Produced by Meredith Bach, Rene Anderson Benitz and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Transcriber's Note: Variations in hyphenation and spelling have been retained as in the original. Minor printer errors have been amended without note. _By Ellen N. La Motte_ The Tuberculosis Nurse The Backwash of War The Backwash of War The Human Wreckage of the Battlefield as Witnessed by an American Hospital Nurse By Ellen N. La Motte G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and London The Knickerbocker Press 1916 Copyright, 1916 BY ELLEN N. LA MOTTE The Knickerbocker Press, New York To MARY BORDEN-TURNER "The Little Boss" TO WHOM I OWE MY EXPERIENCE IN THE ZONE OF THE ARMIES INTRODUCTION This war has been described as "Months of boredom, punctuated by moments of intense fright." The writer of these sketches has experienced many "months of boredom," in a French military field hospital, situated ten kilometres behind the lines, in Belgium. During these months, the lines have not moved, either forward or backward, but have remained dead-locked, in one position. Undoubtedly, up and down the long-reaching kilometres of "Front" there has been action, and "moments of intense fright" have produced glorious deeds of valour, courage, devotion, and nobility. But when there is little or no action, there is a stagnant place, and in a stagnant place there is much ugliness. Much ugliness is churned up in the wake of mighty, moving forces. We are witnessing a phase in the evolution of humanity, a phase called War--and the slow, onward progress stirs up the slime in the shallows, and this is the Backwash of War. It is very ugly. There are many little lives foaming up in the backwash. They are loosened by the sweeping current, and float to the surface, detached from their environment, and one glimpses them, weak, hideous, repellent. After the war, they will consolidate again into the condition called Peace. After this war, there will be many other wars, and in the intervals there will be peace. So it will alternate for many generations. By examining the things cast up in the backwash, we can gauge the progress of humanity. When clean little lives, when clean little souls boil up in the backwash, they will consolidate, after the final war, into a peace that shall endure. But not till then.