Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1917-12-20
BY W. S. FORREST
Manager Paris Office, United Press)

Toul, France, Nov. 16-(By Mail)
Bathing, cleansing, dressing and
nursing little French war children
rescued from under the German guns
should be u pleasure for any true Am
erican girl, in the opinion of Miss
Julia Norton, South Orange, N. j.
pretty Vassar graduate of the class
of 1915 and a volunteer helper in the
big refugee children's camp here to-
day.
Miss Norton arrived from America
q short time ago and volunteered per-
sonally for Red Cross work in Paris
She was Immediately accepted and
sent to the "Asile Caserne de Lux
embourg" near Toul where French
and American authorities were hur-
riedly 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 Casserne in a single
day and then came the colossal job Of
bathing, exterminating the living
things that inevitably inhabit humans
who'ye lived in caves for months and
combating the skin diseases also in
evitable from such conditions.
Bathing one child every five min
utes 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 dispatched them as fast as pos
sible 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.
"There is a fascination in the work"
said Miss Norton today. Some OF
these children had never had a bath.
They were terrified when stripped
and poised over big bathtub. Some
screamed and struggled. But they
were put into the water hurriedly.
The expression on their faces immed-
lately changed. 'C'est l'eau chaude,
one little fellow said in awed and re-
weren't tones when he had covered
himself with the water. 1t was the
first H'eau chaude' (warm water) he
had ever known.
The "Aisle- Caserne de LuXbourg"
or chilldren's asylum, is a group OF
large buildings located on hill on
the outskirts of a village just eight
miles from the front line trenches.
There are eight of these big struc-
lures filled with children from two
years of age to ten. Ranged around
the walls of at least three Of the
buildings are dozens of cots where
the tOddlers sleep at night. Even at
two years of age they are sent to an
other building where French teachers
provide kindergartens paraphernalia
as a beginner to their education. The
older children are making up time on
more advanced studies. School hours
are from 8 to IL and 2 to 6.
"When the children arrived they
were jumpy and nervous and many
because of constant lodgings Of shells
in and around the places they called
home were irritable and hard to
handle" said DR.. Julius Parker Sedg-
wick, of Minneapolis, specialist on
children's diseases, in charge of the
Caserne. Today they are well and
happy and sickness among them is al
most nil"
The juvenile hospital in one Of the
buildings in charge of DR.. ]. /. Du-
rand of Seattle, another child special
ist, contained less than ten patients
none with anything serious. Aiding
in the work are DIR. N. o. Pearce, Of
Minneapolis and DIR. Alice Brown Of
Winnetka, III
When the children arrive at the
Caserne they are given two complete
outfits of clothing from big store
furnished by the Red Cross. Though
every building has its foster mother
in the way Of a Red Cross nurse, the
mothers of the children are allowed
- be with them Il the doctors con-