The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-09-12
FROM ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND
Fred Fassett Writes Of the War, and
of DR.. Rose, Once Barre Resident.

FREQ rdSSelI WHITES OF the war, ana
of DR.. Rose, Once Barre Resident.
w. E. Jones of Waitsfeld has received
letter from Fred Fassett, who lived in
that place as a boy and is now in
war service and located in Aberdeen,
Scotland, which will prove interesting to
many on account of his description of
his duties in that country and his refer
ence to DR.. Rose, at one time a resident
of Barre. Mr.. Fassett was a roommate
of Mr.. Jones in prep" school and spe-
cialized in orthopedic surgery, becoming
very successful in his work in Seattle,
Wash, and going into war work about
two years ago The letter follows:
"oldmill Hospital, Aberdeen, Scotland.
Aug. l6, 1918.
Dear Walter: / was tremendously
pleased to get your letter Nothing con
nected with my war doings has pleased
me more. 1t appeared early in the war
that they would need about all the bone
sharps they could get and nibbled one
job with the French and one with the
British, but finally hit on this one, in
which / am Z. s. medical officer, but
am loaned to the British for-nobody
knows how long; at least | don't know,
] supposed when | came over that |
should be in some hospital in the Unite
Kingdom for about two months and then
go to France, but Col Marnoch, the head
of things here, and Col. Smart, the com
handing officer of the station, had a
talky-talk with someone in London and
81, 6 -, H..
will shake me out of Aberdeen / GER
tainly have no cause for complaint. This
is pretty good l@spital and the Scotch
men are fine TO work with and the work
is the kind ! know enough about so |
can do fair job of it, and besides it is
a steady job, which seems to be rare
thing in war time.
Many hospitals are running over one
week and empty the next. We have
very little change Our beds fill MP
about as fast as we send men away ]
have four Americans on my team. They
each have 1875 beds and | make rounds
with each in turn and do rather more
than half the operating for the lot. Some
of our patients come in trains from
Folkstone or Dover, but many come in
small groups from British hospitals fur
Their south that have no orthopedic de-
partment.
II have not seen much of England,
but my work has taken me to several in
teresting places in Scotland A central
hospital like this has 80 or 40 auxiliary
hospitals scattered all over the sur
rounding country. These are placed in
country houses, town halls, castles,
schools and all sorts Of place | have
had more or less inspecting to do that
gave me the rare chance to ride in an
automobile, for government petrol
tgasoline) is carefully guarded stuff. You
have TO have real business to use it,
"The British people have done a won
derfu job in this war. They are GU
riously easy going lot Their govern.
ment is Just about as systematic as ours,
less so in many things They grumble
and scrap with each other and are posi-
lively ashamed TO act real enthusiastic
or really in earnest, but they keep on
saving wood and it's a good thing for
the world they have. Maybe a more
hustling pepole would have been worn
out by this time
"The country really shows little of the
effects of the war You would never
dream that SO many of the people whom
you know had lost one, two or three
sons or brothers in the war II they
have occasion to speak Of them, it is IN
sort Of interested, but neither gloomy
nor indifferent, manner.
THE people in Aberdeen have been
very nice to the Americans. We have
more dinners and teas and things TO at