Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1916-03-11
FRENCHW0MENHELP
66.449 Enlisted Under Banner OF
the Red Cross.
They Come From Weil-to-Do Homes
and Have Exhibited Rare Heroism
In Devotion to Duty-Equip
1900 Hospitals.

Paris-There are now DO, Az women
in the French Red Cross volunteer
army. equipping 1900 hospitals with
an aggregate Of $4,000 beds. The
Red Cross flag now flies above 28S
buildings in Paris alone.
The Society for Aid to Wounded Sol
diers. the largest of the three Red
Cross organizations and the originator
of the work in France in 1864, expend-
ed 80, 900 O00fcs ($6, 400,000) during the
first seventeen months of the war. The
society has operated 796 hospitals,
with 7,081 beds, and given total of
81 100000 days care to wounded SOL
diers. Besides these hospitals the So
ciety maintains a hospital of 500 beds
at Saloniki, ninety-three refugees es-
tablished in the sixth and twentieth
military regions in France, seventy in
firmaries in railroad stations and for
ty-five railroad canteens.
The cost of maintenance of hospitals
varies so much that it is difficult to
establish average cost per capita per
diem, but as near as can be calculated
this society has brought its cost down
to little more than three francs (six-
ty cents day.
The Union des Femmes de France,
the second in importance of the Red
Cross societies, has 2S446 nurses,
equipping 355 hospitals, with $4,000
beds, while the Association des Danes
Franchises has $4,000 nurses, in $50
hospitals, with $4,000 beds.
The mortality among the Red Cross
nurses has been remarkably heavy
considering the character of their
work and the immunity they are sup
posed to enjoy under the international
regulations Twenty-Five members of
the Society for Aid to the Wounded
Soldiers have given their lives to the
cause, some of them Killed under shell
fire, others carried off by contagious
diseases. The nurses of this society
have received sixty-three epidemic
medals, sixty war crosses and one
cross of the Legion of Honor.
The first Red Cross victim OF the
war was Mile Susanna GILES, who fell
at Luneville with her chest torn by
the fragments of shell that burst in
side the hospital ward where she was
wounded The next was
Mile Cagnard, at Cambria who is de-
clared to have been shot point blank
by a Prussian soldier firing into the
hospital through the window During
the bombardment of Reims seven
women of the Red Cross became vic
Tins of the bombardment, including
Nine Fontaine-Faudier, Mile. Cause
and five sisters Of charity.
Many women of the Red Cross give
attention to men at the front who
have no one TO remember them at
home. One member, Nine. Richelct
be wife of DR.. L. G. Richelot, is god
mother to nine hundred soldiers, which
constitutes a record to date.
Regarding the state of mind of
wounded soldiers now in the hospitals
after sixteen months of war, Nine.
Perouse, president of the Union des
Femmes de France, said:
"They support their sufferings ad-
and are much more anxious
to return to the front than were the
wounded in the hospitals last year
at this time. They talk about active
service with an enthusiasm that is
contagious.
Mr.. Justin Godart, undersecretary
for war in charge of the sanitary de-
partment of the army has just re-
placed voluntary women of the Red
Cross serving as nurses in some of the
hospitals by paid independent
nurses The choice of nurses outside
the three Red Cross organizations de-
veloped considerable comment but
there was in this no reflection on the
devotion of Red Cross nurses; neither
does it bring their efficiency into ques
ton Paid professional nurses are
more adaptable to military discipline,
Wh1cn must prevail IN all military es-
adjustments.
Most of the women who devote
to hospital work are from
well-to-do classes; they are necessarily
so, since they are required to give
not only their time and sometimes
their lives, but also their money to
the cause Some of them pay largely
for the privilege of serving the coun-
try as maids of all work; others pay
more dearly for the privilege of work
ing as surgeons aids and as nurses.
Few of them were before the war &C
customed to the hard work of house |
keeping and some of them have |
learned its most elementary principles