Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1919-09-26

so young, so terribly wise; remain
ing in the aggregate so sane, sound
and cheerful with all their soaring
memories so patient and self
respecting under the rigors of army
discipline! And their passionate ap
probation of American womanhood;
their reverence for the Red Cross!
One said to me, 1.-THE Red Cross is
the one institution in the A. E. F.
man"
/ knew that in the eyes of these
men the American woman in France
was symbol. She stood for mother,
sister, sweetheart. wife to him. In
every look and act he sought to ex-
press his ineffable love of them. And
it would have been a pretty poor
specimen of the above mentioned
womanhood who wouldn't have
played up to that.
Some of us may have been found
unworthy; some may have had their
heads turned; but most of us came to
love our fighting men with protect
I've lCuoCihCSS CllOI dClilS tuC WhOAO
A. E. F. 1t was one of our great re-
wards to have known our American
men like that; it is something the
women over here have missed; for
the great days are over, and life has
returned to the commonplace; and
believe that the relation between our
young soldiers and the women wei
fare workers. far older. was one of
the most charming things that could
happen in any woman's life.
loved the searching so much that
obtained transfer to Kerhuon hos
pital center, three miles the other
side of Brest, which was used solely
as an evacuation hospital. And now
entered upon strenuous period of
10 weeks. There were only three
searchers, and one expert stenogra'
pher. The evacuation became more
rapid as details for handling the men
were perfected. Sometimes three
hospital trains would come in in a
day, or about 500 men. All these
had to be interviewed before they
were evacuated, and that might take
place within three or five days. We
would divide the wards among us,
take typewriter slips bearing the
numbers to 40, the number of beds
in each ward. and as we interviewed
the men check off each number till
the ward was finished. If some of
the men were absent, we returned
later to question them. During in
tervals between trains, if we had
finished our interviewing, we would
dictate from our notes to the stenog
rapher.
Before l had been there long, how
ever, was using all my daylight time
for interviewing, and evenings were
devoted to getting data on the deaths
that had occurred at that hospital
during the influenza epidemic. to be
used in writing mortality letters" tc
their bereaved friends.
There were about 500 of these
deaths; so l made out form showing
name, organization. date of death
date of burial, age, and name and ad
dress of nearest relative, and placed
the name on the sheets in alphabet
ical order. The divisional chief il
Brest told me afterward that not onl.
were these sheets useful in writing
the mortality letters, but for refer
ence in answering the hundreds 0
hospital inquiries that daily came t
Brest. So it was we'll worth m
labor and pains; but it was the ind
rect cause of my giving up my beloved
work of searching at Kerhuon.
While ] was searching all day, an
doing this research work at night, m
notes were not being typewriter, an
pile of eight or ten notebooks az
cumulated, each with from two t
three hundred reports, and l was
month behind. We had asked in val
for more searchers, and in spite G
all our efforts, some 400 men had n
Gently gotten away without being il
terviewed. We were all tired
death. The other two girls, however
had been able to keep up their notes
and when a respite did come, coul
take an hour for a walk or go to
dance. l shaved hopelessly at tn
N type
The others were used to monop,
! lizing the time of the one typist, an
\ continued to do so. After ] finishe
| my evening work ventured to SUI
gest that might use the typist's tim
two or three evenings week. an
should have my pro rata of her tim
| mornings before 8, etc, and met wit
curt refusal from the senior searcl
! err. If did this. she explained, hi
notes would have to go unwritten:
could use a typewriter, and she coul
not ! was welcome to the typist
time during the day But, l protes
ed, then l would have to stop scare
ing, and the men were getting ava
without being searched now! B
sides, I was a month behind. n
matter.
n did stay in a morning or two, on
to have the hospital representati'
n interrupt my work because he wante
1 the stenographer to get out his r
Il port. Then the divisional chief SCI
L US a second stenographer for a fe
days while she went to st. Nazair
III r,.N -,