The surgeons in France are doing most wonderful things and it must not be forgotten, that along with all the awful phases of the war, with all the pathos and the horror, there are many brighter incidents and many humorous episodes.

For remember, the war today is just a national life. The whole existence of these countries is thrown into the war and for the time being, that is the natural course of life. So they live for war, the same as another nation lives its existence for money, art, or anything else. The individual's life goes on just the same, only the conditions are changed.

And everybody is equal over there in the Allied armies. The English gentleman is fighting beside the French negro, or Turko, as he is called, and when wounded, lies in the next bed to him.

It's a wonderfully democratic arrangement.

One of those negroes amused me greatly. He was a big husky fellow with kinky hair and thick lips, a typical negro, only he spoke French instead of English. This French negro had had his nose shot entirely off. I had previously helped carry him into the hospital and he was indeed a dreadful sight to behold. A piece of shrapnel had got him and he came very nearly "going West."

But the doctors took him and labored with him day after day, and week after week. They took a piece of bone out of his side and some skin from another place and by working, and grafting, and rubbing, they finally brought out a new nose on the fellow, and he used to boast in front of his black pals that when they got back to Africa he would have the edge on all of them with those swarthy girls because his comrade's noses were big and flat and he now had a better looking one in place of his old flat one.

Many a little incident of a similar nature happens, both in the hospitals and on the field, and the men even though badly "cut up" are not all the time groaning; and the nurses even though very sweet and gentle are not constantly weeping. They'd soon be shipped back home if they were. They go about their work and do it, just as a doctor does at home.

A good many cases of mutilation were found which were just as bad as that of the negro, and which in the beginning seemed just as hopeless. We carried in one British Tommy who had his entire lower jaw blown off. He presented a fearful spectacle. He was put to bed and very carefully prepared and treated to get his body into proper shape for the operation. This required some days. Then those confident surgeons started in on him. Day by day they built a jaw for him, taking a piece from here and another from there and by skillfully massaging and rubbing they by and by, got him fixed up, and then the most skilled dentists in the world took him in hand and put in teeth for him so that today you cannot discern that he was ever badly mutilated. All you can see is a little mark from the left corner of his mouth and a very small scar from the right corner. He lisps just a little also, as his tongue was partly shot away.

In cases where the limbs are fractured, or where certain positions must be maintained while the patient is lying in bed, a clever device has been arranged.

A frame which holds up the several parts of the body is attached to the bed, or is a part of the bed, and in this frame are many pulleys with ropes and weights attached. When the wounded soldier who is all "broken up" is laid in this bed, his arm is laid in a form, and the form is lifted to the proper position and held there by the weight over the pulley. Some positions are necessary for rapid healing; some are necessary for comfort or for avoiding intense pain. By this arrangement, invented by Dr. Alexis Carrel, any portion of the body can be lifted to any height or angle and kept there as long as necessary. It is a very ingenious apparatus, at the same time simple and of inestimable value.