Part 1 (2/2)
”No moaning of the bar When I put out to sea,”
the parting that night with the people in the school hall, and again, the following morning at the depot, was keenly painful--a grief, however, every soldier was to know, and, therefore, bravely to be endured.
How sacred and memorable were the depot platforms of our beloved country in war time! Whether the long, smoke stenciled, trainshed of the Metropolis, or the unsheltered, two-inch planking sort, of the wayside junction; they saw more of real life, the Tragedy of tears and the Comedy of laughter, than any stage dedicated to Drama. There, life was most real and intense. The prosaic words ”All Aboard” seemed to set in motion a final wave of feeling that surged beyond all barriers of the conventional--the last pressure of heart to heart and of hand to hand; the last response of voice to voice; the last sight of tear dimmed eye and vanis.h.i.+ng form, as the train rumbled away beyond the curve, leaving a ribbon of black crepe draped on the horizon.
First impressions, we are told, are most lasting. Arrival at Camp Dodge, Iowa, the following morning and subsequent meeting with the officers and enlisted men of Base Hospital No. 11, made an impression so agreeable time itself seems merely to have hallowed it.
a.s.sociation with the soldierly and gracious Colonel Macfarlain, the splendid Major Percy, the energetic Captain Flannery, together with Doctors Roth, Ashworth, Carter (the same T. A. Carter whose skill later saved the lives of poisoned s.h.i.+rley and Edna Luikart), Lewis, Shroeder, and others, became at once an inspiration and pleasure. Most of these gentlemen had been a.s.sociated with either St. Mary of Nazareth or Augustana Hospitals, Chicago; and had patriotically relinquished lucrative practices to serve their country in its need. Words cannot too highly praise, nor excess of appreciation be shown our gallant public-spirited doctors and corpsmen, who, whether here or overseas, made every sacrifice to build up and maintain the health of the largest Army and Navy of our history.
The personnel of enlisted men, too, with Base 11, was exceptionally superior, coming from some of the best families of the Middle West.
Anderson, McCranahan and the two Tobins of the famous Paulist choir were there, and what wealth of vocal melody they represented! Talbot, Bunte, and Leo Durkin of Waukegan; Dunn, Farrell, Lewis, Talbot--these, and five hundred others like them, were the splendid fellows to whom I now fell heir.
Camp Dodge, like many another Cantonment, the War Department miraculously ”raised” over night, was a vast school, pulsating with martial throb.
Hundreds of the brain and brawn of the far-flung prairies were arriving daily, and being cla.s.sified, drilled and seasoned into efficient soldiers.
[Ill.u.s.tration: U. S. UNIT NO. 2--BLESSING OF UNIT'S COLORS AT ST.
STEPHEN'S.]
Poets have to be born; but soldiers, in addition to qualities inbred, have to be made; and while the process of making was invariably laborious and often discouraging, it usually repaid patient effort. The raw recruit of yesterday became the pride of the line today!
They call me the ”Raw Recruit,”
The joke of the awkward squad, The rook of the rookies to boot, And a b.u.mpkin, a dolt and a clod; But this much I'll plead in defense I seem popular with these chaps, For they keep me a'moving thither and hence From Reveille to Taps.
Though no doubt I have had them for years, For the first time I'm _sure_ I have feet!
When the Corporal said ”Halt” it appears That my feet thought he ordered ”Retreat”!
And my eyes o'er who's blue ladies 'd rave, And called them bright stars of the night, Now simply refuse to behave And mix up ”Eyes Left” with ”Eyes Right.”
I'll admit that I'm no hand to brag; But the fact is I've won a First Prize!
'Twas not that I have any drag, Nor excel in the officers' eyes.
It was close, but I won, never fear; My home training helped me, I guess; I beat every man about here; At being the first in, at ”Mess”!
My Corporal admits I'm not bad Through the night, when I'm buried in sleep!
It's waking that I drive him mad, And cause very demons to weep.
But Rome was not built in a day!
And once I get used to my suit, I'll just force all these pikers to say ”He once _was_ a raw recruit!”
CHAPTER II
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