Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
A DRESSING STATION SET UP ON NEWLY CAPTURED GROUND.
In a very short time after the capture of new territory not only do the infantry and the artillery move up to maintain the new position, but the first-aid dressing stations take their places on the newly captured ground also.
Out there tonight there are wealthy land owners standing knee deep in mud and water, side by side with their own stable boys and treating them on an absolute equality with themselves. It's a matter of life and death out there, and after all when it gets down to that very little else counts. A stable boy's bullet from the enemy's lines will pick off the wealthy magnate as quick as any other's, and the rich man's usefulness is no greater than his servant's, in the trenches. So they realize this fact and act as though it were true. The only place in all the world today where we have a real Brotherhood of Man is in the Allies' trenches on the Western front. Men display heroism there; but they don't know it. Men are brave out there; but they don't think of it. It never enters a man's head that he has been a hero, it's all duty, all just natural; they couldn't do otherwise. As the wounded Frenchman said about the worse wounded Paul, "I couldn't let that poor wounded fellow bleed to death." There was duty. It had to be done. "So I took my socks and pulled them on his feet. What else could I do?"
After all, heroism and heroes are not always shouted from the housetops and oftener they pass by unmentioned. But Someone knows.