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 vanishing 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.

Association 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 Shirley and Edna Luikart), Lewis, Shroeder,
and others, became at once an inspiration and pleasure. Most of these
gentlemen had been associated 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