Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-12-07
DR.. BIRCKHEAD
THRILLS AUDIENCE
Tells What Red Cross Is Doing
''0ver There" as Well as
Over Here.
A PLEA FOR NEW MEMBERS
Mrs. Frank Chapman Tells Of Organ.
ization and Womens
Work.

With the Naval Academy band play,
ing patriotic airs as the audience as.
sembled, one of the largest and GER
tainly the most inspiring Red Cross
meetings was held here last night in
| the House of Delegates at the State
House.
Every chair on the first floor was
occupied and every seat in the gal
lery was filed.
The stellar attraction, of course.
was to hear the story told by DIR. Hugh
Birckhead rector of Emmanuel
Church, Baltimore, the only clergy
man sent across the sea by the gov
ernment to investigate conditions
| "over there"
There were other speakers. how
ever, one of them a woman. Cover
nor Harrington was late in arriving,
as he had come across the bay on a
State steamer from his home in Cam
bridge. Until his arrival Mr.. Ridgely
p. Melvin, chairman of the Anne
Arundel County Chapter of the Red
Cross, presided.
The exercises were opened with
invocation by the rector of St.
Anne's, the Rev. Edward Darlington
| Johnson.
Mrs Frank NJ. Chapman, National
Director of the Woman's Work of the
Potomac Division, gave an interesting
| talk on the organization of the Red
Cross, which, she said, is a perfect
one She told how all orders come
from headquarters, and are then dis
seminated to the branches or chap
ters of the Red Cross. Oftentimes,
| she said, the branches thought the
headquarters were acting as "Dicta-
tor" when the orders are really COM
ing from the Federal Government to
headquarters. I'VE are all the Great
Army back ofthe Red Cross at the
/ front" she said The sooner we
women can disabuse our minds of the
| fact that we can do two hours work
at the Red Cross rooms and have done
our bit, the better. 1t is your duty,
privilege and pleasure to work all day,
and night, too, if needs be.
Quoting from President Wilson's ad-
dress to Congress, she said, ut is not
an army we must shape and train for
war--iti is nation
Mrs. Chapman said there is no
truth in the published statements that
the Red Cross officials receive high
salaries. Most of them are volun-
| teers, but few are paid anything, and
those who are paid receive but a pit
tance in comparison to the service
they give.
We women, she said, feel that the
Red Cross belongs to us. 1t does not
We cannot do without the men and
their help. The boys are at the front,
we in the middle and our husbands
back of us, and there is no man like
the American husband. She pleaded
with the women to give the men "a
chance" We are not down on the
German people, she said, but we are
down on Prussian militarism.
In closing, Mrs. Chapman invited
| all Annapolis women visiting Wash
ington to visit the headquarters of
the Potomac Division of the Red Cross,
where they might not only find in
formation, but inspiration.
DIR. Birckhead.
] 1t may be truly said that no man
/ ever spoke as Dr. Birckhead spoke.
The very presence of the man who
had been "over there" filled and
thrilled the audience, who gave the
greatest attention to the speaker, and
hung on his every word. The ST.
lence during DR. Birckhead's address
was intense. In all that vast throng
of people there was not a sound. A
pin could have been heard to fall, so
great was the silence. Even the
women stopped knitting, lest the click
Of their needles distract the interest
of others, as well as of themselves.
During the fifteen minutes or 50
that the lights went out Ga way the
electric lights have of doing in An
| napolis) DR.. Birckhead continued to
speak and in that total darkness his
voice sounded as if it came from that
Great Beyond-over there-telling of
the American soldiers and sailors in
the fight. of the Red Cross and its
worth.
The effect was wonderful. The
audience gave the same silent atten-
tiveness in the dark as it did when
the lights were on.
DR.. Birckhead began by saying
there is just one word that means
more than any other word to the
American boy in France-that word
is Home and as Christmas draws
near, and as the American soldier
looks across that 3,000-mile stretch
Of water that separates him from
home. the word means all the more to
Ihim.
He told of the arrival Of the first
American troops in France. how they
came in fifteen transports, the voyage
consuming thirteen days
Through the Red Cross the gov
ernment has made a way to help the
American soldiers on the firing line
In the trenches. in the hospital, and to
close their ewes when death coYnes