The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-10-22
HOSPITAL MOVES
LIKE BIG CIRCUS
Red Cross Adopts Methods Of the
Old Time Travelling
Show.
HUGE TENTS HOUSE WOUNDED
Garry Full Equipment Of Modern Hoe
pitai-Strike Tents at Hours No
tice and Move Forward With
Precision of Circus.

Paris.-The methods Of the old-time
American circus that enabled hun
dreds of thousands of young and old
to enjoy themselves have been con-
scripted and put to war service on the
western front. But instead OF being
used for amusement, the ~circuses are
aiding In the saving of human life.
The American Red Cross bought the
huge tents belonging to Ringing
Brothers and shipped them to France.
where they are now with the Ameri-
can army. They no longer shelter a
menagerle. acrobats and clowns, but
house hundreds of cots. wounded sol
diers and Red Cross nurses.
All that reminds one OF the circus
days OF old are the methods and or
~ganization OF the people connected
with this tent city. For they, like the
circus people at home, are here today
and gone tomorrow. And every vestige
Of their equipment is gone with them.
On an hours notice they strike their
tents, and within twenty-four hours
they are putting them up again-prob-
ably twenty miles away. The person
mel are all army men, but theirs Is a
nomad's life. They have no base. no
definite location. They simply follow
the fighting. They may cover the en-
tire American front within three
months.
Carry Complete Equipment.
Their equipment and methods r
interesting. They carry every sort Of
sanitary, surgical and electrical phara,
phernalIa to be found in the most mod
ern Of hospitals. They have x-ray
outfits, sterilizing outfits, radiators
with steam heat, several operating ia
bles with full equipment, electric light
plant and accommodations for the
care of more than two hundred and
fifty wounded--and all with a person
mel of less than one hundred men and
women
But where they have the advantage
over the modern c~ircuses is that they
supply their own transportation. Three
huge motortrucks are the keystone Of
the outfit. One is used as a sterilizina
machine and electric light plant. An
other carries an emergency light plant
and central system for supplying steam
heat in the operating tents. The third
serves as a laundry and surgical in
struments carriage.
The tents, cots, bedclothing and 9TH
err equipment are slowed In three or
four trucks which are requisitioned
from the transportation department OF
the army.
Handled Like Circus.
Like a regular circus, this mobile
hospital organization back Of the lines
In France operates when the order
comes to move. The patients are evac-
uated first by ambulance. Then the
tents are struck and packed. Each
member of the hospital staff has q spe
Cited duty to perform.
The personnel, nurses, army sur
geons and orderlies are the last to
leave the ground. riding In ambulances
and trucks. When they mount to
their places the grounds are cleared Of
everything. just like the abandoned
circus grounds In America.
The commanding officer, with his
stan. jumps into q touring car and
moves to the head Of the column which
has formed IN q road near by. The or
der II given to move and the hospital
Is gone-where no q knows except
the &C, O." who leads the procession