Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-02-25

ut was several months ago that
"Breck" Bayne left Washington for
London where he hoped to become
connected with the English army hos
pitaI service. Now, he writes. he is
about to return to Washington. never
having connected with the English
army, but wearing a decoration pinned
upon him by the Queen of Rumania,
and leaving behind him hospital at
Bucharest named for him-"Spitalui
Bayne" When he leaves. there will be
thousands of Rumania soldiers and a
fair sprinkling of the German invaders
who will recall the good-natured young
surgeon with hearts full of affection
and admiration. and after the manner
of the European private soldier, they
will speak of him as The Little
Father" and 1.-THE doctor Americain.
"Breck" Bayne is DIR. J. Breckenridge
Bayne, widely known in this and many
other cities, son of former noted
surgeon, DIR. J. W. Bayne. When he
started from here he had no intention
of landing in the middle of Rumania,
but finding it impossible to obtain an
appointment in the English service
owing to the great crowds OF appll-
cants, he squirmed through the noun
tains and landed in Bucharest. and was
actually seized upon Dy the
Red Cross.
After that he saw the swift-moving
horrors by day and night of weaker
nation being pursued by a relentless
wall of living gray. A wall that was
preceded by a flock of airplanes and
zeps which peppered city and plain.
church, fortress and hospital with &C
curacy and abandon, dropping shells
that Bayne could see himself as he
stood working in his glass-roofed OPP
Grating theater in the hospital under
the personal supervision of the Princess
CantaZaZene.
From his letters home, written not for
publication but for his mother and
sisters and friends one can find that
a wartime surgeon, working more
hours a day than any labor union al
lows in this country. has a keen eye
for the beauty and romance which
seems to spring up like flowers in the
very ruts left by the chariot wheels
of Mars.
His family have been induced to let
some of the paragraphs of "Breck's"
letters be printed, for they give an
intimate and Interesting view of the
conquest of Rumania. From these let
tiers it is learned that the young man
arrived in Bucharest November 10. 1916,
in the company of a DR.. Armstrong
ana an aneSthetlSt named Campbell.
They reached the city only short time
before the evacuation, but remained
through that narrowing experience,
and, although given the opportunity to
leave after the Germans arrived, there
were so many cases and so few to care
for them that DIR. Bayne stayed and
worked.
The Red Cross assigned him to
spIendidly equipped hospital. six large
buildings each about the size of Provi-
dence Hospital" 1t was thoroughly
modern. splendidly equipped, and ac-
commodated about 200.
They sent US all the heaviest oper-
alive work" says one of "Breck's''
letters. for the American surgeon leaped
into considerable fame and favor from
the start. The queen and her daugh-
ter paid them a visit. also a zeppelin.
A bomb on the power house put out
the lights in the middle section of the
hospital during the first operation the
American surgeon was given.
Every day the airplanes came" he
wrote home. and one day for six hours
they were dropping bombs. l counted
eight at one time right over the hos
pital. Fortunately, none of us was
hurt. and. as a matter of fact, after