The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1919-03-04

They worked wonders in doing so,
and despite the manifest diScOmfOrts
of daily rains and perpetual mud
they have in POuntaAezen provided a
halfway station between the battle
front and home which is second to
none in the world. Pountanezen is
about seven or eight miles outside of
the town itself. Its present capacity
is about 10000. Within three months
1t will have been expanded to take
care of 10000.
The embarkatiOn hospital at Ker-
huOn, separated only a few hundred
yards from Pountanezen, will ultt
mately have capacity for caring for
$4,000 cases. 1t can now care for
between six and seven thousand. Both
plants are near completion. The plans
when finally worked out will provide
accommodations for three-fifths of the
military establishment maintained by
the United States on European soil
1t is a gigantic task, this making O
new city for the care of both the sick
and well, but it is one that the men
intrusted with the work believe they
can accomplish under the most un.
favorable circumstances.
AS it assumes the form of its chief
Importance all European roads will
lead to Brest.
To Keep the Well Diverted.
Tie big thing, as the responsible
officials view it, is to provide the
healthy men with diversion to KEEP
them not only out of mischief but in
good spirits while waiting for trans
portatiOn. Men who have been living
next door to death and constantly un.
der the thunder of great guns are
finding life at detention and intern
ment camps rather uninteresting. 1t
is the purpose of the officials respon
sible for their welfare to keep them
occupied so that they will not miss
the tumult of war or brood too much
upon the delay of getting home.
Up to date the chief occupation OF
the 10000 men who are conferred here
has been confined to speculation as to
dates of departure and taking close.
up view of the few attractions OF
Brest
Some idea of the native entertain,
ment is furnished by the fact that
there is only one moving picture show
in the town. Severe restrictions are
placed upon the ventures of the
dOughbOys in the night life of the
ancient burg. The girls of Brest are
not particularly attractive. Their
faces are not lacking in qualities OF
classical beauty, although their hands
and feet are not the sort that inspire
the sculptor or painter to reproduce
them in mud, marble or on canvas.
The military police keep pretty
sharp eye on the men in hhaki, and
the penalties for attractions of army
law are pretty severe.
The doughboys make light Of the
mud, their well shod feet squash into
it, and their comfortable clothes re-
sist the penetration of the mist that
floats over and around the FiniSterre
peninsula. There is little or no dis.
comfort from cold, because while
much further north than New York.
Brest catches the eastern end of the
Gulf stream, and the temperature
rarely falls below So and most fire.
Quently fluctuates between As and 90
The men are we'll fed and comfort
ably housed. The mothers of some OF
them would probably raise their
hands in horror at one or two features
of their daily life, but the health re-
ports of the camp furnish substantial
proof that the precautions taken by
the government are working out much
more satisfactorily than the regimen
inspired by home influence.
The army and navy officials point
with pride to the fact that in one day
$4,000 American troops debarked at
Brest, and that during the next day
5000 were added to the total. tbs
means that an aggregation of fighting
men one-half the size of the mobile
army of the United States four years
ago was dumped into the mud at
Bfest by a convoy of the most i'm
pressive ships that ever sailed the
main-the Leviathan, Mount Wash.
ington, President Grant, George
Washington, President Lincoln, La
France, Paris and the Lutetia.
Medical Regulations Rigid.
The medical regulations that prevail
In the chief American military de-
barkation port are most rigid. No
soldier is permitted to enter or leave
the camp without a thorough exami
nation and when he receives his ticket
to go aboard ship to go home he must
be 100 per cent physically.
Arriving by train from interior
points his clothing is taken FROM him
and is subjected to a process that
precludes the possibility of infection
or insect life. He gets a complete
new outfit and many other convent
ences that were not possible while
be was up near the fighting line.
The facilities for handling the
troops sent to this point for transfer
TO ships is about as complete as