Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-05-16
CHILDREN AND BOMBS
By Ethel Sulliran

| (By permission Of the American Rcd
Cross Uc are able 10 print the folloo'ng
| extracts from letter writfth bu Miss
Ethel Sulhudn Of the Chitdren'S Bureau
Of The American Red cross, Paris
Editor, EVENING PuPLIc LEDGERo
Paris. March II, o:i5 p, m.
| THIS letter may be interrupted at any
| moment because the autos with the
| strongest sirens that France can produce are
| racing through the streets Of the city, telling
the people that the Gothas have come again
| Life in Paris isn't as dull and uneventful as
| il promised to he when first arrived
| stopped there a minute because the
bombs are coming close enough to make
| the windows shake as II they would fall out
It's an extraordinary experience, and
wouldn't be at home in my safe little apart
ment in Charles street for anything ] can
| think Of And yet there is one absolutely
unsatisfactory part of It all. One can't
realize much of it. ] am sitting here on
| the second floor OF the Red Cross headquar-
| ters, listening TO the antl-aircraft guns which
are shooting continuously. and to the Ger
| man bombs. which come occasionally: they
| are doing bulls-eye work tonight, il the con-
| cierge Is a good Judge, and I'm about as
much stirred up as II were seeing some one
throw stone at a cat
TUST at the close of business hours on FRI
| - day we heard at the office that train OF
| fifty little children. refugees from two bonn
| barded towns. were arriving in Paris that
evening and would go to the station to help
| receive them? went and at s:25 o'clock
we began opening the doors OF the thrd-class
carriages of the long train and lifting out
the stiff tired little bodies and the precious
| knobby bundles that held all the possessions
those children had in the world.
II was a temptation to tell them that they
were safe now-and at $3.50 the 'alerte'
sounded
with the almost uncanny prescience Of
| little children. most Of them grasped in
| stantly what it meant that in coming from
| a land OF bombs. OF living In cellars. OF see
ing their homes shattered, they had at last
| reached a place-that also had air raids
Hoping that our ears had trjclied us. We took
| that convoy OF babies downstairs into big
cantine "dortor" which Is run at the station
by the Red Cross. There the bundles were
| piled up near the door and fifty hungry chill
dren were given plate of hot soup. A few
were too tired to eat. but the soup had all
| disappeared amost before the warning sirens
had got to the quarter of the city where the
station is.
WISH every mother and father in the
| United States could have been in that
| station with me that night. The whole thing
| has utterly bafIled me when I've tried to
| describe II in my letters home. II was full
| OF such poignant moments of such idyilic
| little bits of the child character that is uni
versal from the Apocrypha TO Mary PclSford.
| Of contrasts that made my head swim.
Where to begin? The room itself is a huge
| hall, big as a barrack. 1t is below the
| ground and so--presumably-safei in case of
| raids. Its walls are painted gray; the long
| tables and wooden benches are unpainted:
| the double rows OF low iron beds are covered
| with dark gray army blankets. but every
| pillar has a I;roup OF the fags of France Bel
| gium. England. Italy and the United States
/ Only the Stars and Stripes is fresh in color
the others have been there for three years
/ and a half
There were fifty children. The curious
| thing about this number was that when
| they strageled along. dragging their ''paquets'
| down that station platform. they seemed 80
| pitifully few. They were of all ages. from
| babies just able 10 walk TO children old
| enough to tell pretty graphically how they
/ spent the night before in the caves" at home
| There was only one mother In the group a
/ French Flemish woman sick and dull much
/ less capable Of taking care Of herself than
/ most of the children.
MY FAvoRITE among the nifty was
lXl Andree Gracierent, six years old. with
| .sir hair big blue eyes and the most an
peaiing little hands I've ever touched. I
| wanted TO dress her up, too. ia have loved
| TO put her into the exquisite fooishness Of
| the chiidren's clothes one sees In the Paris
| shop windows, Just to see what flower OF
1 : child she would turn into. We got to be
| Sast frisu1a I can assure you there was
| no question of that relationship after the
1rqt He..sce yhsn sas essas W sshind ns