The Mount Holly news., 1919-12-09
RED CROSS HELPS
IN INSTANCES OF
STRESS And need
The Romance Of Home Ser.
vice Is Seen in the Desert
of Damascus as Well as
A. in America

The dependents of Americas fight
ing men are being cared for wherever
they may be and whatever may be the
difficulties of reaching them. In this
task American Red Cross Home Serv-
ice has been of r-fung usefulness,
the record established by it proving so
gratifying that Home Service, which
has been confined to assistance Of the
families of soldiers and sailors, is now
being expanded to be of general use
fulness to the people.
One of the purposes of the Third
Roll Call for members, November to
IL, is to enable the Red Cross to carry
out an enlarged program of Home
Service throughout the United States.
The helping hand of Home Service
is strikingly portrayed in scores of in
cidents reported to Red Cross head
quarters. Wherever the families Of
American fighters were, Red Cross
Home Service workers have found
them, even in the mountain Businesses
or deserts of distant countries, helping
them communicate with their loved
ones and particularly seeing to it that
funds allotted to them by their boys
Bile instances, too, returned doughboys
have turned to Home Service to help
!, them in a wide variety of problems
/ Whatever the help required, Home
Service men and women, of whom
there are thousands especially trained
for the work, have found way to
help, often under picturesque, even
romantic, circumstances.
BY Camel Across the Desert.
There was lonely Syrian mother
living four days by camel across the
desert from Damascus. Her son,
George Hamway, having emigrated to
America, responded to the call to the
colors in 1917 and fell fighting in the
) Argonne. leaving only vague address
! of his mother. 1t was found when the
! War Risk Insurance Bureau under
took to begin payments to her on his
$4,000 insurance.
In the uncertainty developing, the.
matter was placed in the hands of the
American Red Cross Mission to Pal.
estine as routine Home Service case.
Long searching located the aged moth.
er, and she was brought to Damascus
by camel. accompanied by witnesses,
Bedouins in full gala attire of the des-
ert. After much palaver the identity
of the woman was fully established
and certification of it forwarded to-
Washington, the old lady returning to
her lowly home to await the remit
tances that will ease her remaining
days.
Antonio and Angela del Ruppo were
! fairly well-to-do folks with little farm
in Treviso, about three miles from the
! lave. When the war came to that
rart of Italy they were driven out Of
their home into Austrian territory as
prisoners, while their little farm be-
came battlefield They were held
as farm laborers in Austria, knowing
nothing of the real progress of the
Fighting. They never heard that the
United States had entered the war
and that their son in that country.
Antonio, had enlisted and was fighting
for them in France
Antonio, meantime, had for months
been making frantic efforts to learn
what had become of his father and
mother. Red Cross Home Service
workers in Italy conducted an inves-
tigation, and few weeks ago were
able to send word to Antonio, who sur
viyed the fighting, that his parents
had been found, just released from
captivity in Austria and that the Red
Cross would assist them until his
allotment money could reach Italy.
In the rush of getting the American
soldiers home from France the dough-
boy didn't have much time to wind up
his affairs there. Not long ago Home
Service received from a demobilized
soldier in this country a letter and
affidavit showing he had 5000 francs
on deposit in France and asking the
4 Cross to get it for him. All the
soldier had remembered was the name
OF the town, the name of the bank he
had forgotten and his bank book had
been lost in action.
By the process of elimination Home
Service workers located the bank and
the deposit, the bank officials accept
ing the word of the Red Cross that 1t
had authority to collect the little for
tune, and they turned it over to be
forwarded to the former soldier.