Omaha daily bee., 1919-03-30
St. Quentin
Adopted by
Guild
Needlework Guild Appeals
to Heart of Humanity for
Funds to Re-establish
st. Quentin, France

The Omaha branch of the Needle
work Guild OF America has beer
appealed to by the national organi
cation to assist in raising money
for the beneht of the returning retu-
gees of the town OF st. Quentin
France. This money will be spent
tor buying at wholesale prices ma,
terials for garments or household
linens or for sewing machines to
replace those lost through the mis-
fortunes of the war.
For several years the guild has
maintained a branch in Lyons
France, and since the outbreak Of
the war this branch has distributed
the garments made by the branches
in this country which have had war
relief departments. Our Omaha
branch did not join in this work be-
cause our local Red Cross was SC
we'll organized along the same lines
The Needlcwcrk Guild of America
has recently adopted the town Of
St. Quentin. which they hope, to
supply with clothing and household
linen.
Though no formal action was
taken on the subject it is generally
felt that this is somewhat in the
nature Of memorial to Quentin
Roosevelt (because of its significant
association with the honorary presl-
dent of the guild.)
Nine. Castell secretary of the
Lyons branch, made trip recently
through the devastated regions to
st. Quentin in order to see what
/ was needed there and in a letter to
Mrs. John Wood Stewart of New
York, chairman of the war relief de-
partment of the N. w. G. A., gives
the following touching account OF
the situation:
Nothing is left, not a chickc"
not COW, not dog or cat. All
one sees is ravens flying over those
deserted villages. Many times there
is not even stone left, but just
gray dust, some weeds. and there
is sign on broken telegraph pole
telling where the village stood
Trenches are half filled with barbed
wire left at places. 1t still looks
as it did during the fghting-heaps
of shells, broken wagons. There is
no roof left to the cathedral-the
columns seem to reach the sky, they
all were mined and ready to be
blown up. Why-I don't under
stand. Nobody could have climbed
70 the top to see in the distance.
It is almost falling to pieces and
can not be saved or rebuilt.
We went to the churchyard. All
the graves are opened, the family
vaults were searched, the lead cof-
fms stolen, the bones are there in
heaps. All the stoves were taken
from the houses into the streets
also in heaps-with sewing machines
and since over two years they were
left to rust. In every house there
are heaps Of mud, of bricks. The
question of cleaning the city and
those ruins is one of the hardest
problems. The water supply was
cut-all the pipes taken, holes dug
deep in the ground by shells, all the
electric wires were taken"
While the motto of the guild has
been Give at Home" the organiza-
] ton feels TIL. this is a time of
disaster and that humanity is. hu.
manity at home or abroad and that
they should assist in the adoption
Of St. Quentin.
All members of the local branch
will be appealed to by their direc-
tors in the near future, not for
garments as for our local distribu-
ton. but for money, an amount as
great as each member feels able to
contribute This money will be sent
TO Mrs Stewart, chairman of the
war relief department of the guild,
and will be spent for materials for
garments or household linen or sew