The evening leader., 1918-07-08
American Red Cross in Paris
Quickly Answers Emer-
gency Call.
HOMELESS LAUGH and JOKE
No Bitterness, No Complaint, No Des-
pair Among People, Many OF
Whom Were Refugees for Sec
ond and Third Time

| the east OF AmlenS VIII pass through
| Acheres at seven o'clock tonight.
They will not have had any supper,
some Of them may not have had any
lunch. There is no food there and no
facilities for feeding them. Can you
help us?"
| That was the telephone message
from the French minister of the In
| terror which came to the American
Red Cross at noon one day during the
German drive on Amiens, and the an
swer was "Yes. Emergency mes
sages are no surprise to us these days"
The foed was ordered out of the
! warehouses and score of volunteers
rounded up.
They started at six o'clock the same
evening. One five-ton truck loaded
/ with timed beef and condensed milk.
| figs, prunes, chocolate and heaps of
huge loaves of war bread: two car
loads of midnight volunteers, stenog-
raphers, bureau chiefs, drivers and
| canteen workers set out on their way
! TO bring help to the homeless refu.
! gees.
They rolled out through the resi-
Dental district of Paris, out past the
fortifications, bumped through grimy
| factory suburbs and ON into the open
country where the level plains stretch
off into infinite distance, broken only
! by interminable rows Of slim pop
lars.
!; Then suddenly without warning.
: there emerged from the forest into
black smudge Of railway tracks, Gin
ders, fat-cars, passenger cars, sheds,
platforms, warehouses, cranes
| Acheres. 1t was the junction point,
! where the thousands Of refugees were
to stop for half an hour.
Saluted With One Arm.
| Lieutenant M met us there, sa.
luted stifiy with his one arm, and did
the honors Of the station. A group Of
weary, muddy "permissionaires," most
of them over forty. just back from
the Champagne front, were routed out
4 to help us establish our tables on the
cinders between the tracks, and pile
the food where 1t could conveniently
be passed into the train.
i They unloaded bread, scraped
cheese, opened tins of "bully beef"
knocked the tops off the boxes of figs
and prunes and made plans to feed a
thousand people in half an hour. But
somewhere off in the silent country
the train, packed full Of exiles, was
standing on side track. 1t was after
two in the morning when the long
train with Its % carriages filled with
refugees came into Acheres.
A few windows were opened; tired
faces looked out and voices asked, un-
interestedly, "Where are WEI" and
were surprised to be told that they
were near Parts. The train was on
its way, they said to Tulle in the Cor
reze department, in the south of
! France.
''Will they treat US well there?" an
old woman asked and they, in the full
ness of their ignorance, not daring to
say otherwise, answered 'Yes."
7 1t was a short half hour. They
carried them bread, they filed the old
woman's apron with figs and prunes,
they gave milk to the children, meat
to the old men, cheese to everybody.
They absorbed cakes of sweet choco-
late in a rapid and mysterious man.
ner. Some of them were the much be-
petticoated women of Picardy and
some were griZzled old farmers. 9th
ers were city folk, obviously not used
to third class travel. There We're fam
/ allies of three generations huddled. to-
/ gether on their way-somewhere.
1 Some clutched precious umbrellas,
some carried bird cages, some elarm
1 clocks. Some of them had dogs, some
had cats. But the pathos of it all
was not on the surface. Some of them
/ quietly told that they were refugees
for the second and third time and
laughed and joked when they woke up.
There was no bitterness, no COM
] plant, no despair.
/ Bread Pile Fell Away.
The huge pile of bread fell away,
the fig boxes were emptied, the tins
were all handed into the trains. The
engine shrieked a shrill French whis-
tie and the train pulled away. The
rescuers were in the silence of the
night. One of many thousands Of ref
ugees had had one dreary midnight
i meal far from home-one lonely meal
out Of hundreds, perhaps thousands.
/ before them.
4 A train load Of wounded from the
front joggled in ten minutes later. The
men nurses carried water through the
carriages swiftly and silently. Then
the Americans handed out the rem
nants Of their stores Of figs and the
train slipped away again. Behind them
could be heard the dull booming Of the
barrage guns about Paris, and the Wis
itors knew that another air raid was
on. They waited until the barrage
stopped, then they headed back
through the defenses of the capital.
There was q faint HIGHT aa thew r06o