Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-07-01
GOWNS" IS
NAME APPLIED
TO WORKERS
Their Work is to Bring Back
Wasted Muscles of
Wounded.

Washington, July Teachers,
nurses and healers, too, are the "Elue
Gowns" of the army medical corps, at
work now in the hospitals Of the
United States and cover there"
Reconstruction aides is their Of
fetal name, but the CHEEKY luz Of
their distinctive uniform has already
won a handler name for the special
ship treats and teaches among the
manned soldiers brought back from
the battlefront. Theirs is the work
of coaxing >back the wasted muscles
and disused limbs of wounded men,
and later by patient tutoring instill-
ing dizziness in new arts and vacations
which the hospital schools and plan
ming for the returned soldier.
Most of the "Blue Gowns" were re-
cruited from the instruction staffs of
manual training schools and civilian
hospitals, where experienced workers
were found available. '
Beside a table a young fellow in
uniform was carving a conventional
flower border on q wooden picture
frame,' says an official description of
their work. 1.-THE design. was his own
and the work was his first piece. He
vas inclined to be clumsy because he
was uSlnS MS IeIt mana. a blue
Gown was ready to guide and advise
him. The use of this mans right
hand was permanently lost, it was
thought by him at one time that he
vas handicapped for life as a money
Garner, because his successful profess
sion a been that of a mechanical
craftsman. So it is that he is wood
carving, not as q possible vocation,
but to train his left hand. Not only
n ,ro hic E~~1~~ hn1oxni-~ -s-oL1@. hwy
slow degrees but his mind is at the
same time occupied. AS he becomes
adept in left-handed carving, he is
preparing for the time when he will
again begin to draft, this time with
his left hand. This mental c~oncentra-
ton upon a new task is believed by
doctors and psychologists to be a
valuable antidote for disbursement.
"A the same open-air workshop,
which is the veranda of a hospital, one
man was intent upon knitting q scarf.
He had chosen worsted of a coral
pink, and the knitting was being done
upon a wooden framework. One group
of men, temporarily crippled, were
carving designs upon wooden blocks,
and several were learning to weave
upon hand LOOMS"
Typewriting and basketry. and also
the childhood lore of the spelling book
and the arithmetic are some of the
convaiescent activities which the
Blue Gowns" direct. In the treat
ment rooms inside, they were guiding
electrical appliances and administer
ing the complicated series of treat
ments that perfect the restoration
work started by the surgeons at the
front. There is a large field for their
work among soldiers who have beeh
imprisoned for weeks in casts and
bandages after a wound as been sus-
tanned, and the army provides through
the blue Gowns" the trained oper-
ators.
Since the corps was organized I'M
der Miss Marguerite ~Sanderson last
January, pay and status for its mem
| bers have been established. They re-
ceive $50 a month while on duty in
the United States, and $50 q month If
they go abroad. They are housed at
the hospitals, or allowance OF, $62.50
a month additional is made them for
quarters outside. Age limits have
been fixed from s25 to 40, years.