New Britain herald., 1918-08-31
REFUGEES RECEIVE
 NEW BRITAIN BOX
Hope Springs Up Anew When
 Gifts Are Distributed

The following letter which has been
 received here from Miss Dorothy North of the Friends War Victims
 Relief committee will be of great in
 terest to New Britain people. It is a letter of thanks for q Christmas box which local people packed and sent to
 her for distribution; the money and
 donations for it were given by indi- Eiduals, using none of the Bed Cross relief money
 Mission Dc La Societe Dcs Amis.
 Aug. ,, 1918.
 1 wonder if you had given up all hope of your Red Cross box arriving as I had until q few days ago. when it was miraculously delivered up to mo from all the dangers of war travel and the delays? If you could have seen the delight of every kind that it has already given you might feel a little compensated for the long wait. q had been told by outsiders and in siders that it had surely been re- packed months ago at headquarters in Paris and re-distributed to where the things were needed and the office in Paris which l raided a month or so ago told me the same.) We fell on 1t about II o'clock one night, after I had returned from an investigation trip and I literally tore it open, few blanks off the side to make an opening, ! and then I burroWed. Stacks of cloth 1 made and just what We needed for the thrOngs of refugees | coming every day. Candy! Salted 1 nuts! A riot. TOys!-I fell on them 1 for my growing family of newly ] It was midnight before we l could tear ourselves away, and all the 1 next day when I schould have been 1 "tending earnestly to biz 1 was dis l new joys of soap and baby l blankets chocolate and gum, pencils, 1 and talcum powder. Lots of l the things are already placed. but it's 1 such mine that we've not made an l yet. One little pasty-faced [ boy, refugee from Espernay, who l waited patiently here for hours with ] his mother wanting a chance to go out 1 to Nazareth preventorium to play with l the fresh-ai children went off radiant | with the Whirly-rOund toy, where the 1 men on a sort of merry go-round fly l round a stick and then can be reversed 1 to do it over again ad infinitum. Last | night Andree Labarriere and her 1 mother now almost cured of suicidal i mania brought on from the sufferings of the war and captivity. spent the night here on their way to Nazareth. They were both pretty tired out, but you never would have guessed it. Re- nee discovered an adorable pink baby doll had got into bed ahead of her. 1 She has named the baby G9nevieVe and never lets her out of her arms. ! | m not afraid of any hom esick days ] in the new place now-and it's just as well, for no preparations, beyond bed, were made for receiving the new corners and the big bare room with two windows and some straw from the 1 packing on the floor, was not reassur- ing as I saw it tonight. A fearful little ] boy in blasted jacket up to his chin { got a picture book with a big dog on 1 the cover, and his sister Blanche, one 1 of my special pets who almost died of pneumonia in the spring, got the 1 sweetest litle blue serge dress trimmed 1 with yellow stitching and buttons.
 They might be a tragic pair if they weren't so we'll off at Nazareth. Their father is blind as a result of gas in the trenches and has turned very morose and brutal. The little boy, Pierre, will l never be worth much, I'm afraid, and l Inc other two children have died. I ] feel as if we had snatched these two from the burning. Pierre got a little blue romper- pinafore thing that he l can dress up in even lying in his wheel ] chair in the cast, and which he will ! wear with Joy next month when he is l frisking about with the other little l rasS-hOppers.
 I believe the first thing I gave awayA