The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1919-03-20
Kenos1a Nurse Who Was
Praised for Service Over
seas is Visiting Friends
in Kenosha.
WORK WAS NOT DEPRESSING
Mrs. Coughlin Says Soldiers Were In
spring They Died So Cheerfully''
went Up With Third
Army Corps.

Mrs. Edna Coughlin, the local nurse
so highly praised by Lieutenant-Colo.
mel White for her services overseas, has
come back home. She slipped into Ke-
nosha on Sunday afternoon so quietly
that even her best friends knew moth
ing Of her coming and mistakenly be-
lieved her still in France.
tsYou see,o she said, when finally
discovered Monday evening, i've
seen so many folks and lived in such
babel for so long that I someway want
ed to be alone for while where every
thing was quiet. =
Mrs. Coughlin left France on Febru-
airy 10Th, with the Milwaukee Unit,
Base %. Because of the shortage of
first class steamers she and her party
were forced to take passage on fruit
er which was anything but luxurious.
Despite the bad boat and the worse
weather they reached New York on
March 3rd and Milwaukee on Sunday
morning, March 10th.
"Of course I came right down to
Kenosha,'' she added as she pinned a
Croix de Guerre on the sweater-coat of
her small son, Master Joseph Coughlin,
who is living at the home of Miss Lois
Northway on Deming street.
~ didn t win that she went on.
"You can buy them anywhere in
France with palm-leaves and every
thing-so 7 picked this one up for him.
He's wild about it, AS far as the NOR
al effects concerned, he won the bat
tie Of Chateau Thierry and was decorat-
ed by Marshal Foch-yes?"
Found Work Inspiring.
In commenting upon her work, Mrs.
Coughlin said with little urging:
CIT wasn't at all depressing as one
would think it would be. If the men got
well you felt as if you'd saved life
and if they didn 't-well they died SO
cheerfully that you could hardly feel
bad about it all, only proud to think
that they were fighting for you and
that you had done what you could to
help them win the war. Then, too,
when they never complained, you felt
as if you wanted to work all the time
to-to kinda make yourself worthy of
them and make them feel that you APP
preciated their fighting and suffering
for you.
cit was all so big and splendid that
it madeeyou feel as if all you could do
was nothing and that less than all was
nowhere near enough.
Served In Evacuation Hospitals.
That Mrs. Coughlin is qualified to
speak Of the Yanks. and their courage
is evidenced by the fact that she was
the only woman who sSwent up' with
the Third Army Corps when it advanced
in the famous battle of the Argonne
Forest. For ten weeks she served IN
evacuation hospitals only six or eight
kilometers from the firing line with
bombs and shells constantly exploding
on all sides Of her improvised billets.
In four days when the fighting was
fiercest in the salient around Verdun
she and her corps Of helpers treated
|6,744 cases of men who were frightfu-
ly wounded.
cit was wonderful to see how game
they were'' she said on Monday even
ing. "They never asked you to take
care of them. They were always All
right, nurse until she could take care
Of their buddy, whom they insisted
needed the bandages and things much
worse than they did,
"After ten weeks of that, one came
to the conclusion that he or she didn It
amount to much in this young world.
ssThey were so heroic. Lying there
with a branch from tree for bed
that IS all we could get so near the lines
they never once yelled because they
were the ones ssent in and the ones
coming back minus an arm, a hand, or
leg. They were only sorry they had
to drop out of the fight and leave the
finishing touches to other men that the
Boches hadn t got.''
Experiences Was Wonderful.
4