The Calumet news., 1914-09-15
HOTELS ONCE.
HOSPITALS NOW
Maurice, Where King Stayed, Is
Ready to Receive Wounded

London. Sept. 16.-The Daily Ex-
press prints the following from its
Paris correspondent:
Il went over the Hospital Meurice'
this afternoon. Not so long ago II was
the Hotel Meurice, where kings anG
diplomats and statesmen made holiday
and rented its luxurious suites.
This afternoon the main entrance
was closed and over the door hung
the red cross on the white ground
which transforms il into the 'Hopital
Muerice.' There is no charge for beds
now and the doors of the rooms are
open ready to receive it's dolorous and
tragic visitors. There is no ringing
Of bells or calling of visitors names
or their room numbers by buttoned
boys bearing visiting cards on silver
trays.
THE visitors book is locked away
and another book is in its place, a
book with red cross on ii, with its
pages ruled after the fashion of hos
pital records and the lift is silent and
still.
IL went in out OF the hot sunshine
The vast hotel seemed deserted at
first, like its brothers, the Hotel
Brighton and the st. James and AL
bany, few doors away, flying also
the Red Cross flag, The mahogany
counter where the polite head porter
was wont to answer hundred inquir-
les a minute In six different languages
and attend to the telephone at the
same time as he stuck the stamps on
letters was swept bare of everything.
Hospital de Luxe.
"The first floor of the 'Hopital Meur-
ice is a hospital de luxe. The car
pets have, of course been taken away,
and only the oilcloth left in the rooms
where wealthy visitors stayed month
ago and looked out on the Tuilleries
Gardens i'm happy holiday mood that
was shattered to pieces on the first
day of mobilization. Gone, too, for the
most part are the beautiful furniture
and the rich curtains in each ROOM
instead, we have simply bare rooms
and the windows wide TO the day. Iron
and practicable hospital beds, duly
numbered, are in every room, but not
even these beds with the medical dia-
ries, as ct empty. pinned at the head
could destroy entirely the hotel at
mosphere. Each room has its little
ormulu clock built in the wall and all
the other luXuries OF hotel life.
Spain's King Occupied Suite.
Here is the suite that the king OF
Spain always used when he came TO
Paris-there are beds in each of the
rooms. and the Red Cross society has
placed on the tables n hairbrush and
a toothbrush for each bed. A sitting
room, forming part of n suite let as
a rule to some American millionaire.
| is now arranged for the reception OF
the wounded; close by another room
is turned into an isolation ward, and
the kitchen is ready for the cooking
of milk and soup and invalids' food. No
need to ring twice for the waiter for
| the soft footed nurses will be in and
| out of the wards all the time. All is
ready in the 'Hopital Meurice.'
"You may go over the Ritz and see
the same thing-large, silent halls with
II
| never a visitor except the women
workers and the doctors preparing for
their work. and beautiful bedrooms
| turned into wards for wounded. The
Continental, that great hotel whose
corridors are i'm normal times as busy
as a beehive, is another auxiliary hos
pital and one by one the large lux
urious pleasure palaces Of Paris in
which millions of francs are spent each
season are Offering their empty rooms
to the Red Cross"
Olympia Arena a Stockade.
In the great arena OF the Olympia,
| that monstrous stadium in Kcnsing
ton. where only few weeks ago the
stunts These youths and men are Ger
boat Smith Georges Carpenter prize
! fights were held. strange scenes are
| being enacted daily now. Some two
hunded- odd men and youths. ranging
all the way i'm age from twenty to six
ty. every afternoon, at a set hour, go
through odd antics such as running
up and down the arena, jumping. roll
| ing on the ground and other like
stunts. hesc youths and men are Ger
| -