Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1918-05-25
RED CROSS MEETING
R. E. Women Workers March in
White housing Occasion
MANY LARGE CONTRIBUTIONS

Fort Dupont Band. some three dozen
Red Cross ladies, appropriately attired
from head to foot in spotless, celestial
white, their bonnets showing that
worldwide famous emblem of mercy,
a red Greek cross, paraded on Broad
and Nam streets en- route to the Red
Cross Relief meeting held in the Opera
House where they took their station on
the stage which was handsomely trim
med with three large bouquets OF
peonies and roses fronting the fine sheaf
of national colors, the glorious Star
Spangled Banner in the center, flanked
on the right by the red. white and blue
bars of France, and the Ensign of Eng
land, and on the left, by the flags Of
Belgium and Italy.
The house was packed with an enthu-
siastic crowd of patriots who at the
meetings. close gave substantial proofs
of their loyalty by subscribing to the
splendid sum total of ", 255.
Mr.. Walter S. Letherbury after his
usual judicious practice wasted no time
in presenting the three speakers of the
evening. MIR. s. A. LewissohD, of the
Chicago Press, gave very intel
esting talk on his experiences in Europe
at the outbreak of the war, many of
which were of highly dramatic char
acter and lost nothing in his earnest
telling. He described his Zeppelin
bomb escapes, and the horrors of the
mangled women and children he saw
blown about the London streets-79
killed by a single bomb in one building,
q in bus by another; among the vic
Tins he saw an old man of 81 and 4
,senlhs old babel Despite it all, he
said the Londoners kept their nerve,
thousands of men, women and children
thronging the streets during raid,
and cooly gazing at the deadly Zeppelin
hawk that was raining hell fire on their
heads
IS showing the difference between a
brutal German barbarian and q civilized
English gentleman, he told how the
members of Zeppelin crew who were
killed, were buried with military honors
in spite of the cuwardly murders they
pad done,
Ill., IevissoI,n paid a high cump!,nsnt
to the National honor by narrating how
the Government paid hotel bills and
home passages to the amount of $780,
600 to stranded Americans, all of which
with the exception possibly of $4,000 or
so had been repaid! He told of many
,.s.ois deeds dpne by Red Cross nurses
at the front, such az lraggIng wounded
men back to places of safety-mere
French boys carrying ammunition to
the soldiers; told of the pathetic death
of . young Frerch bugler-only l5 No
unose last whispered message was
:.Tell mother ! was not afraid to die"
told of the sad sight Of 1000 English
soldiers blinded by deyilish German gasi
of the awful scenes as the Lusitania
sorsses were brought ashore. men,
romen and bahes-Americans amnng
them. ........
His patriotic appeal was roundly az
plauded when he drew from his pocket
a service flag bearing a star and said
it was for his boy in France.
Next came the real thng-a genuine
three-year-war-hero nobly shot up in
defence Of our liberties, M. r. How
land. born in historic Plymouth, Mass.
and come Of such royal blood as that of
John and Priscilla Alden
ais graphic story OF hcw ne had ios
this long period s.'used his dearest action
in.the tented field" his moving tale OF
..battles, of hair. breath escapes j. the
imminent deadly breach" gripped his
hearers hard from his first word to his
yery last:
AS the Scribe remarked t2 hlA
::biood will tell" for when the story q
Germapy's brutal rape Of Belgium
reached his native town, he could moi
stand it, and inasmuch as the shameful
doctrines of ultra pacificism then Of
ficially prevailed in this country, anc
not himself being "too proud to fight
for liberty, he betook himself to Canada
and ioined the famous Princess Patri
cia regiment whose valor immortal il
eloquently attested by their fearful,
decimated ranks, only himself and
mere handful Of others escaping. HI
was in the bloody Vimy Ridge fight
one Of the most fiercely contested epi
sodes Of this great war, and afte
MANY marvellous escapes was bed.
uodnueu-le1t cripple for life. thi
handsome young hero of twenty-five
:; While he was courageously endanger
ing his life and giving his blood for tn
cause of human freedom, this ''peace
at-any-price" administration was sol
emnly debating whether or not he an
others had not forfeited their America
citizenship by presuming to illustrat
the identical qualities of martial heroisr
that IN the early patrlOt' fatnerS WC
for US our liberties!
Want OF space forbids recital {
me many interesting details he gave {
franch life at the front. He@ paid
humber of warm compliments to tt
Sevotion of the heroic women of Il
Red Cross whose ministrations, almo
divine. so often softened the awf
rioors of war for the battling your
natriots in France. II will rememb
as long as live that glorious cup
hot coffee l got once when wet al
half frozen, l came in after long sp.