The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-10-29
IN WAR THEATRES OF
 MRS. WILLARD
Interesting Discourse O War Activities at Lyric
 Theatre

eign War Relief, made stirring ap- | peal to the women of this city to put | forth every effort to give all the aid | possible to the work of which she is the originator and which means so much to the boys on the other side. | Mrs. Willard was brought here by the Bridgeport Branch of the Sur- gical Dressings Committee of which Mrs. Horace s. Wilmot is chairman l and spoke, on Friday afternoon at the Lyric following the performance.
 The idea of making thed ressings so badly needed in the field hospitals in Europe came to Mrs. Willard, who ] did not see why it wouldl not be pos sible to do a work similar to that done by our grandmothers in the Civil War She spoke to number of her friends asking them for old linen as at the time this work came into being the supply of gauge was alarmingly low. and the response was instantaneous, A flood of old linen poured in upon her, all the treasures that women had saved for years. Finally the gauge factories caught up with the demand and the work start ed in real earnest
 The field was extended to Italy. T IdnC0 dAO I1lS4dA1d dAN cAAAAOSS eSe the outset the committee found that shipping to a certain hospital was not a good plan because the field hos
 pitals were moved so frequently. So
 schipping centers were formed in London, Paris and Rome and now the
 doctors requistioned just what sup plies and when they needed them which was much more satisfactory. Mrs Willard said: seWe had es-
 tablished 1000 committees when the Red Cross wanted to take over our bureau in Paris. They suggested that we make Paris surgical dressings center and so we became the Surgical Dressings Department of the Red l Cross. We kept our staff and indfvid- uality and the Red Cross does not l finance us. It was not possible to 1 give up our organization as it is f enormous, reaching all oyer the
 country and clear down to Cuba.
 .I visited four war zones and had tthe honor of meeting the Queen of Belgium. It is impossible to visualize l the terrific needs over there. What I you see before you is only half of me, 1 the other half is over there moving about those hospitals figuring and I planning what can be done to a1leyi- ate the sufferings of our boys. for they are all sour' boys regardless ot nationality, they are fighting our fight. It is impossible to present the horror of it all.
 "One can walk through miles and
 miles of hospitals, past the cots o1 wounded lads. I will never forget the
 shock of those villages destroyed and l broken, trees stripped and bare noth-
 ing but ruin and desofation. I had I lunch with a. French general in Yer.
 dun sixty feet underground. The boys live in caves way under ground
 In verdun there is hardly a sign ot
 life.
 'They are doing wonderful -hings
 in England, but they won't talk about them. One thing that impresses you is the sp1endidly cheerful spirit o1 Il the English aTommies' The womer
 are doing wonderfully too. You car stand almost any hospital better thar the French ones for the poilus have ! a haunting1y spiritual look in theil I eyes that is impossible to describe bu you can't forget 1t. You could shrtel l aloud at the silence in the hospitals I These men never complain, never !.whfmper and some of them have beer known to smoke a cigarette almos as they are passing.
 ssThe situation in Italy is wonder
 fully interesting. Italy is just com
 ing into it's own It was long tin1a
 before Italy could be persuaded tt , accept any help in the way of surgi A cal dressings as she felt she wa,
 smply able to care for her own. The.
 are doing superhuman things ther,
 that the world knows nothing about
 have never seen better cleaner hos
 pftals and the nursing is done by wo
 men who have never nursed before Mrs. Willard told of an experienc
 Igoing into one of the Italian cite
 that was being bombarded. She sai , that the sound of the shells was in describabIe, and that if one combfn
 ed all the noises in the world 1t woul
 not be adequate. Another experienc in a French town on All Saints Da ] was most interesting and at the sam 3 time shows the regard France has fe America. She was standing near tn
 entrance to a cemetery where tn
 graves were to be decorated in ae q cordance with custom. and was intro l duced to one of the French general y When he learned she was from Amer = ica he said America marches wit
 us," and SC Mrs. Willard went int = the cemetery right back of the con ! mandant, the only woman to eve I walk in an All Saints Day proce. l sion,
 l She wanted to place some toke : from America on the graves of thes q French and. English soldiers and voit t ed her desire to the Commandant an e he said he would send a represents ' tive with her to the florists and st s could get what she wanted. She fir r ally obtained wreath and when sh F went to the cemetery found aaoth.
 representative Of the Comfnanda1 V waiting for her and walking betwee n the two men went down between u r rows of black crosses and placed hs ' wreath typifying America.
 After she had finished her. tal pictures were shown Of the battle = Verdun and of how France cares f, = her wounded. it was all most el . tightening and gave the large aud Y :, ence present an insight into the gre II need there is abroad. Rev. 4Alexan6 II Alison, Jr., pastor of the First Pre- t,-r%~ xvii, 01,r |, s-%