The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-12-07
by DAISY NELL


Word was received in Topeka last
night that Mr.. Mike Alt is seriously
Ill with pneumonia at his home in
Duchesne, Utah. His parents, the Rev.
and Mrs. A. S. Alt, left last night>for
Duchesne.
Miss Clara Francis, librarian of the
State Historical society, returned to
Topeka this week after an absence OF
several months which she spent in
Red Cross work in France. Miss Fran
els was a hospital searcher for the
Red Cross with the University of Chi
cago hospital unit in a base hospital
at Limoges. France.
The work of the hospital searcher
is varied. OF course her chief work
is in finding missing men who seem
to be lost, then there are a thousand
and one things to be done for the SOL
diers that the nurses do not have time
to do and these duties fall to the lot
of the searcher. She must write let
tiers to mothers. wives and sweet
hearts, for the soldiers in the hospital
who are not able to do so for them
selves. IT feel that 1 have written to
every sweetheart in America said
Miss Francis yesterday She also re-
lated two incid entS of cases where the
soldiers had lost limbs. In the letters
Of one who had lost his right arm she
had to keep the fact that he was
cripple for life from his wife, as he said
he was not going to tell her until he
got home. Miss Francis, however, per-
suaded him to tell her later. Another
man. who was injured in much the
same way, insisted upon the details
of his injury being written immediate
~ to his family. Another duty of the
searcher is in trying to locate the be-
Iongings of the soldiers who are
brought to the hospital in their pa
jamas and have lost track of all their
clothes.
DI,nr
are very long, often times from to
8. But" Miss Francis said, the work
Is so varied and the changes come so
often that it is not very tiresome. AS
in the home. we go right on working,
Sundays we'll as week days, with
| out realizing that the hours are long"
| High stacks of hospital inquiry
cards were sent to the hospital and
these had to be gone over carefully
| and. compared with the hospital rec
ords and the men who were in that
hospital checked off. Sometimes the
message came, IF he is not in your
hospital. find him in another. In
| the base hospital in which Miss Fran
| els had her work there were two hum
dred patients most of the time.
In connection with the hospital was
| the recreation hut. Here the con-
| valescent soldiers were entertained.
The hut had it's own picture machine
and man to run it, The picture shows
which is a most homelike looking
| place. The boys all say this hut is like
home to them. Here the up pa
TENTS do work like boot backing,
tailoring, etc.
Miss Francis said: 1.-The thing that
| gave me the most pleasure was being
with the boys enough to know what
good lot of young men they We're
They never complained, but were all
| around good sports. 1t was interest
IN 70 a
up to the standards. No country could
have sent finer army than we have
had.
}"Another thing that impressed
me-" continued Miss Francis, was to
see how much it meant to the boys to
see an American soldier" One soldier
was quoted as saying it wasn't so
much that he was going to have care
as that he saw those American women
and they meant home to him.
IT was very much impressed upon
reaching New York to see the men
walking around on real legs added
Miss Francis. In France so many of
them are walking on wooden ones"
Miss Francis returned to America
on account of the illness of her moth
er. with whom she spent few weeks
before coming to Topeka to take up
her work again librarian of the
State Historical society.
X X y
A letter written by Hume Jennish,
q heavy gun pointer on the U. S. S.
Wyoming, to his grandmother. Mrs. l..
". Ismond, on November 81, contains
q number of interesting incidents. Mr..
Jennish is nephew of Mrs. D. P.
Paxton, of West Tenth street, and
when in Topeka makes his home with
his grandmother. Mrs. Ismond and his
aunt and uncle, Mr.. and Mrs. Paxton.
A part of the letter follows:
'"The censoring of our mail has been
abolished and now I can write az 1 did
before the war. We wound up the
watch on the Rhine today and got
under way at 8 o'clock this morning
with three French destroyers one