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THE CADUCEUS.
The Caduceus
ENDOKSE US
“Dedicated to the Cause of
World Wide Justice.”
Published every Saturday by the En
listed Personnel of the Base Hospital,
Camp Greene. Charlotte, N. C.
Business Office ’Phone 1530
Editorial Offlce^Barracks Five, Base
Hospital.
Five Cents the Copy.
^P^hsor Lieut. Walter Mytinger
Editor & Mgr Pvt. Verlin J. Harrold
Associate Editors—
Avery Toohey
, , . „ Harold Mills
Associate Business Managers—
Private Theodorlc Neal
Ivan H. Law.
„ , . . Sterling G. Perry.
Subscription representative—
Private Harvey Haines
THE FOURTH YEAR
Germany has just finished her fourth year of endless bajttle. She has
reaped for another season the blood harvest from forty years of sowing
the seeds of hate.
To us the opening clash is scarcely more than a terrible nightmare.
We recall the wild stories of the Teuton drive straight at the heart of
France. We remember the tales of Belgium atrocities, the desolated trail
of ashes, ruin and death. Wc know how nation after nation took up the
sword against the country, gone mad from lust for power. We cannot forget
the Lusitania and vain efforts to maintain peace with honor.
The story of the fourth year of the struggle Is measured chiefly by two
events; the collapse of Russia and the appearance upon the battlefield of
the United States.
Russia, torn by treason and madness, abandoned her battle ranks before
the end of winter. Germany was again free to strike the western line. Her
full blow fell in March and carried the peril of the superman almost to the
gates of Paris.
Then America came. She was winning her race against the sub
marine with the same rousing enthusiasm that she had carried off the gilded
trophies in the world’s athletic games.
She has now landed nearly two million men who would rather give their
last drop of blood than to see one acre of Columbia’s land made the camp
ing ground of tyranny.
The smashing, crashing, iron-flsted marines are there, living up to every
letter of the name of “Wild Devils!” given them by the terror-stricken Huns,
who fell in their way along the Marne. Thousands of regular infantrymen,
■scions of the patriots who used to wait for the whites of the eyes of their
advancing foes, are there and have lost* none of their nerve through the
years. The crack hrtillery, the efficient engineers, the daring bird men,
who sweep with the power of freedom’s eagle, are there. The medical
department of the United States army, admitted to be the best trained
band of physicians and assistants that the world has to offer, is guarding
health, saving life and nursing back to strength the wounded.
Every American trade and art is sending ite, men to match their skill
against the war-learned subjects of Kaiserism. The sturdy farm lads are
using the bayonet to harvest heaps of assailants as dextrouely as they
handled the pitchfork in harvest days of yore. The rought riding cow boys,
who were tumbling the long horns about before the Kaiser opened his cam
paign of “Me und Gott” are right there with the blood curdling “Whoop-e-e!”
Our southpaws are tossing bombs “right across the plate”; our express men
are aiding the Teutons to hurry their baggage along towards Berlin; our
football players are tackling them low and throwing them hard.
The best of every people is in the polyglot army of the United States
that now casts a shadow across-the place in the sun which Germany had
schemed to hold. The bronzed American Indian, who did not even halt for
the war dance when Big Council Congress sounded the alarm, is making two
empty helmets for evary scalp that once hung from his grandfather’s teepee.
The regiment of Hebrews strike with the skill of David. The Italians battle
in the might of the Caesars. The colored troopers have yet to loose an
inch of ground.
As a land of fighters we are rough and tough and “hard -boiled” and we
want Germany to know it.
We admit that we can lick our weight in wild cats and twice our heft
in Dutch.
We were raised on weird stories of Diamond Dick and Buffalo Bill and
Daniel Boone and none of these lads had anything on the way we propose to
rip and tear the Teuton line.
We do not know the meaning of defeat and are stone deaf to any such
order as “fall back.”
The fourth year of Germany’s war ends with the United States on the
job ond going strong.
THAT MOTHERLY FEELING.
The Retail Merchants’ Association
of Charlotte has endorsed advertla-
ing in The Caduceus.
To those who know the rigid stand
ing of that body of dealers and who
realize that The Caduceus is the only
camp paper in which advertising has
been approved by the retail associa
tion, the meaning of such action is
most evident.
It means that after a careful study
of The Caduceus as an advertising
medium the leaders of the Retail Mer
chants’ Association have decided that
a dollar spent in announcing their
goods through The Caduceus is a fair
business proposition to all.
It means that The Caduceus has
shown itself to be absolutely fair in
its dealings with the merchants of
Charlotte and true to the trust of its
thousands of readers each week.
Som of the most touching scenes con
nected with the departure of the nurs
es of Base Hospital No. Fifty-Four
were the farewells spoken between
th« soldier patients, who have been in
the wards for weeks, and the nurses
who have cared for them until the
call lor foreign aid.
There were many cases of choking
voices when “good-byes” were said. In
more than one instance there were
unrestrained tears.
“It is the motherly feeling,” said
Chief Nurse Miss Parish, in comment
ing on the tender example of a pathetic
parting between nurse and patient.
“It is a feeling which is not so mark
ed in civilian nursing,” added the chief
nurse. “It is the knowledge that you
are caring for somebody’s boy who is
far away from home and the touch of
mother’s hand. Your heart goes out to
the loyal lad who has dared every
thing for his country and who is de
nied a mother’s care in his hours of
pain. It is a warm, tender pity that is
limited to such trying hours as these.
“When you see the sick fallen sol
dier it seems that there comes a moth
er’s charge to you to care for him and
the feelin,g of tenderness grows with
the days.”
The trials of the bleak.winter, when
the nurses and patients endured the
discomforts of the growing hospital,
served to bind their hearts together
with lasting chords. The boyish earn
estness of a part of the patients who
have daily expressed their hopds to
get across the seas, has made a
strong appea-l for pity.
Whatever is the excuse for the tears
at the parting of the nurses from the
patients they have aided, it seems es
pecially fitting that it should be such
hearts as these that we send across
the seas to mother the lads who fall,
crippled by autocracy’s hate, on for
eign soil.
We know that these nurseses go
in that warm spirit which grants them
a double mission of helpfulness to
those who are pain-racked amd far
from home. Their lives are to be en
riched by a glory that less sacrificing
souls can never know. Their hearts
are to be touchedi by a deep tender
ness that will remain fine and sweet
as long as life endures.
With the sick soldiers of the wards,
in which these women have worked
through the past seven months, we
join in the passionate utterance of
farewell—“God bless your mission.”
‘FACTS."
To the Caduceus office has been de
livered a copy of the first issue of
“Facts,” the new monthly publica
tion of the Charlotte' Chamber of Com
merce. There is plenty of punch in
the method of telling of the natural
advantages of Charlotte. The make
up of “Facts” and the idea of pre
senting the Charlotte truths in that
fashion are evidences of the up-to-the-
minute spirit of the Chamber of Com
merce.