The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1917-12-11
ABERDEEN GIRL
WRITES FROM PARIS
GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE
TRIP OVER.
IN THE RED CROSS WORK
URGENT NEED OF SURGICAL
DRESSINGS-READY FOR
HARD WORK.

Jewett, who was in charge of the
surgical dressings work of the
Brown county chapter of the Red
Cross, has written from France of the
new work she has taken up in the
surgical dressings division in Paris.
With 25 other young women of
this country, she went to Paris to
help prepare battle front essentials,
for it was found that the supply was
not keeping up with the demand of
the hospitals and dressing stations.
In letters to her mother, Mrs. III.
C. Jewett, she tells of her trip yer
and of the work that is to be done,
in which she is to have an effective
and useful part.
Excerpts from several letters fol-
low:
Today is so beautiful and smooth
that even / am enjoying the water.
One would almost think it were a
June crossing instead of November.
We are ~zigzagging around on. a very
rough, but beautifully blue sea; n
cannot help but be impressed with its
beauty.
| saw an enormous school of por-
poise just like southern waters and
last night the phosphorescence on the
waves was marvellous. The sunrises
Eyes, / see il every morning) and
sunsets are wonderful and just now
1t happens to be moonlight in the
middle of the night and very lovely.
Sleeping on Deck.
Alice and [ sleep on deck, not from
fright. but we cannot stand our tiny
cabin with four in it and absolutely
no air. 1t is very awful at night as
you cannot have a portfolio open and
it gets so stuffy. There are lights
below deck which help very much,
only the decks are dark.
Last night, according to orders, we
brought out our lifebelts and strange
they did not seem to bother us n
bit. We are now in the danger zone
and each gun has two constant at
tendants and men on lookout and life
boats are ready. 1t gives us a gen
eral air of expectancy. / have had
the opportunity to do some thinking
since being on board this ship.
All the necessary precautions are
being taken. Some of the men have
formed a vigilance committee which
sees that all the rules are obeyed.
No smoking on deck, no searchl1ghts,
etc. l feel it would not be fair to
the men not to take reasonable pre-
caution and | would regret it always
If | felt / was in the least an incon-
venience.
Only a few of the nervous. not
overly souls, are the only
- - .1o,1 20 haun q fpar 0f any,
thing happening. Their chatter gets
very tiresome and they spend their
time discussing the submarine dan
ger and fitting on their life saving
suits which are equipped with every
conceivable convenience except a Vic
trola.
Today we are having tag day for
the soldiers In the steerage and to-
night a priest who has spent years in
the Fiji islands, will lecture. We
also had an auction the other even
ing and everybody was asked to con-
tribute something and bid for and
buy something else. They made
$4,000.
OF course we know nothing about
it, but l think this is u last day n
l could sing for JOY. III water is
marvelously blue, but very rough,
and 1t seems like the Bay Of ,
which being the case we should ar
rive at - some time tomorrow.
We will be obliged to land at the
mouth of the river and go up to
- on a lighter which is a great
inconvenience. We aren't certain
now whether we will go to Paris that
evening or stay over and go by day.
Most of our unit is in favor of a day
trip up. AS yet our work is no more
clear than before we left home, but
we will be in Paris.
Safe on French Soil.
Two onvoy met us Wednesday
morning and brought us into the
mouth of the river. We had our
first sight of land about midday
Wednesday, and it was one OF the
happiest moments of my life. Not
that I was anxious at all, but | SO
much prefer land to sea.
We were obliged to anchor at the
mouth of the river, as at this time OF
the year the tide Is so low at -
that large boats cannot land.
Our passports were inspected by
five French officials and our French
papers taken. Then / spent the rest
of the night fighting my way through
the crowd to get my trunk weighed
and checked. The next morning II
was another perfectly awful struggle
to get our hand luggage down and on
to the tender and after standing from
8 a.. m. until 1880 p. m, we finally
got on the tender.
The ride up the river would have
been very lovely had it not been rain
ing and very cold. My umbrella was
packed so l got very wet, but strangs
I did not take a particle of cold. We
reached -- at $3.50 p. m, very
tired, very cold and very hungry-nC