Polk County news. [volume] (Benton, Tenn.) 191?-1983, 1917-12-27

Senger ship tales of devastation ana
misery which are even more unglc
4 - than the cabled dispatches which we
- are accustomed to read under the
EE84SI vague date line, Somewhere IN
I"AAA$ France"
Many of these narratives have been
bronobt nv men and women who under the aus
nices of the American Red Cross have been lnVes-
tigatinc conditions created by the Invasion OF ths
Hun The range of vision of these investigators
extends from the battle front TO the cottage nun
dreds of miles away where wars msery-more III
sidious than bombs on the fighting frOnt-has pene-
trated.
Woven together these accounts make composite
story of devastation and suffering the part of
noncombatantS comparable with the torture en-
dured by the soldiers in the trenches or refugees
staring blankly at cratered areas where villages
once hourished of thousands of children 100
young to understand, crying for mothers VINO can
not hear their cries; of children poisoned by gas
bombs thrown from German mortars; of emaciated
children sent by hundreds from behind the German
line; of crippled soldiers to re-educate and OF
civilian men and women to comfort and provide
with the necessaries of fe--a story of battling
against disease and of the herosm of mercy.
Sometimes the cable supplements tales told by
returned travellers. day two ago, the war
council of the American Red Cross received cable
gram from the Paris headquarters of that organza-
tion containing a simple statement of everyday
occurrence on the French frontier, yet graphic in
IT'S portrayal of one phase of wars frightfunesS.
1t read:
The Red Cross at EVian.
''There arrived last week at Eyian, where the
repatries from France and Belgium are received
back into France train loaded with Belgian chill
dren There were $50 of them, thin sickly, alone,
oil between ages of four and twelve, children OF
men who refused to work for the Germans ana OF
mothers who let their children go rather than let
them starve They poured off the train little ones
cfnging to the oldest ones, girls all crying boys
trying to cheer They had come all the long way
alone On the platform were the Red Cross work
ers to meet them, doctors and nurses with ambu-
lances for the little sick ones were waiting out
side the station. The children poured out of the
station, marched along the street shouting Meat
meat we are going to have meat, TO the CASINO
where they were given square meal the nrst In
many months Again and again, while they ate,
they broke spontaneously into songs in French
against the German songs which they had evidently
learned in secret The Red Cross doctor examined
them Their little clawlike hands were significant
of their undernourished bodies, but the doctor said
1--WE have them in time few weeks OF proper
feeding and they will pull up"
Evian is a French resort on Lake Geneva, and
every day one thousand homeless people arrive
there 60 per cent of whom are children. lmrty
ner cent of the older people die the first month
from exhaustion. They were once the occupants
Of bappy homes In northern France The Huns
invaded their country, swept on past their homes
and left them behind the enemys lne Inc invaders,
now their masters, impressed them into LABOR anu
transported thousands of them to work In German
fields and factories. Those who are returned by
the thousand daily by train through switzerland
are all that are left Of these men and women and
children-manhood and womanhood Slapped until
the vital spark is almost out and no longer OF use
rs German captives sent back to die or 20 be
cared for in their helpless condition by their own
peope from whom they had been ruthlessly taken
away in their health and strength.
Hope for kaiser's Victims.
Thanks to the American Red cross, coming to
the assistance of the Overburdened French agen
cies for mercy, there is hope for these unfortun-
ates Besides a hospital and convalescent home
for children at Evian, the Red Cross Is operating
an ambulance service for the returning repatrles'
Ten automobiles are in commission for hahunhs
sick and infirm persons and tuberculosis nos
pital near by is planned. When the returning re-
matrices reach the railroad station and have been
cheeringly greeted by crowds of compatriots, they
are taken in charge by Red Cross workers. Nour-
ishment is provided and medical attention De-
slowed Baths are made available and fresh CLOTH
ing IS supplied. According to American eye Wit
nesses of scenes at the railway station at EVAN,
there are men In the ranks who have SUFFERED
broken arms, the bones of which have been sci by
way They present horrible deformity, denoting
n form of cruelty which excuses itself on the
ground that the man, should he ever regain mis-
former strength will be unfit for military duty.
In many of these cases American Red Cross doc
tors have been put to the douDiy palntui task OIL
again breaking the arm and resetting 1t, so as
to remove the terrible deformty purposeiy in
flicted.
William Allen White Of Kansas and Henry J. Al
don who Is prominent In the public life of the
came state are among the Red Cross workers
who recently have returned from tours of inspec-
tion IN France According to their statements 1t Is
scarcely possible to exaggernte the suffering
brought upon the civilian population of the coun-
try. suffering, however, that is being alleviated
70 the greatest possible extent by the American
Red Cross, which is sending Its experts, Its army
of volunteers and its treasure without stint, Ac-
cordng to Mr. White. the real work of the war, SO
far MS America Is concerned will be carried on by
the Red Cross in France this winter Not only