Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-02-11
ESTABLISHED 1855
TOLD TO THE .HOMEFOLkS
Some Of the Things DR.. ]. Wilson
Mcconnell Is Seeing In France
SLEPT In BED that WAS LAFAYETTE'S

VkkA y IN DLD Ahl Uho Ah IA ~ -
Amid Scenes That Carry Signs of Ro.
man oeeupation-Some of the Wo-
men Workers-operations on Chill
dren-The Long Range Guns That
Shelled ,Paris-German Atrocities.
Here is a second letter from Major
Wilson Mcconnell, that will be found
to be as interesting and as enjoyable
as the one that was printed last Fri
day. It was also written in the town
Of Lu Puy, and the date is January g.
1871:
Though 1t is not Sunday, I will give
you at least a part of my letter to-
night, for I know enough about the
army to know that it is only the pres
ent day one has-not tomorrow. l. fgot
back from my trip to Chavignac today
and 1t was such an interesting one that
I want you to enjoy part of it with
me, and I will enclose a few pictures
to show the kind Of place have visit
ed. AS you remember. from my last
letter. I arranged to 60 there to oper-
ate on some French children who were
being cared for by the La Fayette Me.
mortal fund. It is 80 kilometres from
here, up in the mountains, though it Is
southeast in direction. I had nice
closed car, a Dodge, took my nurse
Miss Breen from San Francisco, and 6
dentist, Lieut.. Giles, to give my ether
We went up Monday-had a beautiful
day for the trip. I do not think
could ever expect finer day in jan
uary anywhere. The air was cool and
1t was clear. There was snow on the
distant mountains. but none on the
road. We reached the La Fayette
chateau at 2 p. m, and went to work
rather promptly.
"The drive up there Is one Of unus-
ual interest, for you pass number OF
fortified castles overlooking the river
some Of them in good repair, others in
that Is not crowned with an old fort
ress. Some Of these towers are Ro-
man. We passed the Plateau Of Ver-
cingetorix, which have mentioned be-
fore which has a monument to the old
Gaul. We passed also some Roman
baths and one fine old Roman bridge
with an excellent arch still in use, built
some time B. G.. When you see the
number Of these old castles and the
positions they occupy you will have a
new idea Of the old medaeval period,
when the men were all warriors. Each
castle is surrounded by Village which
clustered around for protection. and
these castles are not built higgledy-
piggely. They are each in 6 command
ing position, overlooking pass or a
ford on the river. TodayI climbed in
an old tower up on hill by the road,
while the driver was mending a pune
ture. It was one you would select to-
day to command the valley. and the
old steps cut in the solid rock showed
how they had to work to build such a
place.
well, the doctor had the children
ready for me to begin work. They
have built little infirmary about ten
minutes walk from the chateau, and
it was fairly nice place to work and
did nine that afternoon, and operated
next day. and a few yesterday morn
ing, doing 80 operations under ether
and some under local, so you see was
stirring about, but had it well organ
lied and ran the cases off rapidly. The
children were from four to fourteen
years old and mostly boys. All Of
them had lost their fathers in the wai
and some Of them their mothers also
they were refugees from the devasta-
ted districts and some from Paris. One
little fellow had refugeed to Paris aft
er his father had been taken prisoner
and his home destroyed, when along
comes one Of the long range shells
from Big Bertha as they call the
long range cannon and killed his moth
er and mangled his hand. took his
tonsils and adenoids out and he was
bright as a cricket today when I left
All of them would come and hop uI
on the table with a smile or a 'merci
monsieur and take ether better thar
any lot I ever saw. probably because
they had seen so much that they were
astonished at nothing. 1t Is hard u
realize that many Of them had beer
under active bombardment for mum
ber Of times. One Of them, I remem'
Der, had been brought out Of Amien'
in the midst Of the active air raid OF
tnat city, by an ambulance driver whS
picked him up and they knew NOTHING
about his people. This ambulance
driver, by the way. deserves fuile'
mention. She Is Miss Perry from
Boston, a small woman, not pretty, ou
with an attractive face, big smilin'
mouth, is an artist and sculptor, ha
travelled in Spain and the Balkans an'
lS an lnI6TcSlLi6 "NhAoA
35 and 40. She enlisted as Voluntee
ambulance driver in the French army
and drove an ambulance along TIT
front for over q year. Think OF I'M
energy it must have taken. She ha'
never driven a car, but went TO TN
shops and studied the cars, volunteer
ed. wore the horizon blue uniform o
a poilu (wore skirts, of course) an'
drove around Amiens, Arras and othe
places with the French and Brltlsi
armies. She came down last sprinl
with a double pleurisy and Is nov
really on sick leave from the Frenci
army: but is working with these chli
dren at Chateau La Fayette. 1 VII
hand It to her. she has the nerve an
the energy, and she is not mannisi
woman either. She says she was UNI
formly treated with courtesy by tn
French soldiers during her stay VIII
them.
I will sketch the other two wome>
while I am at 1t. DR.. Alice d. bro"i
old. ROOC