The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1919-01-10
Hospital Work

ssVOPssUs UVam
Miss Marjorie McPherson Writes Of
Her Work In France.
Mesves, France
November q, '18
Dear Nellie:-
Haven't had an answer to the
last letter but hope you received it
and since I'm off duty awhile will
write. The work has lightened
considerable the past week and it
sure seems good for we have been
pretty hard at it ever since we
landed here. | can't tell you what
a wonderful relief it is not to have
hospital trains pulling in during
night and day. Not only a relief
from the actual work but such a re-
lief from seeing the suffering: for
IT surely was awful. Sometimes
this base would get all the way
from n to two hundred patients
and then nearly everyone worked
until eleven or after getting those
first awful dressings done. Some
times | just looked at the boys and
wondered how they ever live.
Someway just to hear that so many
were wounded and taken to the
hospital sounded so vague and far
away, but to be here and see it all
made it very real.
| guess non Of US know how
thankful we ought to be that the
war is now over. If yon could
only e the difference that has
ONE over the people around here,
nd IT you could only have see the
towns when they were celebrating.
1t was worth the hard work and al,
we have put up with Just to be
here. And now to see the boys
art'ng back home, the way they
cheer and sing would almost make
one cry. They are the patients
Who have been here for weeks hack
from all the different fronts and
they sure appreciate the fact they
are going home. OF course there
is still much to be done and we are
still getting in quite a number,
but there is not that mad rush all
the time, and they are just the last
pick up from the evacuation and
field hospitals which are being
cleared out rapidly.
There are so many different ru-
- as TO what will be done with
9 base. equally as many as to
what will be done with the nurses.
Some think we will be here
all winter. others that we will be
transferred some place else; others
that we will be sent to the States
to work Id the reconstruction hos
pitfalls there. Like everything else
in the army you believe nothing un-
t't You see orders. Well personally
don't care much if we remain
here or are transferred, but don't
want to come back before spring or
summer, want to see a little more
OF the game W. here. Sometimes
| think I'd like a chance to see a
lot Of Europe, then again | doat
care it | never see another foot of it
1t sure Is a great experience amt
I'm SO glad | got aefa-S nef - IL
was over and if | hal1' have come
just when ! did J Wouiun nave
been here.
Censorship rules are somewhat
relaxed YOU know and it's easier to
write now. You probably couldn't
locate me by the town Mesves, but
you may Incate Neveis on the map
and we are just 25 miles north Of
there, and 100 miles south Of Paris.
The nearest we have been to, the
fighting was the Chateau. Thier-
ry' front and after that big drive
we got over 500 patients in one
night. and Oh such cases.
1t was Monday when we came
thru Paris on our way here, and
the evening before was the last air
raid made there. We saw some Of
the rpins. As look be ek now to
our trip overhere | wonder we
weren't worried to death, but ]!
guess it was Just as we'll. You
know we landed in England on
Monday and after everything was
over we were told there that all
Saturday night we had been chased
by 4 submarine and that early SUM-
day morning the gun from The Sax
onia Jour boat) had sunk it. You
see the last three days We were off
the Irish coast and they were going
thick and fast there. l couldn't
tell you before that we were hur.
ried from N. Y. to Quebec Canada,