The Cordele dispatch., 1919-05-09
CALIFORNIA HOUSE

| JlG BLUSH 1Leu NTOSS, WIFI Il new III
| stinction for an American woman,
that Of being the originator of sys-
tenn Of vocational training for wound
ed soldiers by means of which thou
sands of British, Belgian, French ard
American fighters, crippled apparent
ly beyond repair, have been restored
to lives of happiness and usefulness.
Before returning to England, Miss
Heyneman will make a transccntin-
entail tour of America. speaking be-
fore various women's clubs. Red
Cross and Belgian war relief organi-
cations on her work aboard. Her itine-
rary at present includes Philadelphia,
Chicago, Washington, Baltimore, Bos-
ton, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, st
Louis and Denver.
This little American woman, who
landed in England On the day Ant
werp fell to the Germans, found her
self in a whirl of war terror and con-
fusion. Belgian civilian refugees, old
and young, penniless and despairing.
and Belgian soldiers, terribly wound
ed were arriving in London by train
loads. She established in London, af-
ter much difficulty, an institution
which she named california House."
after her native state, where the dis
abled defenders of Namur and Liege
and other Belgian stronbhclds, were
nursed back to health and strength
and taught languages of vOcatiOns
that fitted them to earn their own
living.
So successful was this adventure
IN var philanthropy that the British
Red Cross two years later enlisted
Miss Heynemans services, took over
her institution and established three
similar big homes in London known
as kitchener Houses" No l., 2 and 5.
The California woman was aided in
her work by other Americans who
sustained the enterprise by voluntary
donations Everything was supplied
free to the soldiers and in three years
more than 10000 meals were given
them.
The grateful ~Begians desirous of
perpetuating the work for fellow war
sufferers in their native land, be-
sought Miss Heyneman to establish
a similar reconstruction center there
and to this end she visited Queen
Elizabeth at La Panne and was assur-
ed her sympathy and support. The
Queen Of the Belgians, upon request,
designated the Edith Cayell School
for Nurses in Brussels as the institu-
tion likely to benefit most by the ex-
pansion such as Miss Heyneman pro-
posed, that of establishing at least
% beds and entailing an outlay of
5000 each Ore of the founders q
the school named for the martyral
9nt'&l nurse was Nine, Marie DcpaF,'
a Belgian man, who por'shed or
the Lusitania. According to the plan
each rec Is To be dedicat ID to the
memory CT scme fallen American SCI
dier and already the mothers of two
officers have indicated their desire
thus to honor the memory of their
heroic dead. After her tour in the
United States Miss Heyneman in
tends to return to Belgian to put her
plan into effect
81 have passed through four and
a half years of the nightmare of war"
said Miss Heyneman. 81 never would
have believed until | got into this
work that ever could have done it.
1t has been a severe but beneficial
experience. or the 600 men who have
passed throught California House,
once practically helpless cripples, 80
percent have been fed and cared for
and made self-supporting The British
Red Cross, as the result of our inia-
tory efforts, is now similarly re-edu-
eating and training 5000 wcIndcd
sclMers year, in the Kitchersr
Houses and we believe that, ultimate
ly the British War Office will pr the
WORK upon permanent basis"