The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1919-01-18

-mdflJ O~I9auizdtionS pSiP III hS
Work-Army Stats Work Night and
Day in Handling the Returning
Troops - Great Difficulties Sur
mounted.
For days there have been pouring
back to our shores ten of thousands
of khaki heroes. Their tales of war
adventure have thrilled the hosts of
civilian newspaper readers. In the
glamor of their heroism there has been
lost to sight the less romantic, yet
equally essential, work of other
branches of military service, repre-
~sentatives of which have returned
with the warriors and have received
but scant attention. For instance,
tied up at the army piers in Hoboken
are two former Ward liners, now the
hospital ships Comfort and Mercy.
Each brought back to port in n week
upward of 400 badly injured soldiers,
many of whom were such desperate
cases that operations were necessary
while the ships were breasting terrific
seas on the way home.
The coast liners have been convert
ed from all semblance, except in out
ward lines, to passenger ships. Each
is equipped with up-to-date hospital
apparatus, and each, so that expert
ments may be made even at sea, has
on the topmost deck a farm yard"
tenanted by sheep, guinea pigs, white
mice, rabbits and chickens. There is
an abundance of available material for
~dissecting and germ studying expert
ments.
Equipped as Hospital.
The Communicated ships have lost
the scores Of magnificent staterooms
that delighted peaee-time passengers.
Most of them have been ripped out to
make way for berths for wounded
men. The dining rooms have been
converted into wards. Reading and
smoking rooms have been made into
laboratories, and operating rooms,
dressing rooIos, instrument lockers,
disinfecting chambers, sterilizing
quarters, bandage storerooms, etc.
On each of the vessels is a large
operating room on the promenade
deck, lighted with fully half a hun
dred bulbs and equipped with six op-
Grating tables. Adjoining is a smaller
room where minor operations are per-
formed.
Separate wards have been estab-
llished for eye, a and nose cases, for
surgical patients, contagious diseases
and for minor ailments.
The medical personnel of each of
the hospital ships, an aggregate of for
ty for both, comprises expert special
lists who have volunteered for navy
service during the war and who have
been doing superb work in emergen-
cies on the sea.
Neither of The ships was originally
Intended to transport wounded men
home. Both were sent to foreign wa
tiers as floating hospitals attached to
our fleets, to be in readiness to. re-
ceive wounded cases Immediately af-
ter a naval battle or a scrimmage
with submarines.
encountered Bad weather.
1t vas with great difficulty hat they
weathered the severe December storms
that impeded the progress of such
ships as the Mauretania, the Adriatic,
the Lapland, the Orca and the Mime
kahda.
A sort Of sub-hospital ship has been
working at Huboken for some weeks
In conjunction with the arrival of
MANNED and sick troopers, She is the
~Shinnecock, under command of Lieut..
Collins, which in peace times used to
ply between Moutauk Point and Block
Island.
She, too, has been equipped for
medical purposes and reconstructed to
hold many berths and cots. Every
day, sometimes two or three times a
day, she edges against a returning
transport and takes away wounded
men. landing them at the base hos
pital on Ellis Island or the Fox Hills
hospital on Staten Island.
Good samaritans.
Not a small part of the work of
transferring the men has been looked
after by scores of Red Cross nurses
under command of Col. Dorothy c..
Smyley, head of the ambulance divis-
lon of the Red Cross. Her workers
have seen to it, with the cooperation
of the National League for Women's
Service, that easy-riding military am
balances have been at the piers in
sufficient numbers. Red Cross nurses
accompany each ambulance and re-
main with the transferred patients
until they have been safely placed on
hospital cots.
A less vital, perhaps, but neverthe-
less important work done by the Red
Gross women has been in the greet
.ings extended the returning troops.
They have been at the pier edges
every time transports have pulled in,
good weather or bad, waving flags,
swapping jests, flinging cigarettes