Charlevoix county herald., 1919-09-26
VIENNA'S AGED
DYING ON FEET
Most Austrians Suffer From Raw
ages of the Many Wartime
MaladieS.
CHILDREN ARE EMAcIATED
scrawny, Limp, ListIess From MaInu.
triton and Seldom Smile or Play
American Red Cross 10
Helping.

London.-Dr. Ethel Williams, New
castle doctor Of 80 years experiences,
recently has returned to England from
Vienna. She attended the Woman's
International conference at Zurich,
where she heard so much about tine
conditions Of disease In Austria that
she decided to see for herself what
those conditions really were. She
spent a week In Vienna, visiting the
hospitals and the school kitchens,
studying medical statistics, interview
ing representative people, and seeing
as much as she could Of the city.
Speaking to Manchester Guardian
representative, she said:
what impressed me most was the
appalling condition Of every old per
son 1 saw, and of 90 per cent Of the
children. The old people were like
walking deaths heads. There are so
many things that persons over sixty
cannot digest. The mortality among
the old has increased by $50 per cent.
"What struck me most when walk
ing about the streets was that there
and even four years were carried by
their mothers. The children did not
run about, or shout, or quarrel. 1t
was four days before I saw child
playing.
Most Children Emaciated.
At least 95 per cent of the practical
/ ly we'll children were painfully emaci-
ated, with discolored circles around
their sunken eyes and the tendons OF
their necks showing like those Of old
people. Even middle-class children
have these scrawny necks, and when
they run their cheeks flap like those
of old people. But they seldom run.
They are all limp and listless.
"The scene in the out-patients' de-
partment at the biggest state chill
dren's hospital was pitiful-no sound
or attempt to play. The children sat
quietly on their mothers knees or
against wall.
"T saw several cases Of osteo-mala'
CHA, a disease so rare before the war
that the only two cases / had ever
seen had been shown to me as curl
osity. 1t seems Ito come from lack OF
fresh food, and there have been 25C
cases In Vienna, and l heard of an
other epidemic in German town.
"The bones soften and become dis
torted, the pelvis bones fold inward
In early stages 1t is c1rable, but bad
case never will walk again, and 9
rather bad case always will have diff
Guilty in walking.
"The cases were those Of older chill
dren and adults. They told me thai
the hospitals were receiving about X
cases day, and those they had tt
turn away inevitably must become
worse. used to test the condition OF
the children / saw by feeling theii
fleshless arms. When l touched one
child the father said: Don't touch
, him. He has this bad new disease, and
II hurts him so much realized al
I had hurt him, but the child was toe
llstless to shrink from the pain.
1.-THE doctors could do practically
4 nothing for the out-patients who coulc
rot be taken to the hospitals. The
, mothers were in despair. The doctors
, said the greatest want Of all was fol
, cod liver oil. Funds raised in England
! had sent a supply, but 1t only LASTED
, two days. Practically every child IN
der two is rickety.
Suffer From Starvation.
e "It extraordinary how little Wen
q ma has suffered from war epidemic'
I such as typhus. The enormous increas'
4 I'm sickness Is due TO starvation disease
n Almost all of its child population Il
stunted, starved, left without vitality
4 vigor or energy. An enormous mum
ber are tubercular and considerable
proportion of these will die. Anothe
considerable proportion will for al
their lives probably be stunted In mini
s and body, and all will be handicapped.
The children Of school age provide
: with one meal of soup and bread In tn
o day by American Red Cross workers
n s, cial kitchen she visited wer
watched lest they should take the brea
home. "You must eat the bread" tn
o workers told them. "All that we can d
n Is to help you to keep well and strong.
: The American Red Cross Is openin
:, more Of these kitchens, and hopes {
feed 10000 or more children, but ths
z only means food for one section Of th
II people. the children of school AEGEAN
" even then only one meal In the day,