The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-08-23
Interesting Letter to Judge M. B. Beardsley Written
 by New York Surgeon.
ATTACHED TO BASE
 HOSPITAL IN FRANCE
pr. George F. Cahill De- scribes How American
 Wounded Are Cared For.

George F. Cahill, attache of a base hospital in France, and recently a member of the staff of the Post Grad uate hospital in New York While the fighting front has moved forward since pr. Cahill wrote, the conditions described may be accepted as 0 fairly accurate representative of what is happening behind the lines. The let ter follows:
 While eating lunch this Sunday noon in our "popotte" or officers mess, the postman entered the door with the customary knock and salute and To and behold he was weighed down with several packages, one of which was a box of candy from you. Immediately your box occupied the central plaque of the table as the dessert, par excellent, and was a won derful treat to the French officers and we four Americans
 For a month or 50 I have been with a French surgical automobile ambu- lance up at the front and have been as busy as can be. The experience has been very interesting, especially so, since last fall I was with the Brit ish army and this spring with the French and have had an unusual op- portunity to see and appreciate the spirit and morale of both nations.
 When we left the Post Graduate Hospital Unit, it had assumed re- spectable proportions, and to us the change had come so that 1t seemed like homo. We who first were located in a former school building in a small village, situated on the top of hill, had spread all over the local commit nity and the hospital had a capacity of about 1000 beds. At the time they had about 1400 patients, of all vari- ety, wounded, gassed, sick, insane, etc, and with the surrounding troops the entire locality was practically American. In fact it is the truth that the villagers were acquiring the Eng fish tongue faster than the soldiers were acquiring the French, and now and then the news would be pub lished that a soldier boy had married one of the French town belles. What certain sections of France will do af- ter the war will be a problem, for the life in the towns has almost been rev. olutionized
 t At present the automobile ambu- lance is stationed in a very small vil- /lage, on the front where all the big 4 fighting has been going on. We are located in what was formerly an or plan asylum and school, and although the place is old, the stone stairs hav- ing been worn smooth by the shuf- fling feet of many yougsters, the building is easily adapted to a hos pital, especially so since the vitals of a hospital, the operating room, ster- ilizing plant, preparation rooms, etc., are dismountable barracks on auto- trucks and are set up in the court yard of the school. may here state that one of the primary building laws of France seems to be that all schools have a court yard and park" o1 grove of trees. As far as hustle goes without bragging, the hospital was set up and running in AS hours and with capacity of 1000 patients.
 Our work, as you may infer, is sur, gerry; we are the operating center O. the hospitals around and our wounded are right from the post d. secours il the trenches. Of course the tim, varies in which We receive them, som few hours. others days. Operated upon one poor fellow yesterday tha was wounded five days previously having remained out in No Man Land for those five days shot througl both legs He was fairly close to tn "Boche" trenches and on the secont night was discovered by a "Boche patrol who deliberated for g. while whether to kill him quietly or leav him die. finally decided on the latter The same. patrol again discovered hir two days dater and after again de liberating on the two courses, in nd 4Jof 6a II, next night, that they would take hir in as prisoner, but, chance the luck star of all, brought across a bayone charge of a crack French regimen the following night capturing tn Boche trenches in that sector an bringing him in. He will recove having been successfully operate upon.
 We have been operating upon pris oners right along and they elicit val 4 ious sensations. For a long time W have been told that there is a pecr liar smell attached to the "Boche and we were, in the vernacular,- "frol Missouri" But it's true. They a look pinched, thin, ribs showing LII der-nourishment and they have a pt culiar dirty, yellowish skin with
 most disagreeable, offensive odor, dl to rancid skin oils from lack of soa They all are as a rule a cringin squealing lot, expect to- be kicke about, having in mind their ow treatment of wounded prisoners, al are. astonished when they are treatt decently and fed well, receiving e cellent treatment. just as well as o1 own wounded, which is the best tn mind, body and money can produc God have pity on the poor woundt that fall into the Germans hands
 Have had the opportunity to tai care of some of the most famous re iment in the world, the Foreign L zion of France, and they are inde all that is told about them In tf tremendous struggle, individual deeC or even deeds of regiments are lit told, but in a few words I can pictu what they have done.
 The fourragere is a braided co
 that is worn suspended from the |
 shoulder and is given to a regime that has done some almost impossil
 act of lleroism and bravery. It is regimentai citation. When rel
 ment has been cited twice they c
 allowed to wear a fourragere in t
 colcrs of the Croix de Guerre,
 green and orange. Since the war |
 Foreign Legion has done so remal
 able in their conduct, that in the
 ginning of 1916 they were cited fo
 times and the government had to
 sue q new order allowing them
 wear theirs in the colors of the "