The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-05-02

by Josiah Marvel In the following ex-
cerpts from a letter to his parents,
DR.. and Mrs. Charles Marvel, of 1T
North Tenth street. Marvel, who IL
head of the Friends Hostel in Paris,
where all the Friends reconstruction
workers are housed and given "bit
of home" while in Paris, has recently
visited the war zone and reconstruc-
ton camps He writes:
I'VE are expecting to see Austria
60 into revolution, Bolshevism, or
something else within week. The
world seems to be~getting stirred up
over the fact that the peace confer
ence doesn't get something done, but
when one stops to consider the amount
of work which they have to do 1t is
staggering.
Yesterday had postal from Wal
ter wildman, written from Constanta,
Rumania, in which he says that he
has been put In charge Of all relief In
the department of Dobruaja with
Lieut.. Buttofi as assistant. People
are starving and suffering terribly
down there from lack OF clothing. he
says. Conditions In general are most
deplorable. He wrote that he made
his first trip into the country last
Sunday with peas and macaroni, and
that the roads were so bad 1t took him
six hours to go fifty kilometers go
miles,. He explained that thread Is
selling for IL francs a spool ($2.40).
while lard and sugar are IL francs q
pound. There certainly is tremen-
dous need for relief. Hoover has al
ready gotten three ships OF food there.
However, he said the maddening thing
now was that the army refuses to
help Hoover get his food moved or do
anything for him. OF course. he has
no commission, and cannot order any
thing so he Is almost helpless trying
to get transportation of food into the
smaller interior countries.
Paris Styles Horrid.
But changing the subject to styles,
I think the Paris ones are horrtd.
Dresses are one piece and short, very
narrow with tunics. It isn't everyone
who can wear a tunic, either.
Bead decorations are being used
over here. especially bead chains OF
bright color.
THE man who has been attending
to the miscellaneous buying here at
the Hostel (buying everything from
filings for false teeth to sprayers for
white wash is going back to England
and they have asked me to take 1t
over My house is sufficiently we'll
organized 80 I am not busy all the
time. l am not very keen about 1t,
though, for 1t Is very tiresome and
/ things one buys for other people are
never satisfactory. There doesn't
seem to be anyone else at the present
| they can get, for one has to speak
French, and know Paris rather we'll.
| One Of the secretaries at the office
will look after the correspondence and
bookkeeping for me.
Had Attack OF "FIu."
ut has taken me nearly all winter
to get over my attack OF the "flu," and
its relapse, but now am feeling very
much better. We have had three days
Of sunshine and they are heavenly.
Perhaps you will have call from
| Lester Taggart soon. He came
through Paris on his way to Nantes
to sail home, and stopped in to see
me. He was in a great hurry because
he only had four hours in Paris. Like
everyone else who has enjoyed his
work, Tag wanted to return to the
States but when it came to the actual
ieaving-it was pretty hard to leave
France.
Last week l made an interesting
trip to Grange-le-Comte, our new
headquarters in the Verdun area
Every six months there Is general
committee meeting there composed OF
delegates from all Of the different
eQuipes. and was elected to attend
from our equip. I was SO thankful
that it was held there instead of al
our hostel.
Goes Into War Area
/ II was invited by DR.. and Mrs
Parker (they were married here) te
visit them at the hospital at Brizeaux
We left Paris Wednesday morning
went to Barbecue; saw the relief
workers, and Caroline Hutton Griesi
there, and then took a little old rail
road that rambles along over the hills
up into the war area. We arrived al
Grange about dinner time. There are
about 200 workers there and as
knew most of them, it was quite like
going back to college for a week end
THE committee sat Thursday an6
Friday, and as the Palmers were
going back and forth I went home
with them Thursday night and got
back in time for the committee meet
ing Friday morning. The Palmers
have an old military barracks hos
pital and have fixed it up quite well
II saw Ruth Hopes 1.-THE nurse WHIT
took care of Eugene Quigg and my
self during the flu there, and DR.
Stevens from Muncie, brother-in-lav
of DIR. Allen D. Hole, of Earlham.
Work is Progressing
Our work is coming along yer,
we'll | don't know when | have hat
such a thrill OF happiness as when WI
drove into Neuvilly. AS we looked
down into the little village in thu
valley. destruction and desolation wer,
every place, except along a street Ii
the middle of the town, where Their,
stood thirty-two of our little houses
red tile roofs shining in the sprini
sunlight. 1t was beautiful
Il visited another little villagt
where Mr.. Shingley from Philadelphia
has charge of the carpenters. Th
houses were not totally smashed 81
they could be patched up enough tt
give each family that came back a
least one and sometimes two room
. to live in: and also they had rugged vi
, some shelter for the horses.
The peasants have no tools an,
they can't buy any because Their,
: simply aren't any. Ours are all from