The sun., 1916-10-08
AN AMERICAN GIRL WAR NURSE
~ CHARLOTTE NJ. TOUzALIN.

~ CHARLOTTE NJ. TOUzALIN.
Miss Charlotte Maurice TouzaIin
u the daughter of Mrs. L. N.
Touzalin of Colorado Springs. COL,
and 80 West Sixty-seventh street.
New York, and q grandmother of
rhe late Justice Samuel F. Miller of
;ie United States Supreme Court.
She has just returned to America
after q year spent as a Red Cross
nurse ia England and France. Miss
TouzaIfn was q sister.in-law of the
British Admiral Horace Hood. who
was lost in the recent fight of Jut-
land.
THERE IL nothing startling or
unusual in my experiences as
war nurse. Hundreds of other
women have had and are having
parallel experiences except for the fact
that l am an American volunteer and
that the little hospital at Arc-en-Bar-
rois u more picturesque than the reg
u!ar civil and military hos pitfalls.
Arc-en-Barrois Is a small town be-
tween Verdun and Belfort in the army
zone. Tho hospital Is located in the
chateau Of the Duke de Penthievre.
All aroun It stretch the forests which
once belonged to the royal hunting
preserves and wild boars and deer are
still numerous. Nothing more pictur-
'sQue can be imagined than the scenery
,nd. unfortunately. nothing more UNI
modern than tho chateau. which the
duke ave to the English people. who
maintain the hospital from private
funds under the supervision Of the
French Red Cross.
The nurses are all volunteers like
myself--girls Of good family who re-
ceive no pay for their services. There
are also a few nuns who are paid for
their work. one nun to every Ave vol
lnteers. was the only American;
The other girls were English AMI
French. but all Of US spoke French
well, n for hat reason We were
often moro useful than the English
nuns. simply because we could better
understand what the soldiers wanted.
When the war broke out l was on a
walking tour In Switzerland with an
other American girl. or course we
CANT home with thousands Of other
Americans who were abroad at the
time. but even then I conceived the
idea that / would like to be a nurse,
realized that unframed women are
not wanted. Tho Red Cross may well
come the money and the influence OF
society women, but when II comes ia
personal service they are often more
ornamental han useful.
This il illustrated by the story OF
two British Tommies in a hospital, one
of whom said to the other: I'll swaI
you three duchesses for n rea
nurse" And the other soldier who
worn out by society ministrations. pu'
a sign over his cot. TOO sick to bs
nursed."
With this In mind I went to Eng
land and through my sister. wife o
the late Admiral Horace Hood, I OBJ
tanned admission to the training hos
pital in Brighton. Then followed foul
months Of tho hardest work ] had eve
known.
Not all the nurses complete thu
course In -four months. and not all o.
them are permitted to continue. fol
the requirements are very high, and
was probably due to my perfec'
health, the first essential for nursing
and to the fact that I had been study
Ing medicine at Colorado Universit!
tina | got through In four months an
was sent to the little hospital at Arc
en-Barrois.
Even tho civil hospitals in France
except those in the large cities. are II
no Wy to ~ compared In enicisnc!