The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1917-06-08


have never been anything but bright
We brought with us a consciousness or
the many mistakes made in the hun
dred new activities which a peace-lov-
Ing democracy must enter upon when
1t reluctantly passes to state of war
Did Great Deal of Work.
I'm Washington we were met with a
welcome which surprised even those OF
us who knew best the depth Of feeling
possible In this great people. We have
not spent all our time In festivity or In
interchange Of compliments, however.
Almost from the first day, we settled
down to the grim business of war
work. 1t was not for us to offer our
opinion on the situation; still less to
suggest course Of action for the
United States to follow. We could,
however, help by laying before the ad-
ministration the fruit of our experience
and many bitter truths about the price
we had to pay for blunders of our own.
The work has been continuous and IL
has only just ended.
1--WE felt, however, that the welcome
Il
governments alone; it was (Did we not
have repeated proof Of this?) the spon-
taneous Offering Of great people from
whom the government draws its power.
1t was not easy for us to make clear
to the people how much we were
moved and encouraged by their SYM
pathy and by their generosity.
Rf q he 4. g Al
tion-the press of the United States
came to our aid and their consideration
and courteous assistance made 1t pos
sible for us, in n sense, to serve the
people by answering questions which
they thought fit to put to US.
There was one feature missing. The
very size of the republic made it i'm
possible for us in person to thank all
those who have been our hosts these
last three weeks. Some Of the sec
tons of the Union it was quite impos-
sible for us to visit. The states Of
the middle West and the Pacific slope
should naturally have been visited by
any foreign mission that realized fully
the meaning Of Americas immensity.
We must so back TO war in England,
and so we cannot do 1t.
May the visit which is now coming
to an end interpret for you the graft
tude of the country from which we
have been sent and may the comrade-
ship which has been recently inaugu-
rated lead to better mutual under
standing, perpetual as the peace for
which we are going to fight together"
What Nurses Aids Do.
In the course of the next year prob
ably hundreds of young women
will start for Europe as nurses aids,
"A kind of hospital assistants job
which is not as pleasant as the
mornings work of shopping and
the afternoons work of sitting on the
veranda partaking Of the savory tea
with slice of lemon in 1t, or per-
chance modicum Of cream.
Experience in the European war
has shown that young women who
want to go to France as nurses aids
should understand thoroughly what it
is that they will have to do when they
get there. There is glamour about
war for the young woman as there Is
for the young man. Some American
young women have gone to Europe
only to return because they found the
work was not to their liking.
Names must not be used, but there
were several young American women
whose fathers hold big official posi-
tons and, with their families, high So
cial positions in these United States
who went to Europe to undertake the
assistant nurses work and who soon
reached the point of desiring nothing
better than chance to get on home
bound steamer to seek once more the
routine of q girls everyday life in the
land of the free where there were no
hospital bandages to wash and no
floors to scrub.
Most of Them Stick.
1t Is to the credit of most of the
American girls who went abroad, how
ever, that they stuck to their jobs
no matter how hard or uncongenial
they were, and did their service for
humanity In that devoted spirit which
Americans like to call American. The
fact that most stayed and few re-
turned, however, makes it none the
less imperative perhaps that all who
go In the future should know what
they must do when they undertake
their new work.
The nurses assistant will wash
and sterilze bandages in cases where
the supplies have run short and 1t is
necessary to reuse linen and gauze
that better should be burned. She
will scrub floors If need be and she
will do work which she knows that
almost any maid-of-all-work would
refuse to do in the piping days Of
peace In these United States of Amer