TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10637, 23 April 1900, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

War is a hideous game to The play; bat to the credit of Wounded at our humanity and our civiNetley. lisatioo, be it said that we j strive to soften its brutalities in whatever direction we find possible. The arrangements made by the British for the care of the wounded at the front earned the high praise of the roost eminent surgeons, ami for those soldier* who are invalided homo there is provided at the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley treatment as skilful'as that found- m any hospital in the world. It is interesting to read of the experiences in battle of Niefcley patients. Their invariable testimony to the effect of the Mauser bullet is tiia.t wh*n, it passes clean through the flesh the sensation produced is just a sharp sting, hardly perceptible all in the excitement of the lighting, though later on the pain becomes great. Two men were at Netley who had been shot through the thigh, and both, were suffering incessant pain in the toes in consequence of the thigh wound. On the other hand, when a bullet strikes a 'bone the shock is serious. One man declared that the sensation when a bullet hit shim at the back of the ankle joint was as though he had been badly kickedrbya horse, wthad weight drop on his foot. Some •whoihatf been hit by fragments of shells were seriously wounded. One, in particalaT, a cavalryman, had had a thrilKng escape. A shell finsfc of all tore away his kneecap, and then exploded inside the horse he was nddog, of course killing ib-onstantly. One can only marvel how the horseman could have escaped with his life. Another man who bad just escaped bang struck by a shell, which exploded near him, 'had received , so intense a shock that even, whea-he reached Nettey he was still dazed- and incapable of speech. He was suffering from severe concussion of the brsdit, When a visitor spoke to him, he raised his hand to his head, showing that he understood what tras said, bob caaid not speak in reply. One poor feSow had received a shot-at the side of his head whiehi>had passed out at the front, carrying hie eye with it. Another soldier, a. fine fellow, at least six feet high, had the thumb ehot clean away from his right hand. One remarkable case was that of a men who did not reach the front at all. White op his way there,' he was struck blind, owing, it is supposed, to the effect of excitement* on thfi nervous system, and the doctors now gire little hope of hia recovery. Y«t he wue one of the cheeriest persons at Netley. Some of the soldiers who are now patients at this superb institution, were in the thick of the heaviest fighting in oouth Africa,, and the little they say about- the vrar and its progress shows that Thomas Atkins, like has officers, had had his preconceived notions concerning the mJLlita.ry strength and equipment of the Boers, considerably knocked about. "The fact is," said one young fellow, talking on this subject, "a good many of them have found out that the war wasn't quite what they expected when they set out. I was in itho thick of it at Magersfontein, and I don't mind admitting I have been in many a place I liked* a good deal better. Men may be willing to fight when there's a fair chance, but they don't care .to attempt impossibili- | ties." Yet the prevailing spirit amongst the wounded at Netfey was an. absorbing eagerness to be back at the front again. A young artilleryman whose battery suffered so badly in one fight that one of the guns came out with only one mail left out of the fnx belonging to it, is anxious to get back to the front again when, he has recovered from his two wounds—one in the arm, the other in the shoulder. And in this desire hfl is merely tjrpical of all hia fellowsuffattsrs.

The Queen's recent visits to The Queen Netley Hospital must have at Netley. giveaier &n especial pleasure

