Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-03-18
ORPHAN CHILDREN, ABUSED BY The HUN, CRY
"VNE La FRANCE" AND FACE WOES BRAVELY
BY 1dah McGlonc Gibson.

EaGaGI h-%HNlL
BY Idnh McGlonc Gibson.
NCopyright, 1918, by the Newspaper
Enterprise Association.)
When 1 arrived at 4 place dc la
Concorde, Paris, the headquarters of
the American Red Cross III France.
the first words Of everyone l talked
with was, ''You must see a children's
convoy"
x. Without much idea what l was 60
going to see, l started. h mex eve
ming after l arrived, for Evian. the
little French watering place on Lake
Geneva, the first stop ove the Swiss
line into France. i arrived in the
afternoon and wandered about the
quaint old town with its big hotels,
its strange little shops on its narrow,
hilly streets. In peace times it was
one of the most popular OF watering
places,
Here the American Red Cross has
one of the finest chlldren's hospitals
in the world. In the beautiful Hotel
Chatelet IN the hilltop overlooking
Lake Geneva. many IL the sick chill
dren that the Hun. have sent back
to die on French soil are nursed back
to health ii not happiness.
Germany is seno.ng back, ut the
rate of Il thousand Il day. frightened
children, trembling old people, tuber-
SuldI 1lSI, lhd idNO USSh WYNN" ~
unspeakable treatment in German
prisons, and white-faced women with
anemic Boche babies claspcd in their
arms.
< A number of men over DR. under
draft age are stationed at this place
as drivers Of Red Cross ambulances.
and one feels very proud to see with
what tenderness these Americans
handle the bewiidered old people and
the excited children.
The children's convoy is made up
OF children all of whose relatives have
been killed or lost in the tide OF pat
tie that has swept acro:s The obhterat-
ed in most cases not only homes. OUT
entire families. with the exception OF
these poor little waits.
1.-The children's convoy will come
In at 4 O'Clock in the morning. said
one of the Red Cross ambulance
boys. When you hear the fanfare
of the horns come down to the
streets and I'll taxi o down in my
Boat"
1t was very ark and bitterly cold
that winter morning as l stumbled
down 10 where the ambulance was
waiting, and I wondered what was
going to be lone with a hundred or
two of tired. sick and sleepy children.
= When the train pulled slowly into
the little station. the windows of the
tlllIu-CIdSS WV AN'' W pN.'
eager. little faces and every child
Was shouting at the tops of it's anemic
lungs, ''Vive la France-Nlve Ia
France"
And then they piled out of the
doors and were lifted by the ann
bulance boys out of the windows,
while the French horns began their
inspiring music.
/ remember thinking at the time
that very probably Gabriel would
blow a French horn as the last trum-
pet to wake the dead. for certainly
nothing could he more awakening.
7 Nine hundred and fifty children.
of ages from two to perhaps -, de-
Scended from these crowded cars. eX-
cited, trembling. expectant of WEat
Il could not tell, for not one of those
children was not orphaned or worse:
There was a lump in my throat
and tears streamed down my face as
I picked up a ~two-year-old, seeming
ly all alone. and followed down the
billy street to the casino where hot
chocolate and bread awaited all who
were not too tired or too ill to eat.