The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-14
REAL JOY TO GIRLS
Nursing French Children SUI
preme Happiness, Says Nurse.
Opportunity for Americans
Whose Hearts Are With France
LITTLE TOTS ALL NERVOUS
DOdging Shells Around Homes
Makes Them Very Irritable.
Juvenile Hospitals Bring Them
Back to Childish Joys.
LITTLE TOTS ALL NERVOUS
BY w. S. FORREST.


Manager Paris Office, United Press.)
Toul, France, Dec. 14.-Bathing,
cleansing, dressing and nursing little
French war children rescued from
under the German guns should be a
pleasure for any true American girl,
in the opinion of Miss Julia Norton,
South Orange, N. J., pretty Vassar
graduate of the class of 1916 and
volunteer helper in the big refugee
| camp here today.
| Miss Norton arrived from America
a short time ago and volunteered per-
sonally for Red Cross work in Paris.
She was Immediately accepted. and
sent to the AISLE Caserne de Luxem-
| bourg' near Toul where French and
| American authorities were hurriedly
evacuating French babies to safety
from the German gas shells thrown
into the villages along the battle line.
Several hundred children were
rushed into the Caserne in a single
| day and then came the colossal job
| of bathing, discriminating the living
| things that inevitably inhabit humans
whove lived in caves for months and
combating the skin diseases also in
| evitable from such conditions.
Bathing one child every five minutes
| was the record of Miss Norton and
other nurses who tackled the big job
Once bathed the children were turned
over to the American doctors who
despatched them as fast as possible
and sent them to get their first good
meal and good bed they had known
for months Some were so young that
they had known nothing else but the
horrible ruins and caves from which
they were rescued.
Fascination In Work.
There is fascination in the work"
said Miss Norton. Some of these
children had never had a bath They
were terrified when stripped and
h
screamed and struggled. But thew
were put into the water hurriedIy.
The expression on their faces, imme-
dlately changed. 'C'est reau chaude.'
one little fellow said in awed and rev
erent tones when he had covered him
self with the water. 1t was the first
Peau chaude' (warm water) he had
ever known
when the children arrived thew
were Jumpy and nervous and many
because of constant lodging of shells
in around the places they called home
were irritable and hard to handle "
said DR.. Julius Parker Sedgwick. of
minneapolis, specialist on children's !
To-day they are well and happy and
sickness among them is almost nil"
Inc juvenile hospital in one of the |
buildings in charge of DR.. ]. 1. Durand |
OF Seattle, another child specialist, |
contained less than ten patients none
with anything serious Aiding in the |
work are DR.. N. o. Pearce, of Mime |
apolis and DR.. Alice Brown, of Win |
netka, Ill.
Clothes for Children.
When the children arrive at the |
Caserne they are given two complete |
outfits of clothing from a big store |
furnished by the Red Cross Tho |
every building has it's foster mother
in the way of Red Cross nurse, the |
mothers OF the children are allowed |
70 be with them if the doctors con-
slider 1t necessary. About fifty moth
ers are now being cared for along with /
their broods. Some mothers make
weekly trips from the ruined villages
to see how the children are getting
along.
Little Jeanne is one of the newest
arrivals in the Caserne Her mother
brought her few days ago and has
tened back to harvest her crop, plant
ed at the risk of her life and now
belng harvested with the aid of gas
mask The Germans are so mean
she said. that they shoot at me every
time I try to dig a hill of potatoes. |
Now 1 dig them a night"
How little faith the mothers have in
the enemy may be jucged by the wav
they worry for fear German airmen
Will bomb the Caserne, eight miles he
mind the firing line. So far the Ger
mans have honored the big red crosses
painted on the roof of several of the
Do1NAHSS buI the mothers are conn
I'M to make constant inquiries and are
always treasured by the American
doctors and nurses. The mothers 90
pack TO their ruined homes and caves
cheerfully to brave a few more Ger
man shells.
Nurses Kept Busy.
In addition to caring for the era1,n
OF children the doctors and nurses
constantly go to the villages and towns
IN the vicinity to handle older cases
The. French doctors are all rnobilizeG
In the army and are on duty on 9TH
er parts of the front caring for SOL
dlers. 1t lies with the American Red
Cross to take care of the children and
the work is being efficiently done. In
GUIDED among the American nurses IL, /
the work here is Madame DeIebeoue c
OF Wlnnetka, ILL.,, who voted for Pres
ident Wilson in the last election and is
proud of it. Her father was a Swiss
her mother a Dane, she was born in
Antwerp and she married a French
man in the United States Today She
IS an American citizen and is NURSING
french children in France
Miss Julia Norton, Vassar erad,,-
ate volunteer. who is the foster moth
er of some sixty children, is the real
godmother of one She went thru
the ceremony at the village =cf1urcF
T.r,