in the provision made for sick and wounded soldiers to-day. Netley owes its existence to the Queen, Its institution dates from a day in March, 1855, when she paid a visit to-the military hospitals at Chatham, where a large number of wounded from the Crimea, hod recently arrived. While pleased enough with the treatment and attention they received, she was intensely discontented with the buildings—"the .wards more like prisons than hospitals, with the windows so high that no one can look out of them, and meet of the wards small, with hardly space to walk between the beds." That skrk soldiers should be massed together in these prisonlike structures, met with disapproval, which "Her Majesty expressed strongly in a letter to Lord Pantnure, pleading for the erection of new and better hospitals. "These ate absolutely necessary, and now is the moment to4sve them built, for no doubt there weaJd be no difficulty in obtaining the money requisite for the purpose, so strong is the feeling now existing in ihe public mind for improvement of all kinds connected with the army and the well-being and comfort of the soldier." Lord Panmure at once set about the practical carrying out of Her Majesty's views, and if the affair moved, as such affaire do, somewhat slowly, etill by the 19th of May, 1856, she could describe to the King of the Belgians "the interesting ceremony of 3ayiag«&be first stone of a large mififcary hospital near Netley, the first of the-iJtind in-^iiis-country, which, is to bear my narae trad be one of the finest in Europe." Ute letter concludes with tiheexpressive phrase, "I shall watch over Out work with maternal anxiety;" and 'w&m some tiste later, the Queen paid bier first visit' to "ibe completed hospital, it is reconded that- she -arrived suddenly and quite unexpectedly, with the sensible idea of seeing tilings in tJieir everyday aspect, kwtead of in gaJa order, and so satisfying- herself -absohttely as to tire accommodation and comforts provided for "my soldiers." Netieyhaß had pkstfy of opportttnttjr atnoe of showing ite*isefulnes3. Over eight hoodred auidieis were aa Itospital ok the time of Her visit io 1593, whea, with Lord

Kitobeoefr, ebe raad« the famous inspection of. tfce wounded returned from Atbat* aad Khartoum. That our Queen is a loving and beloved woman as well as an able ruler, goe*-. without saying, and probably the-two- side? of }»r character wereo>ever betterexempiified | than by the long-continued and personal' inspections which 'have led to the great improvements in England's military hospitals.

The roso worn by good ImShakespearo pwrialists in honour of St. and Roses. George, might very well bo held to cooHOomoratd England* , greet poet at well as England's national saint. Not exactly tha* the "red rose on triumphant Briar" represents* Shakespeare's personal preference among flowers. This would probably be found; tanongst English wHd blossoms; tl»daffodil, the cowslip with its "fairy favours," or <those violets so linked with incomptvntWo &\lusk>m> that a critic has anticipated their permanent as. sociataon with his name. "The day a&y yet arrive when, instead of 'the common daisy , it wifl be 'Chaucer's daisy,* and when people shall say gratefully not 'the common violet' but Shakespeare's,' perchance even 'Perdita's.'" These, too, are the English flowers of April, his own birth-month, of his own spring-time made dear and familiar by their annual return to Warwickshire woods and lanes. Still to the king of poets we can do no wrong in dedicating the queen of flowers. By more than sixty references in the plays he acknowledges her incontestable reign. "For nothing this wide universe I call, Save thee, my rose:" in » sonnet, marks of the Sowei as well as the friend. Ophelia hasthesame sense in 'her praise of Hamlet, declaring him "The expectancy and rose of the-fair state"; and Juliet implies a like compliment to bet love, wlten she exclaims "What's in a name? That which we call a rasa by any other name would smell as sweet." "0 rose of May. cries Laertes in his turn to Ophelia, distraught amongst her flowers; and in another instance the rose comparison has tragic power.

"Wihen I have plucketi thy rose .!. I cannot give it vital growth, again, It need must wither; Til emell it on the tree,"

says Othello, as he gives that last kiss "which almost constrains his "Justice to break her sword." Tben'tbero are the York and Lancaster -plays, .pervaded by references to white rose and the red ; andi the comedies, fult-of%heroines-wio, like the princess aawtaher ladies in "Love's Labour Lost," "blow Eke sweet roses inetshe summer air," ondf often, of actual rose-gar-dens, in which the graceful; ladies move. "Cesario, by the roses of tie spring, I lore thee bo," swears Olivia in iSie garden interview wjth Viola, making pretty witnesses of tie flowers atiout them. As the symbol of love, of beauty, of Mgtt place and finished perfection, tho rose is always supreme. And if every season teaches tsw futility of the wish "that beauty's rose might never die," the Elizabefhan- roees <&t least fpand thtit imperishable distdhnent in Shakespeare's verse. - , , : . . ■• ■ .■■. '• "Of their srvpeet deafiis are sweetest odouiia aaade."