Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1917-12-28

~ vague date line. Somewhere in
SAS France"
Many of these narratives have been
brought by men and women who, under the aus
pieces of the American Red Cross. have been inves-
tigating conditions created by the invasion of the
Hun. The range Of vision Of these investigators
extends from the battle front to the cottage hum
dreds Of miles away where wars misery-more In
sidious than bombs on the fighting front-has pene-
trated.
Woven together these accounts make a composite
story Of devastation and suffering on the part OF
~noncombatants comparable with the torture en-
dured by the soldiers in the trenches Of refugees
staring blankly at crntered areas where villages
once fourished of thousands of children, too
young to understand, crying for mothers who 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 reeducate and of
civilian men and women to comfort and provide
with the necessaries of life-a story Of battling
against disease and of the heroism of mercy.
Sometimes the cable supplements tales told by
returned travellers. A day or two ago, the war
council Of the American Red Cross received a cable
gram from the Paris headquarters of that organiza-
ton containing a simple statement Of everyday
occurrence on the French frontier, yet graphic in
its portrayal Of one phase Of wars frightfulness.
1t read:
The Red Cross at Evian.
"There arrived last week at Evian, where the
r~epatries from France and Belgium are received
back into France, a train loaded with Belgian chill
dren. There were $50 of them, thin. sickly, alone,
all between ages of four and twelve, children OF
men who refused to work for the Germans and or
mothers who let their children go rather than let
them starve. They poured of the train. little ones
clinging to the oldest ones, girls all crying, boys
trying to cheer. They had come oil 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 a square meal, the first 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. A few weeks of proper
| feeding and they will pull up"
Eyian is a French resort on Lake Geneva, and
every day one thousand homeless people arrive
there, go per cent Of whom are children. Thirty
per cent of the older people die the first month
from exhaustion. They were once the occupants
of happy homes In northern France. The Huns
invaded their country, swept on past their homes
and left them behind the enemy's line. The invaders,
now their masters, impressed them into labor and
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 w0manhOod Slapped until
the vital spark is almost out and, no longer Of use
as German captives, sent back 10 die or to be
cared for in their helpless condition by their own
people 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 handling
sick and infrm persons, and a tuberculosis hos
pital near by is planned. When the returning re-
patries 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 be-
slowed. Baths are made available and fresh cloth
ing is supplied. According to American eye Wit
nesses of scenes at the railway station at Evian,
there are men in the ranks who have suffered
broken arms, the bones of which have been set by
the Germans so that the hand Is turned the wrong
way. They present a horrible d%eformity, denoting
a form Of cruelty which excuses itself on the
ground that the man, should he ever regain his
former strength, will be unfit for military duty.
In many of these cases American Red Cross doc
tors have been put to the doubly painful task of
again breaking the arm and ~resetting 1t, so as
to remove the terrible deformity purposely in
hicted.
William Allen White of Kansas and Henry ]. Al
den, who Is prominent In the public life of the
same state. are among the Red Cross workers
who recently have returned from tours of inspec.
ton in France. According to their statements 1t is
scarcely possible to exaggerate the suffering
brought upon the civilian population of the coun-
try: a suffering, however, that Is being a~lleviated
to the greatest possible extent by the American
Red Cross, which is sending Its experts, It's army
of volunteers and its treasure without stint. Ac.
cOrding to Mr.. White, the real work of the war, SO
far as America is concerted, will be carried on by