The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-03-23
WHAT Upton SAW
IN STRICKEN SERVIA
Hardly Enough Well People to Bury
the Dead-American Heroes Fight
ing the Plague.

LONDON, March %. - Just as it i
took fire to stop the great plague in
London, so fires are needed to clear
Servia of typhus. Infected houses and
the clothing of the people must be
burned, as the disease is carried by YER
min, which is omnipresent - said Sirf
Thomas Upton at London last night in
a statement to the Associated Press, in |
which he recounted the appalling con
ditions in Servia, where be spent con
siderable time i'll personal investiga- |
tions.
II met on the country roads the |
sick, too weak to crawl to a hospital; |
bullock carts were gathering them up, /
he said. Often a woman and children /!
were leading bullocks, the husband and
father in the cart Taving with fever.
Scarcely enough people remain UNI
stricken to dig graves for the dead, |
which lie exposed in the cemeteries.
1.-The situation is entirely beyond
the control of the present force, which
| imperativelv needs all the help it can
| get, tents, hospitals, doctors. nurses,
modern appliances and clothing to re-
place the garments full of tvphus-
bearing vermin.
Describing the hospital at Ghevahe
where died Dr. James F. Donnellv of
the American Red Cross, whom Sir
Thomas calls one of the greatest heroes
of the war, he said: 1.-The place is a
village in barren, uncultivated coun-
try, the hospital an old tobacco factory,
/ formerly belonging TO Abdul Hamid. In
it were crowded 1,400 PERSONS without
blankets or mattresses, or even straw
men lying in the clothes in which they
Ihad lived in the trenches for months
Iswarming with vermin. All diseases
Ityphus, typhoid, dvsenterv and small
Ipox-were herded together.
In such state Dir. DonneIIy found
the hospital, where he had force of
six American doctors. II American
nurses and three Servian doctors When
, i visited the hospital three American
; doctors, the three Servian doctors and
nine of the nurses were themselves
f sick. The patients were waited on by
: Austrian prisoners. The fumes of reek-
I ing wounds and fever We're unbeara BILE
The patients objected to the windows
/ being opened, and DIR. Donnelly was
forced to break the panes.
+ 1.-The first thing DR.. Donnellv did on
his arrival was to test the water
!, which he found infected He then i'm
+ prorised boilers Of oil drums, in which
:, TO boil water for use. The boilers
t saved 500 lives, said DIR. Donnelly II,
7 also built ovens in which to bake tn,
!, clothes of the patients. hat was not
4 provided with proper sterilizing appa
;. ratus.
= no Drawer people exist than the
- Seryians; they have never word o
y patient, his magnificent voice boomin.
n songs to cheer his comrades. Some wer
e. in a delirium, calling for mother
cone source Of Infection is the arm,
f black bread, which is the only ration
: of the troops. The patients in the hos
! pital receive daily a loaf, which the.
- put i'll their beds or under their pillows
- Later the unused loaVes are bought D.
- lpeddlers and are resold, spreading dis
- ease among the people, who are med
- eVal as far as sanitation Is con
: cerned. Servian soldier is given
gun, hand grenades and perhaps par
- of a uniform. but otherwise looks afte
- himself; his rations are coarse bread.
e: 1.-THE street cleaning and hospita
u waiting are done by Austrians who AZ
Cd rapidly thinning from typhus and othe
St diseases The best hospital in tn
3 Balkans is at Belgrade under DR.. F.,
0s ward W. Ryan of the American COZ
e tingent, where there are 1900 patient
r. DR.. Ryan kept the hospital neutral du
- ing the Austrian occupation and accon
P plished wonders automatically at tbs
D. time. He is worslnpped by the Peopl
: DR.. Ryan says that the create
n labor is keeping the hospital free fro
rk vermin. The typhus affects men Il
If most severely. Women come next, al
- -,
-er 'i'iiOi 81 ~! WV l''o', 70
lie. symptoms III Tue p!esF III, euiueilll' u
ar SIh Inv '"o0O W o1't or ~