Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-12-25

1
Dommartin lee Toul,
Merthe ct Moselle. France,
October 21st, 1917.
Winnetka's response to my cable
gram was wonderful. The Ford am
bulance is being purchased and fitted
out in Paris by Miss Anna Murray
Veil, the treasurer of the American
Fund for French Wounded. She wrote
me that it would cost about $3.50
francs. 1t will have to be equipped
with emergency needs. for the dis
pensary work. The Prefect of the
Meurthe ct Moselle has ten towns in
which he wishes us to establish dis
pensaries.
Our ten barracks can accommodate
about $50 women and children. Six
only are so far used for dormitories-
one for the school, one for the hos
pltal, one for nurses and the remain
ing one for the soldiers. We have a
small building which l am going to
use as an isolation hospital A small
| boy who came to us a week ago,
came down with the measles, thereby
exposing twelve other children. AS
| it would be criminal to wait for the
twelve to develop the disease. we are
going to place them under strict quar-
antlne for ten days and await results.
The barracks are well built of ce-
ment with tile roofs which leak in
places from damage done by falling
eclats from the aerial bombardments.
The floors are also of cement, and it
is such problem to know what to do
to make them warm for the winter.
Each dOrmitory has a stove which
sometimes burns well, but more fire.
quently smokes, as we have only fag-
gots and poor quality of soft coal
to burn. The chimneys soon fill with
SCOT and then there is nothing to do
but endure either the cold or the
smoke: My heart aches when | visit
these dormitories and see the babies
under two, sitting on the cold cement
with no clothing under them. | am
trying to have one room fitted as
creche and have all the little ones
taken care of there. In another build
ing | have my Office, in which | see
the women. There are several that
nave expectations; one is only twenty
nine 1oOks forty), has had thirteen
children, twins twice, and has been
married only eleven years. At first
many of the women were resentful at
being sent here, but with their watch
full care and helpfulness, Nine. Dele
beque and Nine. Hortier are really
bringing order out of chaos. Nine.
Delebecque is wonder. Her dormi-
tory is the best one of all, her chill
dren are the cleanest and are learn
ing to obey her-and they all love her
so! She has insisted on the mothers
bathing their babies (they said it
would kill them)-she assured them
that it would not, and now they are
very anxious to do it the very first
thing in the morning. There is also
Miss Nilsson, Belgian, who has
charge of a batiment, who manages
her people well.
Last Tuesday night Nancy was
bombarded and we could see the
firing from here. Next morning we
learned that sixty people had been
killed. The station and many sur
rounding buildings were destroyed. |
had to go over the next day, Wednes-
day. October 18th, for drugs. While
there, saw what damage had been
done-street after street full of brok-
en- window glass. Miss Mitchell, who
is one of our drivers, had many err
rands, and while we were buying some
oil cloth, the siren rang, which meant
for everyone to disappear down into
the caves. We were taken by our
hostess of the store into an old wine
cellar which had been furnished.
There were twelve of us in the cave.
We had no sooner reached it than
the guns began firing their high eX-
plosives. 1t takes eleven men to fire
one shot at the avions. These would
keep up for about three minutes and
rest for five. Every now and then a
bomb would be dropped from the Ger
man avion; this could be easily dis
tinguished. These avions arrive one
in about every five minutes, making
an escadrille of fifteen to twenty or
more. After an hour, they seemed to
be coming nearer us (the bombs) and
L was beginning to feel that never
again would l see daylight. At twen-
ty minutes past seven, one dropped
within block of us. 1t shook our
cave and rocked it so that I said to
myself "This ends all" Never have
AA'So IhAOu6h any th1145 l1hC IL
TOul and Nancy are the towns
through which the soldiers are sent
to the 'front.' and that is why they are
so frequently bombarded. Saturday
morning, between three and six
o'clock, they were at it again. They
successfully brought down three Ger
man Zeppelins (they were the ones
that lost their way returning from
England.) We are feeling quite hap
py about it; however, it is only mo-
mentary, for while l have been writ
ing, Boche has gone over. The 81
rem at Toul is signalling the people
to safety. l went out to see if any
lights were visible from our build
ing, for we are on a hill and can
easily be seen from a distance. If
our hospital is known as one that is
sheltering French children, it may be
shelled. Some of our buildings have
caves, but no more caves for me
prefer to be where | can run to
breathe if necessary
The American troops went into the
trenches yesterday not far from here,
at Bascarat They are the regulars,
2Sth. Miss Mitchell, returning from
Nancy yesterday, saw many camion
loads of them, all helmeted, and
brought us the news! We have to
do most of our shopping in Nancy,
and much is needed to house and feed
six hundred people We have two
groups of nurses, one group of six,
loaned from the Detroit Unit (Harper
hospitaD at Dijohn; another of six
English nurses who have been work
ing in France for three years and
have had wonderful experiences.
ALICE BARLOW-BROWN,
Doctor in charge of first medical
unit sent to France by American Fund