The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1917-12-29

/ with the arrival of nearly every pas
senger ship tales of devastation and
I misery which more tragic
than the cabled dispatches which we
Fecsseseeo9 accustomed to read under the
AISSR vague date line, Somewhere in
E9AS France"
Many of these narratives have been
brought by and who, under the
pices of the American Red Cross, have been inves-
tgating 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 misery-more in
sidious than bombs on the fighting front-has pene-
trated.
Woven together these accounts make 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
not hear their cries; of children poisoned by gas
bombs thrown from German mOrtars; of emacated
children sent by hundreds from behind the German
line; OF crippled soldiers to re-educate and of
civilian and 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 Evian. where the
repatries from France and Belgium received
back into France train loaded with Belgian chill
dren. There $50 of them, thin, sickly, alone,
all between ages of four and twelve, children Of
who refused to work for the Germans and of
mothers who let their children go rather than let
them starve. They poured off the train. little
clinging the oldest Ones girls all crying, boys
trying to cheer. They had all the long way
alone. On the platform were the Red Cross work
to meet them, doctors and nurses with ambu-
1ances for the little sick ones were waiting out
side the station. The children poured out of the
station, marched along the street shouting. "Meati
~Nmeat; going to have meat" to the Casino,
where they given 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 significant
of 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 Lake Geneva, and
every day thousand homeless people arrive
there, go per cent of whom children Thirty
per cent of the older people die the first month
from exhaustion. They the occupants
of happy homes in northern France The Huns
invaded their country, swept past their homes
and left them behind the enemys line. The invaders,
their masters, impressed them into labor and
transported thousands of them to work in German
fields and factories Those who returned by
the thousand daily by train through Switzerland
all that left of these men and women and
children-manhood and womanhood Slapped until
the vital spark is almost out and no longer of
German captiveS, sent back to die be
cared for in their helpless condition by their own
people from whom they had been ruthlessy 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 hospital and convalescent home
for children at Evian the Red Cross is operating
ambulance service for the returning repatries.
Ten automobiles in commission for handling
sick and infirm persons, and tuberculosis hos
pital by is planned. When the returning re-
patries reach the railroad station Snd 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 made available and fresh cloth
ing is supplied. According to American eye Wit
nesses of scenes at 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 horrible defOrmity, denOting
form of cruelty which excuses itself on the
ground that the man. should he regain his
former strength, will be unfit for military duty.
In many of these cases American Red Cross doc
tors have been put the dOubly painful task Of
again breaking the and resetting it.
to remove the terrible deformity purposely in
ficted.
william Alien White of Kansas and Henry J. 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 France. According to their statements it 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
volunteers and its treasure without stint. Ac-
cording to Mr. White, the real work of the war; so
far America is concerned, will be carried by
the Red Cross in France this winter. Not only