Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-02-11

Rome. giving the approximate nature
of tie articles desired. and the xmas
and quantities needed most.
Work for the Homeless.
But while this Red Cross adventur-
ing was going forward with the zest
which comes of accomplishing things
in the face of difficulties. weeks com
pacted@ Of q very different substance OF
experience we're the portion OF n
homeless and shattered families. filter
ing singly or in, masses from the war
wrecked north to their abiding places
throughout Italy. And 1t remains to
cast the relation Of the Red Cross
work to the great body Of effort that
reached out to succour them n to
what lies in the months ahead.
OF the stuff of which that expert
ence was compounded. the Red Cross
workers north and south had no lack
of evidence. A young Italian officer
came to the Office in Bologna, shared
by the Clearing House with the Red
teer worker at the station when the
crush came through. The story was
told of a baby born at night,on one Of
the trains. The. mother had no
clothes for it and this young Italian
had taken off his shirt to wrap it in.
He now brought with him to the Of
flee a young woman and a boy of ten.
The former was. of about the APP
pearance of Maud Adams. the actress. :
were of noble family. from Udine. and
with their father of 70. their mother
some years younger, and a nurse. were
stranded in Bologna. They left Udine
about 2 o'clock in the morning in the
midst of disorder. They had to walk
and we're drenched with rain. They
were in the great ruck of soldiers,
contadini. mules, camions. ambu-
~lances, all the dishevel Of an army
made twenty kilometres or more by
the afternoon of that day.
Here they got on a train, but this
was wrecked by a bomb which hit one
of the cars and killed the refugees
] within. Then this family was able to
get a canton and reach S~pilimbergo,
on the western bank Of the .Taglia-
mento, where an officer looked after
them and gave them a place to sleep.
when the town was shelled by the
advancing Austrians. They got up and
again found places in camions. Later
they obtained a wagon and continued
their journey, sometimes going for
days without being able to get food.
1t took them seven days to reach
Bologna and they were able to bring
nothing with them but the clothing on
their backs.
~ Stories Of Refugees.
A relief worker at Naples tells Of a
woman who was standing at her farm
yard door when the order came to
rum They had their household goods
in a wagon to which they had
hitched their horse and an *, sturdy
animals but slow. Her husband told
her to TAX the children and run and
he would come on.
In the crush she had become sep
arated from the children and here
she. was in Naples. with no knowledge
children. Another woman arrived
with three children: the fourth baby
had been drowned. The bridge on the
Tagliamento they had thought to cross
YEAS down and. as the mother tried to
get the other children over the baby
was swept from the basket in which
she had carried it on her back.
When the American, later a Red
Cross worker, took charge Of the
Red Cross at the chief asili in Flor
ence the church and cloisters of
Santa Maria Novella, there were 5000
people lodged there, all but perhaps
SO Of them women and children, for
these families of northern ~peasantry
are rich in children.
One woman Of % brought nine,
and an annual baby from 10 would
seem to be the general rule. The peo-
pie were without clothing other than
those they wore, and almost none Of
them had a complete outfit. Inside Of
two days the American colony had
raised. 500" francs tfor purchase and
collected 10000 used garments. Be-
fore coming in the line the families
were first Interviewed by volunteers,
given duplicate slips Of, paper with
their needs Indicated.
Here a woman would come with five
or six children, among them only one
pair of shoes, with perhaps no child
with a complete set Of u~nderclothes,
and the mother herself still wet from
the rain from the waist down, Among
them were women who had walked
for 60 Or 70 Kilometres, and their feet
and legs were swollen SO. badly that
they had to be sent to the infirmary.
AS many as 80 women and children
had been packed in a cattle car, and
for "a and sometimes 48 hours they
had gone without a chance to get out
to get food or water or respond to a
call of nature. At Santa Maria Mo-
waiting to be sen on that not only
were,there not beds enough for them,
but the, straw gave out, and many
slept with nothing between them and
the stone floor but the empty ticks.
The fourth section Of the report on
What the American Red Cross Did to