Estancia news-herald. [volume] (Estancia, Torrance County, N.M.) 1912-19??, 1918-12-19
THE A. R. c. IN THE
MOUNTAIN TOWNS

a telegraph office, and an ABUNDANT
food and water supply, it is difficult
to imagine the helplessness and the
| almost panic terror that gripped the
fathers and mothers of our isolated
Saline pueblo villages as suddenly the
epidemic fell--at a moments notice
first upon the children, then upon
the weakened old folks, then upon
themselves; a leaping fear from the
dark, coming they knew not whence,
striking they knew not where next.
At the outset they had no hope of
any help and accepted their doom in
mute acquiescence, repeating to one
another the grim fatalism of the old
folks, who moaned at is like the
smallpox-ill forty years ago-we
shall all die-there is no escape for
us-who does the mourning-bell toll
for next?"
But even at this black moment sue
cor was already on it's way, swift and
sui american eliiliS
ever to be. A brief message, an ap-
peal for personal examination of the
situation, had come through to the
Torrance County Chapter of the Red
Cross, and within an hour the inde-
fatigable chairman, DR.. w. J. Waltz,
was driving his car out of Estancia,
accompanied by the chapter secre-
tary, Mr. Bennett-anothe cheerful
exponent of the spirit that gets things
done-and by two ladies of the Chap
ter, Mrs. Parrett and Miss Connolly,
for whom, on this errand of mercy,
the cold, strong wind of that early
November afternoon held no terrors,
though it blew bleakly indeed across
the valley. DR.. Waltz paused only to
pack into the car the Red Cross
nurses aid, newly arrived from
Mountain Division Headquarters to
work at the Chapters disposal where
ever the need called at the moment
most urgently, and to fill up the in
terstices of his self-expanding and
trusty Ford with loaves, and yet more
loaves, of invitingly- packed and most
tastily-baked white bread, generously
made and contributed to the suffer
ers by Mayor Berkshire, Mrs. c. E.
Ewing and Mrs. Parrett-bread that
was to prove boon indeed to many
little homes in want.
The first objective was Torreon,
where Nurse Williams had from the
first bravely been holding the fort
single-handed, saving many lives by
tireless work and stemming back an
unprecedented tide of sickness and
distress, until now at last the worst
seemed to be over and the number of
her convalescents growing daily. She
welcomed her quota of the loaves,
and, thus lightened, the car went on
to Manzano, where DR.. Waltz dis
cussed the needs of the local emer-
cency with Mr.. Parrett, who at the
start had volunteered his services and
his practical knowledge and who for
over two weeks devoted himself with
conspicuous success to the sick at
Manzano, where he went into resi-
dence and where he was rewarded by
remarkably small percentage OF
losses and by the widely expressed
gratitude of the patients he served
and saved.
Meanwhile, Mr.. Bennett unloaded
the remaining consignment OF loaves
with the help of DR.. Parrett's willing
assistant, Nurse Cornell, and the car
retraced its way to Torreon, where
Dir Waltz deemed it advisable to
leave the Denver Aide as assistant for
q few DAYS to Nurse Williams, who
kindly undertook to familiarize her
in a measure with local conditions
and methods of procedure-a neces-
sary preliminary to work in noun
tain village. Nurse Williams did
this so efficiently that when, three
davs later, DR.. Waltz returned to Tor
reon and transferred the Aide thence
to Chilli, the new worker was not
daunted by the task before her and
had secure grip on sufficient phras-
es in Spanish to enable her from the
start to get on good terms with her
new patients.
And first, the Aide, with the CO.
operation of the village Council OF
defense, stopped the ominous tolllne
of the death-bell, then sounding It's
mournfull dirge four and five times a
dav; and next, in apron and
qauze mask, she went into each
and all Of the humble adobe shack'
I,omnnsinr the village, administering
fir.t aid and assuring and reassuriqa
tho sick and the terrified chat with
.ouoa heart and ready obedience Il
advice they need not die. And no"
obedient they were! Indeed, then
willingness to cooperate was as ad
nirable and as touching as their new
found confidence in the hitherto IN
tangible abstraction, the American
Red Cross.