The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1917-06-26
THE VANGUARD

(From The Red Cross Magazine)
Millions Of years ago our beast
ancestors went out to struggle with
teeth and claws; thousands of years
ago ape-men went out to fight with
clubs and sings; hundreds of years
ago Greeks and Romans, Franks and
Iberians, negroes and yellow men,
Malays and red Indians went out
in battle-ranks with arrows, pixies,
and swords; yesterday hordes of
men poured out Of Germany and
Austria, and to meet them other
millions modified in France, Russia,
Italy, Belgium, Great Britain, and
Japan to fight in Europe, Asia,
Africa; and today have seen our
first contingents off to play their
part in this aeon-old drama of war.
But women were among them as
well as men. The first time in history
a nations first levies were made up
largely of women. And the men and
women were not armed. For the
first time in history nation sent its
forces to battle without sword or
shield, without armor or guns. For
the first time in history a nation
sent out the first Of its sons and
daughters with empty and defense
less breasts to risk the attack of
submarines and airplanes and Zep-
pelins and gas and curtains of fire,
and all the mechanical pestilences
and machine-made plaques which are
the weapons Of modern warfare.
There was never such a call to the
colors as this; there may never be
such another again.
We visitors from Washington
stood on the deck of the Cunarder
Saxonia. She was in heo war-paint,
steel gray and cold and business-like
As she lay alongside Of the high ugly
pier. The May winds whistled over
US from the restless Hudson, heavy
with dust and grit, rafting and snap
ping the few gay flags which waved
above US on the pier. It was a day
like many other spring days day
when sunshine seemed superfluous
and the air seemed steel-colored like
the ship on which We stood.
A very boyish replica Of the boy
ish Prince Of Wales in the blue uni
form and brass buttons Of British
steward glanced out Of . gangway
and disappeared below. Other
stewards walk slowly down the
gangplank with luggage on their
backs and in their hands; quiet, une-
motional, efficient, inspiring conf
dence. The captain, . big Briton.
with every purple vein Of his cheeks,
jaws, and neck showing q if paint
ed on him, came down the ladder
from the bridge and saluted. He
wore . dark blue cap with . white
top, and four gold service stripes
showed on his sleeve.
'l've been across, back and forth,
ever since the war began, and the
submarines havn't got me yet. They
wonx get Us this time Madame,' he
said quietly to one Of the nurses,
with that bluff unimaginative assur-
ance, that passionate stupidity
which has made the Island Race
rulers Of the sea and arbiters Of
half the globe.
Red Cross Base Hospital No. S
was sailing in an hour, as No. 4 had
sailed two days before, and as Nos.
2, IL, Fl and 10 sailed at the ap-
pointed time.
Fifty nurses, four stenographers,
one hundred and thirty-nine enlisted
men are to eat a. orderlies and
clerks; a chaplain and twenty-seven
doctors-these made up the Unit.
The staff was composed almost
wholly Of Harvard men. The COM
officer was Robert u. Pat
terson, Major, Medical Corps, u. s.
Army, who has been detailed for the
past four years for duty at the ma
tional headquarters Of the Red
Cross in Washington. DR.. Harvey
Cushing Of Boston was director.
/ wish the whole United States
could have sen their going. There on
board the Saxonia this war seemed
and personal, distances
dropped away and the end Of their
journey seemed as near as the be-
ginning. Across the Hudson we
could see the vast inert hulk Of the
Vaterland; in happier days the Lusi-
tania had been warped into the very
slip where our ship lay. And smaller
things than these made the war real
and personal-the wife of a young
doctor saying goodbye to him, her
stiff mouth moving, her eyes dead
as glass; and a mother on the pier
staring at her son with a helpless