The Carlisle independent., 1917-12-27

WeA t with the arrival of nearly every pas Fl senger ship tales of devastation and H misery which are even more tagtc \ A than the cabled dispatches which we EeSsa9saoaI are accustomed to read under the E1GlE vague date line, "Somewhere in i"A4AS France"
 Many of these narratives have been brought by men and women who under the aus pices of the American Red Cross, have been inves- tigating 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 composite story of devastation and suffering the part of noncombatants comparable with the torture dured by the soldiers in the trenches of refugees staring blankly at cratered areas where villages once lourished 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 emaeiated 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 hecessaries of life-a story of battling against disease and of the heroism of mercy.
 Sometimes the cable supplements tales told by returned travellers. A day or two ago. the council of the American Red Cross received cable gram from the Paris headquarters of that organza- ton containing simple statement of everyday occurrence on the French frontier yet graphic in it's portrayal of one phase of wars frightfulness It read
 The Red Cross at Evan.
 "There arrived last week at Evian, where the repatries from France and Belgium received back into France, train loaded with Belgan eh dren There were 6S0 of them. thin siekly, 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 off the train little ones cinging to the oldest ones girls all crying. hoys trying to cheer They had come all the long way alone. On the platform the Red Cross work CTS 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 square neal 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 cawlike hands were significant of their undernourished bodies but the doctor said "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 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 or happy homes III uOIlLetH FIduce lie 1uilS invaded their country, swept on 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 returned by the thousand daily by train through Switzerland are all that are left of these men and women and children-manhood and womanhOod sapped until the vital spark is almost out and no longer of use as German eaptives, sent back to die 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 Kaiser's Victims.
 Thanks to the American Red cross coming to the assistance of the overburdened French agen- eies for mercy, there is hope for these unfortun- ates. Besides a hospital and eonyalescent home for children at Evian the Red Cross is operating an ambulance service for the returning repatlies Ten automobiles are in commission for handling sick and infrm persons, and tuberculosis hos pita near by is planned. When the returning re- patrieS reach the railroad station and have been cheerngly greeted by crowds of compatrats. they are taken in charge by Red Cross workers. Nour ishment is provided and medical attention be- slowed. Baths made available aad fresh cloth ing is supplied According to American eye wit nesses Of scenes at the railway station at EYian, there are in the ranks who have suffered broken arms, the bones of which have been set by the Germans so that the hand is turned the wrong way. They present horrible deformty den0ting 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 it, so as to remove the terrible deformity purposey in- ficted.
 William Allen 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 in France. According to their statements it is scarcely possible to exaggerate the suffering brought upon the civilian population of the try; d suffering, however that is being alleviated to the greatest possible extent by the American Red Cross which Is sending its experts, it's army of volunteers and It's treasure without stint Ac- cording to Mir White the real work of the war, far as America Is concerned will be carried on by the Red Cross in France this winter Not only