The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-09

.T hear your boys in Camp Fun
ston?"
YES"
Isn't that too bad.
"What?''
other son won't have to go. They tell
me it's awful up there. Simply awful
Thev saw they die like flies with pneu-
monia, hundreds and hundreds of
them.. because those army doctors
don't know how to take care OF ehem
or won't. We don't hear much about
it. l don't suppose they'll let the
newspapers say anything about it. But
a friend of mine who has sister VINO
knows a nurse up at the base hospltaI
says it's awful. 1 suppose it's SO: Inc
nurses don't take half care OIL the
sick boys anG they haven't enough to
eat. Dear, dear me, if had son
in the army l would be worried silly
perfectly silly"
That's the conversation you can
hear almost anywhere nowadays II
a kind of conversation carried on at
sewing circles and sometimes. where
women knit for the soldiers. William
Slavens McNutt, in current maga-
zine calls these women "clackerS,
and they're dangerous things, more
dangerous than the well known type
of "slackers' because a Stacker
those who spread this gossip are in-
nocently, unthinkingly and deliberate
ly spreading something that Germany
would pa. well for.
a Nurses Story.
The other day nurse, Topeka
gir: came home from the base hos-
pital at Fort Riley with story that
soldiers are ill-treated in the hospital.
Her story-no, she wouldn't let the
newspapers print her name in connec-
ton with twas simply a supplement
to various gossip afloat about the hos
pital. Mothers. fathers. friends and
relatives of men at Funston read it
and were worried.
Col. D. F. Duval. in charge of the
base hospital, read the story, and in
vited the State Journal to send a man
to Fort Riley and investigate condi-
tions. The State Journal accepted the
invitation the same day the letter
came, and a reporter dropped in on
Colonel Duval without warning as to
wien he would arrive. Colonel Duva1
/ turned the reporter over to Capt. Ho-
mer Davis, acting adjutant, with in
structions that the newspaper man be
shown anything he wanted to see, told
anything he wanted to know, and that
he be allowed to question DOCTORS
nurses and patients without interfer-
{ ence
J In company with Captain Davis
]
that the reporter be shown our best
and our worst a tour of the wards,
! la laboratories, operating rooms kitch-
ems, dining rooms, supply rooms,
X-ray rooms and temporary and per-
manent buildings was made. The re-
porter came back to Colonel DuvaPs
office impressed, impressed with the
cleanliness, efficiency. thoroness and
bigness of the thing he had seen. and
impressed with the air and quiet eff
cheney of the doctors and nurses with
! whom he had talked
1000 Patients There
When the war broke out the hospi-
tai at Fort Riley had about four pa
tients. Today it has 1000, and bed
ding capacity for $500.
The artillery barracks and office
buildings around the artillery parade
grounds have been converted into hos
! pital wards. Thruout the wards there
hovers an air of comfort. There is al
/ ways physician-an officer doctor
in personal charge and nurses are in
every building. There seems to be no
| lack of attendants. The wards are
clean. Bed linen, with not an excep-
| ton, was snowy white. A look thru
the kitchens shows that the sick sol
diers are far from starving. And the
kitchen in ward k" the scene of the
\. Topeka nurses alleged inefficiency
would have done credit to any hotel
or restaurant kitchen in Topeka
The reporter was shown the menu
for Friday nights dinner in one of the
medical" wards. He came home and
examined the menu of one of Topeka's
leading hotels for the same night The
hospital menu was minus a lot of the
hotels table frills, but the men who
prefers strength building. healthfu
food would have taken the hospita
dinner.
Everything Is Sanitary.
The dining rooms are clean, so clear
that they almost glisten. Ta BILE top:
are removable and after each mea
they are removed and secured. There
is al absence. in the enlisted men.
war ds, of table linen. for table liner
: holds germs. The officers dining
rooms have linen on the tables but
: this is the officers own doing for they
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