The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1918-01-10

| 4 are being brought to the United States
4 EA ! with the arrival of nearly every pas
n ! senger ship tales Of devastation and
4 E misery which are even more tragic
l ~AAa than the cabled dispatches which we
$4,000 are accustomed to read under the
sSzSESSSSa vague date line, somewhere in
kA& France"
Many of these narratives have been
brought by men and women who. under the aus
pieces of the American Red Cross. have been invcs-
tgating 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 misery-more in
sidious than bombs the fighting front-has pene-
trated.
Woven together these accounts make a composite
story of devastation and suffering on the part Of
noncombatantS comparable with the torture
dured by the soldiers in the trenches; of refugees
staring blanky at cratered areas where villages
once lourished of thousands of children, too
young to understand, crying for mothers who
not hear their cries; of children poisoned by gas
bombs thrown from German mOrtars; of emaciated
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 necessaries of fe-a story of battling
against disease and of the heroSm of mercy.
Sometimes the cable supplements tales told by
returned travellers. day or two ago, the war
council of the American Red Cross received cable
gram from the Paris headquarters of that organize
tiOn containing simple statement of everyday
occurrence on the Trench frontier yet graphic in
its portrayal of phase of wars frightfulness.
1t read:
The Red Cross at Evan.
"There arrived last week at Eyian, where the
repatrieS from France and Belgium received
back into France, train loaded with Belgian chill
dren. There were $50 of them, thin, scbly, alone
all between ages Of four and twelve, children Of
I,, .I,, of
mothers who let their children go rather than let
them starve. They poured oft the train little ones
clinging to the Oldest ones girls all crying, Boys
trying to cheer. They had come all the long way
alone. On the platform were the Red Cross work
ers to meet them, doctors and nurses with ambu
lalces for the little sick waiting out
siIe the station. The children poured out of the
station, marched along the street shouting Meat
meat; going to have meat to the Casino
where they We're given Il square meal, 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 claWlike hands We're significant
Of their undernoUrShed bodies, hut the doctor said
We nave them in time. \ few weeks Of proper
feeding and they will pull up
Eyian is a French resort on Lake Geneva, and
every day thousand homeless people arrive
there, 60 per cent Of whom are children. Thirty
from exhaustion. They We're once the occupants
of happy homes in northern France. The Huns
invaded their country swept on past their homes
and left them behind the cnemy's line The invaders,
now their masters, impressed them into labor ard
transported thousands of them to worn in German
fields and factories. Those who returned by
thc thousand daily by train through Switzerland
are all that left of these men and women and
ChiIdren-manhood and womarhood Slapped until
The vital spark is almost out and, no longer of
as German capives, sent back 80 die or be
cared for in their helpless condition by their own
people from whom they had been ruthlessy taken
away in their health and strength
Hope fer Kaise"s Victims
Thanks to the American Red cross, coming TO
the assistance of the overburdene1 French agen-
',ies for mercy, there is hope for these untortun-
ates Besides hospital and convaleScent home
for children at Eyian, the Red Cross is operating
an ambulance service for the returning repatries.
Ton automobiles are in commission for handling
sick and iniirm per> ons, and tuberculosis hos
pital near by is planned. When the returning re-
ratricS reach the railroad station and have been
theeringly greeted by crowds of compGtriOts, they
are taken in charge by Red Cross workers NOur-
ishment is provided and medical attention be-
slowed Baths are made available and fresh cloth
ing is supplied. According to American eye Wit
nesses of scenes at the railway station at Evian,
there are men in the ranks who have suffered
Broken arms. the bones Of which have been SCI by
the Germans that the hand is turned the wrong
way. They present 4 horrible deformitH, denoj!ug
q form of cruelty which excuses itself on the
ground that the man. should .lc ever regain his
CORNER strength. will be unfit for military duty.
In rany OF these cases American Red Cross doc
tors nave been put to the d0Ubly painful taS; Of
again breaking the arm and rcsetting it, so as
to remove the terrible delormity purposely in
feted
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 eXuggerate the suffering
brought upon the civilian population Of the coun-
try suffering however, that is being allevated
TO the greatest possible extent by the American
Red Cross, which is sending its experts its army
of volunteers and its treasure without stint. Ac
c0rding to Mr.. White, the real work Of the war; so
lar as America is concerned. viii be carried by
the Red Cross in France this winter. Not only