered with white folks, and a friend of...
17. Part 17“And as they brought in the first German wounded I was aware of a peculiar atmosphere, a sense of strain, a clear antagonism in the room. It was like a live magnetic current. Yo...
18. Part 18Outside, the moon, high, pale, tranquil, drenched the dark earth with a silvery flood. The somber pines sucking the blackness from the surrounding air still seemed the abode of...