Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-10-04
SISTER BEATRICE HERE
TOSEE Mr.. JUSSERAND
On Her Way to Canada to Raise
Stores of Medical Supplies for
Allied Armies.
National Figure With the Fighting
Armies as General Executive
for Medical Corps.

for Medical Corps.
SISTER Beatrice" the Florence Night
ingale of the French battlefront and
military hospitals, has been in WASH
ington in conference with Jules J. JUS
serand, the French ambassador, and
went to Baltimore yesterday for an In
terview with Cardinal Gibbons, while
the cardinal was really in Washington.
through a misunderstanding.
SISTER Beatrice" Is otherwise Mrs.
Beatrice Bartlett, of the Medico-Mili-
taire Franchise. This is the French
military medical service, or Service de
Sante, and Mrs. Bartlett is the only
woman connected with it.
She arrived in New York Thursday
on the steamer Espagne from Bordeaux.
En- Route to Canada.
She is en- route to conference with
Gen. Hughes of Montreal. Canada, to
perfect arrangements for campaign
through the Canadian cities for the
raising of stores of medical require
ments for the coming winter.
Mrs. Bartlett, or SISTER Beatrice" as
the thousands of French and English
and colonial soldiers know her. has the
absolute entree to every quarter OF Ine
fighting zone of the entente allies. she
wears a distinctive military habit that
assures her instant recognition any
where in the fighting lines.
This habit is composed OF purple
and white headdress. white gown ana
white of the headdress and the white
gown suggest the nurse feature OF her
position.
A National Figure on Battle Front.
Since last October she has become a
national figure with the fighting ar
mics as a rapid and effective organizer
of hospitals, hospital inspector and
general executive for the medical and
surgical end of the French armies.
Originally, with the entrance OF Eng
land into the conflict in August OF last
year, Mrs. Bartlett jumped into tine re-
lief work with the Belgian refugees;
then turned to hospital work. ana
within a month was leading organ
izer and reorganizer for the hospital
service in England.
She was christened SISTER Beatrice"
by the soldiers, and the name has chung
to her in such way that it has in ef-
feet become a military designation.
Drafted Into the French Service.
Her work came to the attention OF
the French medical authorities and she
was drafted outright into the French
service. Col. Raveny, head of the
French Service de Sante. gave her un-
bridIed authority and the absolute priv
ilege of ignoring red tape. A personal
escort was provided her, with an auto
mobile service, and she experiences
every facility in getting about the bat
tlefeldS.
A fiutter of her military cape. with
it's imposing purple, Is the open sesame
England. When she left Bordeaux for
her Canadian mission a destroyer was
assigned to accompany the Espagne
$50 miles from the port, or until Sister
Beatrice was beyond the submarine
zone.
She is known at every hospital and
makeshift hospital in France and
England, and at Limoges, France, is
the particular votary of the Senegalese.
Moors. Turcos and other French colo
malls there.
Stirs British Laboring Glasses.
She harangued the men in the indus
trial section of England for weeks. get
ting them to open their eyes to the
needs at the front. For instance, she
spoke to the miners from her automo-
bile, and told them that IL they would
not enlist at least to help send medical
supplies for the needs at the French
hospitals. The men at first were hos
tile. but finally began taking up collec-
lions for her. These she refused, and
the refusal was such novelty to Brit
ishers that they readily listened to her
and finally sent one of their number to
accompany Sister Beatrice on an OBJ
servation trip through the French sick
Community forwarded $4,000 worth of
supplies monthly for the French serv-
Ice.
What is needed and what my mis-
sion demands" said Sister beatrice
Yesterday. "is medical and surgical sup
plies, and more and more Of them; ban
daees. linen and anesthetic. Ether Is
preferable by far. We have found the
chloroform so weak as rule that we
have had necessarily to use great quan
titles of it, and II was more or less
.The situation was beyond conception
last winter, though there were tnou-
sands at work making and sending sup
plies for the hospitals. 1t was not
merely a means of providing for 500 or
1000 cases. but literally for millions.
Surgery at the Front.
Thousands of operations were per-
formed without a suggestion OF an an
esthetic Men were operated on on the
ground where they lay for lack OF con-
veyances to take them to an operating
room. At Dieppe. for instance. where
the Royal Hotel. the Metropole and
College Hotel had been turned into
hospitals. found that more than 5000
Operations had been performed on an
operating table improvtsed out Of four
| card tables thrown together and the
whole covered with plain table oilcloth.
France is utterly unable to take care
| of the work. Her employees are on
fshting; the factories are abandoned
outsiders must be appealed to to supply
the manufacturing needs. A wooden
shirt is beyond purchase In France
there is none to be had. Socks can be
made only in limited quantities. be-
cause of the lack of workers. This is a
tremendously serious affair, with socks
lasting only three days for a soldier on
the march. -,
or g.