Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-10-09
BORDEAUX WOMEN
ANGELS OF MERCY
TO WOUNDED FOES
While They Care for All
War Stricken, Their So
licitude for the Germans
Wins Wide Commenda-
ton.
BORDEAUX, Oct. Q.

BORDEAUX, oct. 0.
If the men of the allied armies be
splendid, as they certainly are, the
women Of Bordeaux are simply mag
nifcent. Not theirs the wild int xica-
tlon of the charge, the thrilling Joy of
riding full dash at rows of the enemy,
or of swinging pinioned lance to still the
Kaiser's Uhlans and stem the ever
swelling tide of invasion. Theirs Is
different duty, duty relatively as ardu-
Gus and exacting, and this the women
of the invaded districts have performed,
and continue to perform without murmur
or complaint.
Tender true, gently nurtured women.
French and English, In this city, and in
this valley of the Garonne, are soothing
the anguish Of the $4,000 wounded French
and German soldiers. officers and prl-
Yates. who have been brought to the
region of the new capital of France
There is a notable British colony here
in Bordeaux. 1t was founded a century
or two ago. Some of its members have
been long in the wine industry in this
mellow valley, where the red juice ripens
into clarets of price and where place
called Cognac gives spirit to the world.
Some of the women are rich, la lies of
culture and leisure. Now that w unded
are being gathered, harvest of pain
from the terrific battlefields of the Marne
and the Aisne these cultured women have
set themselves to work scrubbing floors
and scrubbng men. They are simply
angels of mercy to all, but especially to
the wounded Germans. who are almost
their first care.
Bordeaux, truly French, has gorfed
woman for generations in her big public
squares, streets and gardens, in bronze
and stone In this lavish, exultant stat
uary woman is clothed only in beauty.
In the countless hospitals where she is
tending the wounded and nurturing men
back to strength and the battlefield, she
is clothed sweetly in white with the small
red cross on breast or arm. There Is
nothing voluble, exctable, m rcurial,
about her, She is ready and calm.
The French women hereabouts are
thinking of copying the British example
of not wearing the customary black
of mourning for their husbands, brothers,
cousins, killed in the war. Some are In
favor of a tiny pendant of white, small,
modest to be worn at the throat, simple
symbol that their men have died for free
dom and for France
What the doctors and the nurses here
find is that most of the wounds are In
the arms and legs and of the 25,OOO
wounded sent here, very few have died
So the merciful work of the devoted
women has all the more hope in IL, that
of saving fighting men to fight again.
Nor is It the nurses alone who have
exhibited a patriotism Of the most ele-
waited character. All the women OF the
city, who can at all do so. are freely con-
tributinE their services to their country
and their kind. Here they are, acting
as tram conductors, giving the tickets
and taking the money, and expedtinG the
getting in and out at the crowded times
with gentle pressure of the hand, as calm
and serious about 1t as though they had
been at 1t all their lives. Thus the
women are helping to keep business as
usual" and earning money toward the
maintaining of the children of the gentle
man in red and blue and khaki ordered
north.