The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1919-08-01
DESCRIPTIVE LETTER FROM
MISS ALIEN HAGERTY
SHOOkHAND WITH KING
Visit To the Royal Gardens In
Athens; Trip Through
Rumania

Miss Aileen Hagerty, formerly with
The Minneapolis Tribune, now with
the Red Cross in Rumania, to her
nephew. George Keene Jacobson, 80
South Front street, Mankato:
Bucharest, Roumania, June "a, 1919.
My Dear Do: Your nice interesting
letter reached me somewhere in the
Balkans" as we have been going
some" in the past few months, but
we are now settled down here for a
spell of work and expect to be here
until about the first of September.
After leaving Rome we went to
for a few weeks and got our first
glimpse of "Near East" customs and
costumes for the Turks of that city
are still very numerous and they
have not changed their ideas or styles
since the time the bible was written.
The old Turks take themselves very
seriously and sit and on a sort of
chair on their donkeys, with small
cargo of freight on each side of them,
and no matter how hot the day is
they will be artistically wrapped in
their "cloaks of many colors" while
their wives walk along the middle of
the street with their faces covered
with a piece of black cloth or a
black veil. There was a great many
refugees in Salonique when we We're
there as the trouble in Russia was
then pretty serious and refugees were
coming in by the thousands, and
many of them were practically with
out food or clothing and one branch
of our work was to aid these people
as much as possible.
Shook Hands With King.
After leaving Salonique we went to
Athens, beautiful city. where the
buildings are nearly all of white
marble, the asphalt is almost white
and the PARKS are perfect Paradise.
especially the Royal Gardens where
the palace of the king is situated, and
as the king is very democratic his
gardens are open to the public. The
day before we left Athen the king
gave us a reception and was pre-
sented to him. He is handsome
young man and he. smiled and shook
hands with each of us as we were
presented. He talked with us for a
while about our work in Greece and
our plans for the future. When we
left he shook hand with each of us
again and wished US bon voyage.
That same evening I'VE drove out to
his summer palace, beautiful place
in the foot of the mountains about
thirty miles from Athens. Our Off
cial interpreter was with us and as he
was formerly attached to the kings
household and knew all the guards,
they showed us through the place and
gave us armfuls of beautiful flowers.
1t is great to be an American in this
country as American and our presi-
dent stand for all that is good and
great to the people here.
The trip from Athen to Galatz,
Roumania, was most interesting as
we came through Dardenelles and
stopped over a day at --Constantin-
ople which, think is The most pic
turesque city in the world-the street
scenes are a real moving picture. The
Arizona, the model battleship of the
world, was in the harbour there and
some of the officers invited us out to
have tea at four o'clock and then we
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Our trip through the Black Sea
was all that it should not be for that
body of water was very restless and
tossed our old tub around in a most
impolite manner so that some of us
were pretty glad to reach Constanza
the first Roumanian town where we
landed. That town was occupied by
the Huns and is a fair sample of
many others occupied by them. II
was prosperous town about twice
the size of Mankato and at the time
of the invasion the residents had to
leave on short notice with only what
they could carry. When the Huns
took possession they carried away
everything they could and destroyed
what they could not take-most OF
the houses were only shells without
windows and the stores were all
empty so that nothing could be bought
even by the people who had money
When the American Red Cross went
in there last February many people
were starving to death, and dying
from exposure as they had practically
no clothing or fuel. We now have
canteens established where launches
are given to school children and it Ii
quite an interesting sight to see these
poor little waits march in for milk
and jam sandwiches. Many of these
children had never tasted sweets o.
any kind until they were given tt
them by the Red Cross, SO you cal
see how thankful you should be thai
you are an American boy and live IL
the Land of Plenty.
Our mail service is very irregular
here. Hope to have another letter
from you soon-am having nay mai
directed to Paris now and it will bt
properly forwarded from there.-Witl
/ love, from Aunt Aileen.
Mapleton Red Cross Finances.
Miss Cecilia Petit, secretary OF
the Mapleton Red Cross has made q
financial report of the organization
for the year ending July /. The tota