Evening star., 1916-10-02


Teaches French How to Save
Wounded Soldiers.
Copyright, 1850
BIZ HERBERT COREY.
PARIS, September 11.-This is the
story of the most useful woman in the
war. High praise. know. But let US
examine the premises
Grace Gassette makes Splints. She
makes the best splinta. She makes
splints that no one had ever thought OF
making before-splints that will save
arms and legs for the poor chaps mutt
lated in the war-splints that will ac-
complish miracles. She bears about the
same relation to other splintmakers
that Rockefeller does to a welldriller
or that Rodin does to q stonecutter.
She has been 30 inspired in her splint-
making that tho French government
has Just absorbed her.
Here is workroom." said M. Justin
Godart. head Of the service sante mill
taire. Hero arc some work people.
Build your own committee to help you.
4ASu ~ 10 our OOUO war HOSPITALS ana
see what you can do for our crippled
men"
DIR. Alexis carrel is one Of the mon
on that committee. DR.. D. ]. Mccarthy
Of the U. Of p. who has just reported
on the German prison camps for the
government. is another. Her commit
tee is the only one to which the Ameri-
can clearing house has given its name.
Some OF the French surgeons who are
on 1t are Profs. Hayem and Pinard and
nd :.
half dozen Others of tho very first
order. Men Of that stamp do not enter
upon new tasks lightly
Glad to Give Aid.
I'VE know what Miss Gassette is do
ing" they have said. I'VE are glad to
help
Let us begin at the beginning. Miss
dassette is Chicago girl. Years ago
she came to Paris to study art, and
with her mother made a home in tho
Latin quarter. She studied sculpture
in the schools because she felt the need
to paint. and a knowledge of the human
frame Is essential to the painter. Then
she began with the brush She had
been exhibiting with success for some
was one of the first to appear at the
American Ambulance when that hos
pital was organized at Neuilly.
What can you do?" asked the men in
nursing? At least you have taken a
course in first aid?''
That was in the previous century, you
Will understand-away back in 1914. At
that time it was still believed that q
course of parlor lectures mixed with
tea would At any ordinary good looking
girl to be a nurse during the season,
Miss Gassette had never studied first
aid. She didn't know beans about nurs-
ing and said so-her conversation being
so much like regular American talk
that 1t almost makes you cry to hear
her. The men in charge were puzzled
by her case.
"rll do anything" said Miss Gassette.
I'll wrap bandages."
The Case Of the Leg.
So she was put at menial work. Wrap
ping bandages puts about the same
strain on the intellectual faculties as
toting a lapdog. At intervals in her
bandage-wrapping she came into the
surgical wards. There she would and
various surgeons and orderlies and
what-not looking profound around the
bed of man whose leg had been
broken in a way that had never been
what to do with a leg like that. They
Of the old-style apparatus. They knew
perfectly well that 1t was not what the
leg needed. But they could not invent
anything better.
Let me interpolate q word here. In
May, 1915. I was fellow passenger on
the Espagne with Americas greatest
expert in fracture cases. He had visited
this side to see what was being done
going home disgusted. 1t must be pre-
missed that 1t Is not often that sur
geon goes in for fractures. There is
moro fame and money to be made In
chants. This particular surgeon had
specialized in fractures because he had
fondness for them. But the public
do not know much of him. His reputa-
ton is confined to the profession.
Calls Treatment Archaic.
"The war treatment OF fracture cases
is archaic" he told me. Worse. It fs
criminal French surgeons are using
methods that we discarded twenty
years ago."
I do not recall that he commented on
the methods of the American surgeons,
but it is a fact that little progress hat
been made in this class Of cases be-
cause they have not drawn specialists
Now let us get back to Grace Gassette
She would look in at that suffering
SOLDIER anu tuOSS puA1ico oui CoAc dhO
by and by her Yankee aptitude would
get the better Of her.
why don't you do it this way?" she
would ask.
Whereupon the surgeons would stand
back with a relieved sigh and tell her
to go to it. I know perfectly we'll that
various surgeons will fly into print
when they see this, and hold that II
isn't possible that a woman who had
never studied even first aid could pos
sibly know more about this angle of
the surgeon business than they do-but
truth is mighty and will prevail Other
wise, why should the French govern
ment have created this workshop at II
Rue Boissonade, and asked Miss Glass;
ette to devote herself to splint making
for the French war hospitals?
Very Important Lady.
By and by Miss Gassette found her.
self in charge of department. No one
knew Just what had happened, but
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