Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1918-01-24
NEED
FOR HELP;
SHE SAYS
Milwaukee Red Cross Nurse Sends
Letter From Devastated ROu-
mania
PEOPLE DYING FROM STAR
VATION AND NEGLECT
Wounded in Terrible Condition
Proper Food and Care Are Not
Available

1t will be recalled that last August
the United States government sent a
company of Red Cross nurses to Rou-
mania to make survey of the situa-
ton in that most unhappy country, ana
incidentally to give such relief as was
found desirable to administer while
the expedition was making its survey
of the situation. The party consisted
of perhaps a dozen Red Cross nurses
and few physicians. They went out
by the way of Japan TO Vladisvostok,
and thence through Siberia and Rus
sia to ROumania.
Among the nurses to volunteer for
this perilous , expedition was Miss
Katherine Omstead, an expert in her
profession and a member Of the Mil
waukee Nurses club, an organization
that maintains clubhouse for It's
members on Jefferson street. Miss
Mathews, to whom the letter was ad-
dressed, is a member of the club. Mrs.
Katherine Kohlsaat copied the letter
and sent the copy to her sister, ia
Baraboo, Mrs. A. F. Reiner Ash street.
1t must be told that the chief OF the
expedition has returned to America to
report on the findings his company
made. and that he mailed the letter
in Washington, D. c., soon after Christ
mas. Following is the letter.
Roman, Roumania.
October 20, 1917
Dear Miss Mathews and all the CLUB
Ladies:
"How many times | miss you all and
how manyCtimes | have wished for nay
nice, clean, cosy little room and the
big fireplace, the popcorn, the Victrola
and all of you people, to say nothing
of the food. Why, | could eat one or
those white tables, glass top and all,
am SO hungry this very minute. You
see we have our choice for breakfast
between sour, black, coarse bread,
hardtack and a sort Of drink made
from burned grain, or tea; for lunch
we have cabbage, soured and greasy,
and for dinner we have bean soup.
black bread and tea. Miss Peterson
and a Roumanian doctor secured the
country and actually found a Few,
very few potatoes and a few carrots,
so we shall have feast tomorrow, but
you don't know how we miss butter,
sugar, coffee, white bread, eggs milk
and meat-just can't get any here.
Suffer for Lack of Food
''Not that we care for ourselves, be-
cause we can get along very we'll, but
can scarcely describe how the pee
pie are suffering for the lack OF food.
The women are pale, and the children,
what few of them are still living, are
like little skeletons.
"We picked up some and brought
them to our hospital, but they died
soon.
eve have nothing to give them
it's too horrible for words. We are
here and see so much to do, so much
that is needed, and all around us such
misery, and yet we just exist and
every day we pray that our supplies
come soon, and the days seem like
months, and we hear nothing about all
the food and clothing and medicine
that the Red Cross sent us by way OF
Archangel.
Russia in Turmoil
"We sent men into Russia to buy
what they could, but we haven't heard
a word. Russia is in such a turmoil; X
her cities are starving, because no one
works, no one is responsible for any
thing, and transportation is thing OF
the past. We mailed letters to all OF
you in Siberia, but when we got into
Russia we saw the boxes were left
no one even collects them; bags were
strewn about the station floor, and ev-
eryone in Russia just standing around
looking for trouble. So we fear that
if our supplies are not at the bottom
of the Atlantic they will be, or have
been confscated in Russia. Our only
means of getting anything still is
through Russia. This country (RoU