The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-05-03
MRS. PRINCE TELLS
 |OF CONDITIONS IN
 { WAR TORN FRANCE Former Birmingham Girl Describes the Scenes in One of the Great
 Hospitals
OF BIRMINGHAM. ALA. STATEMENT MARCH 4. 1918
 Hl IFS nIrnCES

An interesting letter from Mrs. Fred rick II. Prince, daughter of W. P. G. Harding, who was at Villa St. Helene, Eau, Basses-Pyrenees, in France, to Mrs. P w. Barrett, gives some intimate flimpses of the life former Birming- ham girl is leading under the immediate ihadow of the great war. Extracts from CT letters under date of April f. are: Fl have been meaning to write you yer since I came down to this wonder
 Il place. Paris was a bit too awful pr nervous woman, cannon by day tnd bombs by night, so I am now living i state in the family's country house. It is huge place and was once very lovely, I suppose, but now the grounds | re all plowed up for potatoes and sue bras and even the small village of Etalbles soon becomes the home of 100 |efugees from the north T am so glad the government has just Iemoved the horses that have been housed there so it can be used for the
 1orses, some twenty-odd, were taken Tor given rather) at the beginning of he war. Until very lately I have been |yorking in the Sacre Occur hospital )t is a military hospital and has mostly fnalades, gassed victims, operation cases tnd old blosses. There is also a startling variety of nationalities and colors- everything from Senegalese (blacker { han any known Georgia negro). Arabs #French ones of course) and a few and Ear between Frenchmen. My work was with four sales off and on but always wo-one of g. beds and one of F. Ii \ s nice to work for them because they Are so nice and appreciative and hell Is much as they can.
 l Some of them make you miserable zlp look at them, especially the poor, Passed ones. They are terribly wound sh, inside and out. They can scarcely Eben their eyes, voices just a whisper End cough all the time. and the num- Sier of armless and legless is too terri He but with it all they never get cross End are always most polite.
 N "Frederick is out of the aviation serv- tfe and is going into the American very 'soon. He came down here last week for & few days permission and put a stop Ap my hospital work. However, I am Bunting on getting back as soon as the sefugees and the garden get attended to- #"For goodness sakes, tell all girls who l&lve ambitions to come to France to SSelp that the greatest help is to stay Eway. It sounds mean to say that being 5ere myself, but if it hadn't been for a
 Trench army husband, I would most cer-
 ainly be at home right now getting all
 he money, clothes and other sendable Things together to send over as much And as fast as possible. While we cer-
 ainry have enough to eat there isn't tIore than enough and there just aren't @aces for any more people. All the
 Ncieties are full up and some of those
 vming over on a Red Cross or Y. M
 * A. passport haven't fulfilled their du-
 fs at all or in some cases not well
 it just cramps the style of every fldy.
 1T get letters almost every week ask Is me to ask Aunt Helen if she can't
 1t them over and considering that
 hve just seen the answer to one of
 fr letters to Washington asking that
 Fl these helpers be kept to help at
 bme rather than hinder here, I don't fink she is the person to ask.
 N'Do write me often. In the midst of {lch awful things as maimed and dying End homeless a good old gossipy letter xfom you would mean a lot"