The Elk Mountain pilot., 1917-12-27

i - i than the cabled dispatches which we
b..S,...a are accustomed to read under the
VSE7S7&8v vague date line. somewhere in
l06zV France"
Many of these narratives have been
brought by men and women who under the aus
pces of the American Red Cross have been inves
tigatng conditions created by the invasion of the
Hun. The range of vision of these investigators
extends from the battle front to the cottage hun
dreds of miles away where wars msery-more in
sidious than bombs on the fighting front-has pene-
trated
Woven together these accounts make a composite
story of devastation and suffering the part of
noncombatants comparable with the torture en-
dured by the soldiers in the trenches; of refugees
staring blankly at cratered areas where villages
once hourished; 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 re-educate 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. 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 simple statement of everyday
occurrence 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 Evan, where the
repatres from France and Belgium are received
back into France, 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 of
mothers who let their children go rather than let
them starve. They poured OF the train. little ones
clnging 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 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
their undernourshed bodies. but the doctor said:
1--WE have them in time. A few weeks of proper
feeding and they will pull up
Evian is French resort on Lake Geneva. and
every day one thousand homeless people arrive
there, 60 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 past their homes
and left them behind the enemy 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
chldren-manhood and womanhood sapped until
the vital spark is almost out and no longer of use
German captves, sent back to 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 kaisers 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 oh ldran at no ed Y ODprAtinR
ambulance service for the returning repatries
Ten automobiles are in commission for handling
sick and nirm persons and 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
taken in charge by Red Cross workers. Nour-
ishment is provided and medical attention be-
slowed. Baths made available and fresh cloth
ing is supplied. According to American eye wit
nesses of scenes ut the railway station at Evian
there in the ranks who have suffered
broken arms the bones of which have been set by
the Germans that the hand is turned the wrong
way They present a horrible deformty 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. 80 as
ito remove the terrible defornty purposey in
fcted.
william Allen White of Kansas and Henry ]. Al
den, who is prominent in the public life of the
same state. among the Red Cross workers
who recently have returned from tours of inspec-
in France. According to their statements 1t Is
scarcely possible to exaggerate the suffering
brought upon the civilian population Of the coun-
try; SUFFERING however, that Is being alleviated
to the greatest possible extent by the American
Red Cross. which is sending its experts. Its army
,of volunteers and its treasure without stint. Ac-
cording to Mr.. White, the real work of the war, SO
far as America is concerned will be carried on by
the Red Cross In France this winter. Not only