The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-02-24

riOtiSm, and he laid down his life
on his country's altar. He gave his
sons to battle and when one of them
was lying broken and lifeless on the
field, even the hard and cruel Prus.
sian had respect for the honored
father in America and gave the son
honorable burial.
4 Roosevelt was the friend of the
lowly negro. the Belgian and the
American Indian, always the friend
of the weak, obeying literally the
command, 'Ye that are strong bear
the infirnities of the weak"
AT the close of the toasts to the
three American heroes, Mrs. Blood
expressed regret that time prevented
the mention Of other great Americans
! and said that President Wilson who
is now America bound on board the
steamship George Washington merit
ed toast. She told this story:
/ A New Story Of President Wilson.
When my brother was attending
/ Princeton university he studied his
! tory under Prof. Woodrow Wilson. A
number of years later, touring
Europe, he was idling at Oxford one
j day, when a solitary bicycle rider
I OISW uSdI duu PlONCu W NC iOl'
! Wilson.
/ my brother writes that he has
often thought of that meeting since
President Wilson'S triumphal tour of
4 Europe. 1t shows the ups and downs
OF American life. Anything may
happen to an American. Riding a
bicycle around Europe one trip, and
being escorted to the railway station
hxr ND Mary
the next trip
The guest ofhonor at the luncheon,
Miss Ruth Hamill, Red Cross nurse,
was the last speaker on the program.
Mrs. Blood in introducing, presented
her with handsome little gold pin
issued by the national society D. A.
r., for members of the society who
have done overseas service.
Miss Hamill was very cordially re-
ceived and spoke of her Red Cross
experiences. She said:
when | compare this scene with
my surroundings a year ago, can
scarcely believe it's reality, so great
is the change. To one who has not
been in France, it would be hard to
understand the discomforts under
which we lived. Unit 81, to which l
belonged, was located between Rouen
and Amiens, and was a general hos
pital for the British eXpeditionary
forces.
7, "Our patients were Canadians,
English. Irish, Australians and
Scotch, all noncommissioned soldiers.
We had every sort of cases, shell
shock, gassed case, and surgical cases
of every kind.
Women Heroes at Night.
Most Of our conveys came at night
between midnight and o'clock in
the morning. The British Red Cross
ambulances were driven by women of
the woman's auxiliary army corps.
They were for the greater part young
girls and our nurses always managed
to give them hot cocoa and toast
when they came in. We were the
hospital nearest to the casualty clear
ing station and our patients came
directly from the front"
Miss Hamill described the dress
worn by the nurses to shield them
from the bitter cold of a French win
ter and said:
Eve wore from two to three suits
of underwear, three pairs of stock
ings, boys shoes and puttees, and
sometimes we wore rubber boots. We
wore gray wool boomers make for
us by the London women. Our uni
forms were gray crepe, with white
aprons. and white caps. On our
hands we wore half mittens to keep
them from freezing We took off the
mittens of course, when doing dress
ings. AT night we slept in sleeping
robes which covered head, feet and
hands and then got into blankets
which buttoned up tight all about us,
and with three or four hot water
bass-in which the water froze be-
fore morning tried to Sleep
She described graphically the zig
gag trip of the ship through the dan
ger zone and of the life in darkness
and silence which was their expert
ence on shipboard at night. She told
too, of the nerve racking experience
of the Hun bombing hospitals and
how the nurses always stayed with
the patient whatever experiences be-