New-York tribune., 1915-03-03
AMERICAN WOMEN
STAND WAR TEST
Work of Nurses in Paris
Ambulance Hospital Is
Described.
MISS VAN WORST
PLEADS FOR FUNDS
Eugene Brieux Gives Thanks for
Aid-R. II. Davis Sends
Check for Belgians.

almost anybody is equal to almost
anything. So, at least says Miss Marie
Van Worst, who spoke at the home Of
Mrs. John Henry Hammond, 8 East
Ninety-frst Street, yesterday, on the
two months she spent taking care Of
the wounded soldiers there.
Miss Van Worst was preceded by
Eugene Brieux, who told how CRATE
full the people of his country were
for the splendid work of the Amer
lean Ambulance Hospital, and how
President Poincare had sent him to
express that gratitude to President
Wilson.
Miss Van Vorst's talk was series
of pictures, vivid, narrowing pictures,
which brought home the horror of the
war to the big audience of women
almost more keenly than some Of
them could bear.
81 studied nursing five hours a day
for FIVE months" Miss Van Worst said,
so l was not quite Ignorant of 1t.
But there was a long waiting list
ahead of me at the American Am
bulance, and | wasn't at all sure Of
being accepted when | went, in my
uniform, to the big building which |
remembered as cheerful school
building when | passed it, in June,
driving home from the Bois. But |
met Mrs. W. X. Vanderbilt, jr., as |
entered the corridor, and through her
| was admitted as al auxiliary nurse.
Mrs. Vanderbilt does wonderful
service there, by the way. Another
American woman who doesn't seem to
know fatigue is Mrs. Madeline Han
cock, the woman who took one hun
dred and sixty wounded men from Ant
werp to London after the siege Of
Antwerp.
II worked first in the bandage room,
a room piled high with bandages till
1t looked like a roomful of snow. And
after | had rolled bandages for a while
| was transferred to a ward on the
second floor.
AT first it seemed 20 me | could
not remain there. You have some con-
ception of what bad odors are, sup
pose, but in that ward were the con-
glomerated smells of horror Nine
men lay there, and on the bodies of
each was gangrene down TO the bone.
But | stayed, and in time, owing to the
illness of the head nurse, ! became
head nurse. And we saved five of
those nine men. One of the nurses
got typhoid, and another an infected
arm and Wa Saya1 fhapn foo
Hard Work in Hospital.
"My first patient was Charley Herne,
a big, gentle Yorkshreman. Later,
when | was in the operating room,
Charley was wheeled in for an opera
tion, under which he died
81 have never worked as we worked
in that ward. | wore a pedometer one
day, and found that in my twelve
hours on duty walked twelve miles.
Yet in my two months service |
gained twenty pounds
From this ward Miss Van Worst
went to the officers ward, and she de-
scribed the horrors of the receiving
room, which was near.
"Oh, those wounded men brought in
in their field uniforms, those gray
faces" she said. Some oil them
hadn't had their uniforms OF in four
weeks, and you can imagine what it
is to undress a man whose uniform
hasn't been removed for month.
Pictures Of the patients stand out
before me. One who was quite blind.
his eyes shot out by shrapnel. had
been a gardener in England, and had
spent his peaceful life in a peaceful
country training fruit and roses TO
grow along brick walls"
Natives from India were among Miss
Van Norst's patients. and she told
of their childish delight when her
sister-in-law brought them some tiny
mirrors. One of these black men had
$50 wounds.
Miss Van Worst said that, except for
the cries of those whose pain was
unbearable. she never heard COM
plant while she was in the hospital.
Ambulance Fund Grows.
The fund for the American Ambu-
lance Hospital amounts TO S34G.i64 So
That of the Secours National is
S6O,3O8.59.
In letter written by Mrs. Mortimer
Hancock, whose husband is major
in the British Royal Fusilers and
whose father is DR.. Westery Battle,
surgeon general of North Carolina, the
need Of the Belgian field hospital is
set forth. Since September Mrs. Han
cock has been with the hospital, which
is never beyond sound OF the guns.
About two hundred and fifty serious
cases are handled weekly.
"Most of the serious cases." she
writes. land there are only too many
of them, must be treated within twelve
hours Of the wound being received or
else no treatment is of any use.
ITO do this. to maintain the present
efficiency of the hospital and increase
the scope of its work we must have
money, and plenty Of it. AS an Ameri-
can woman who has been a nurse in
the hospital since September | ask my
fellow countrymen and countrywomen
to help US. We want Sl000,000, and
we want it now"
Lindon w Bates, vice-charman Of
the Commission for Relief in Belgium,
announced yesterday the arrival of the
bark Nordhay at Falmouth with
cargo of wheat, carried more than four
teen thousand miles. The ship left
Portland, Ore, early in September, and
rounded the Horn. During the voyage
her cargo Of wheat almost doubled in
value.
A concert for the benefit of the un-
employed German and Austro- Hun
garian reservists will be given Satur-
day evening in Aeolan Hall under the
auspices Of Count Won Bernstorif, the
German Ambassador, and DR.. Constan-
tin Dumba, the Austro-Hungar!an Am.
bassador.
August Belmont. treasurer Of the
Committee OF Mercy. yesterday ac-
knowledged gifts amounting 10 s701 So.
The committees fund is Sl22. 2.l25.72.
Gifts Of 500 each were received from
William H. Nichols, 25 Broad Street;
Henry D. Sharpe, Providence; J. Dives,