My War Experiences in Two ContinentsMacnaughtan, S. (Sarah)
History
My War Experiences in Two Continents
Macnaughtan, S. (Sarah)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals, charities, etc.; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, English
Yesterday one saw enough to stir one profoundly, and enough to make
small things seem small indeed! It was a fine day at last, after weeks
of black weather and skies heavy with snow, and although the cold was
intense the sun was shining. I got into one of the horrid little
droshkys, in which one sits on very damp cushions, and an "izvoztchik"
in a heavy coat takes one to the wrong address always!
The weather has been so thick, the rain and snow so constant, that I had
not yet seen Petrograd. Yesterday, out of the mists appeared golden
spires, and beyond the Neva, all sullen and heavy with ice, I saw towers
and domes which I hadn't seen before. I stamped my feet on the shaky
little carriage and begged the izvoztchik to drive a little quicker. We
had to be at the Finnish station at 10 a.m., and my horse, with a long
tail that embraced the reins every time that the driver urged speed,
seemed incapable of doing more than potter over the frozen roads. I
picked up Mme. Takmakoff, who was taking me to the station, and we went
on together.
[Page Heading: BLIND]
At the station there was a long wooden building and, outside, a
platform, all frozen and white, where we waited for the train to come
in. Mme. Sazonoff, a fine well-bred woman, the wife of the Minister for
Foreign Affairs, was there, and "many others," as the press notices say.
The train was late. We went inside the long wooden building to shelter
from the bitter cold beside the hot-water pipes, and as we waited we
heard that the train was coming in. It came slowly and carefully
alongside the platform with its crunching snow, almost with the creeping
movement of a woman who carries something tenderly. Then it stopped. Its
windows were frozen and dark, so that one could see nothing. I heard a
voice behind me say, "The blind are coming first," and from the train
there came groping one by one young men with their eyes shot out. They
felt for the step of the train, and waited bewildered till someone came
to lead them; then, with their sightless eyes looking upwards more than
ours do, they moved stumbling along. Poor fellows, they'll never _see_
home; but they turned with smiles of delight when the band, in its grey
uniforms and fur caps, began to play the National Anthem.
These were the first wounded prisoners from Germany, sent home because
they could never fight again--quite useless men, too sorely hurt to
stand once more under raining bullets and hurtling shell-fire--so back
they came, and like dazed creatures they got out of the train, carrying
their little bundles, limping, groping, but home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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