Evening star., 1919-10-12
washington GIRLS
BACK FROM FRANCE
The Misses Dean Home After
4 Years Absence in Red
Cross Work.

-
Miss Mary Dean and Miss Mildred
Dean, Washington sisters, who served
overseas with the Red Cross, have
returned to their home at 2404 Wis
consin avenue, after an absence of
more than a year. Miss Mary Dean
taught at the Mckinley Manual
Training School and Miss Mildred
Dean at the Central High School
They volunteered for service with
the! Red Cross in August, 1918. Miss
Mary was sent to Bourges to serve
in the central records Office, and her
sister was detailed to the canteen at
the railroad junction at Vierson.
!. Verified Records.
1T vas my duty" said Miss Mary
Dean yesterday. ito look up the
names Of missing soldiers and en-
deayor to locate them. In the days
Of the war it was impossible to pre-
vent errors creeping into the casualty
lists, and as all information concern
Ing the dead, wounded and missing
was sent out from Bourges it was
natural that all records were kept
there.
Many Of the men reported killed in
action were seen by their comrades
lying apparently lifeless on the field
OF battle after they had rushed on to
an objective. During their absence
etretcher bearers would come up and
carry the wounded man off to a hos
pita. In the meantime, however, the
report had been made that he had been
killed. This was one of the many ways
In which q mans name was sent to
the, United States as casualty vic
tim, but as soon as later records
would come in from the hospitals all
mistakes Of This character were i'm
mediately rectified.
IN the case of missing men a. great
number went A. w. o. l., (absent
Without leave). and they invariably
did SO to visit Paris. You can realize
the difficulty it was to trace the
movements of these men.
Graves Of q. S. Dead Cared For.
TN March of this year 1 was trans
3erred to the canteen service at Vier-
SON and Joined my sister there. Be
fore left Bourges / was informed by
the head OF the missing men bureau
that every man who had gone abroad
had been accounted for with the, ex-
ception of thirty-fve. That was in
July, when l made a return visit
there. All graves had been properly
registered and in this connection ]
want to say that the French people
do mot want us to remove the bodies
Of our boys to this country. They
Aaxe had the dead placed in little
cemeteries and are keeping the latter
HeAAtiful in appearance. taking great
care Of them. Each grave Is marked
with the name of the soldier and his
crobses make an impressive sight.
AT Vierson the canteen was open
FOR. twenty-three out of the twenty
four hours, being closed only from
am. to 10 sH.m.. though there were
many days when men were fed at
that hour. They we're mostly railroad
engineers, conductors and brakemen,
as :vierson was a big railroad juno
ton. Whenever a train came in we
certainly got busy. On one occasion
lieutenant arrived at Vierson at
late hour with eighty recruits to re-
plsce men in the army Of occupation.
They had no food or money and no
place to sleep. The Red Cross found
beds for them and gave them a hot
supper and a good breakfast. That
was only one of many Incidents"
o,ooo Were Served.
"Dusins the months from January to
June an average ksmore than 10000
men were given service at the can
teen, said Miss Mildred Dean. "Oc-
-casionally a .Y" team Of entertainers
would pass through the town and
stop at the canteen and they would
always play for us. Then we had NOV
ing pictures nightly to amuse us. In
June; the attendance dropped off to
35,e00 and the canteen was closed
1--WE served every nationality that
was fighting with the allies, even
Japanese. Algerians. Tunisians and
other. races, the Anamites alone not
entering the canteen. ] do not know
why, but they never came in.
Visited Battlefields.
AFTER our work was finished we
made. a visit to the battlef1elds at
Rfxims, and Soissons. We visited
ChdH,in des Danes. Chateau Thierry
and gthe chalk mines, where the Ger
majS& made their prisoners work. The
tun3fe] ling here was wonderful. We
walked into the side of a big hill Of
chalk and after a tortuous route came
OUT on the other side. Everywhere we
saw the barbarous work of the enemy.
He beemed determined to destroy
evetrthing of historic value. Particu-
larlH was this true of famous resi-
denS6s, There was hardly chateau In
0tStik That was not ruined. 1t appeared
- Hsfhey wanted to make France
6ar&en. place for tourists"
ETh2 Misses Dean brought back with
the2G imany souvenirs of their work,
hut 4 square piece of tiling taken
from the ruins of Courey-le-Chateau
- tho. one most priced. They are nav
ingJtt made into a stand 50 that they
perfences.