The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1919-01-03
From . Red Cross Nurse.


A young lady who left the state
service in September last to do her bit
with the Red Cross, writes friends I'M
der recent date of her hospital work in
France:
| expected to be assigned in the Of
flee at Paris. They paid me the COM
pliment of putting me on the secre-
tarial list instead of the stenographic
and they sent me down to Blois to be
secretary for a DIR. Bertha Stuart
They in some way didn't know what
they we're about, for DR.. Stuart didn't
need secretary. | made q fuss and
wrote to Paris and just about as they
were going to transfer me, went to q
dance. And everything was settled
for me. For there met Captain Dem
nis of the Military Division of the Red
Cross work and he was foolish enough
to get it into his head that | ought to
work with him. And so / am not do
ing any stenographic work at all these
days-I couldn't write letter by the
hunt and peck system any more.
don't know just yet what my business
ls-but have never been any happier
doing anything than have in the last
few weeks. We have seven hospitals
here and had at one time 1900 patients.
Then this casual station and thous-
ands of troops stop here on their way
to other places or come for reclassifica-
ton. Then we occupy the town and
have by hea quart cu.s,p 4 -
together the placr is stocked with SOL
diers. The work has been in cha ge IF
two very exceptional men Captain
Dennis and Captain Davies and the
Red Cross has done very wonderful
work here Every soldier here knows
he has genuine friend in the Rid
Cross, and they come to that office for
verything imaginable. Captain Den
mis- is loads of fun and the life of every
crowd he is in and he has the faculty
of winning respect and admiration
from the soldiers They are all wild
about him.-and you can imagine the
good he does. Captain Davies is quiet
and reserved-a Louisville lawyer and
author.
make the rounds of the different wards
of three of them every morning and
distribute cigarettes, chewing tobacco,
candy, writing paper, tooth brushes,
bags and all sorts of things. | think
SOuloLttu0S UO Tie tUOSC kOOu udyS
when / just stop and talk. You know
talking was always my long suit At
first / felt like a deaconess or some
thing of the kind but they do want so
awfully to talk with someone and they
tell you about their best girls and when
they went over the top and how they
wer, hurt And talk about chivalry
and courtesy. have never in my life
been treated so wonderfully. My ad-
miration for the ordinary soldier is
boundless. / never dreamed that our
American boys could be so splendid.
Every day I see sights at the hospital
that I wish could forget but the way
they stand suffering and their thought
lfulness of one another and the things
they talk about to you make you proud
to be an American. Can't you see how
infinitely more satisfying and vital this
lis than being the stenographer of some
fat desk warrior or swiv.l-chair major
lin Paris? | write letters home to the
mothers for the boys who die here and
look up in our lists for the inquiries
which come to US from the Home Com
munication Service.
| All this time and haven't told you
about Blois 1t is an old, historic
town They say there were settle
ments here in 800 1t was old you see,
when Columbus started out. The Cru
saders marched from here. For hum
dred years the kings of France lived in
the magnificent chateau which is across
the square from our hotel. That was
during the days of the Catholic Hugenot
struggle when the Duke of Guise or
dered the massacre of ST. Bartholomew.
Then he afterward visited the king at
Blois and one morning six men fell on
him and murdered him. And his broth
err they let fall through trap door into
the river below. And the queen kept
her poison in little closet opening
from the chapel. Those were great
days Orleans is the next big town on
the line and Joan Of Arc came here,
and Victor Hugo lived here. And the
scene of the Three Musketeers is laid
here and the old gathering place is near
the hotel and the old place where they
had marvellous fight and left dead
man on each stair is now Red Cross
hospital There are tunnels leading all
around underground they say to the
river and the chateau And now right
below the great chateau with its dun
geons are thousands of American sol
diers making the world safe for democ-.
racy Poor old Henry III and Catherine
de Medici must be disappointed. The
town is medieval in every way, narrow
winding streets with hardly room for
an American automobile to pass with
out striking the house on either side.
Often no sidewalks, water running in
open sewers on some streets-the street
often becoming all at once, not street
but a flight of stairs which turns and
twists And many walls along the
streets with vines above them and
sometimes glimpses of lovely inside
courts French houses lack furnaces
and plumbing and French people aren't
very fond of frequent hot baths and
have a positive horror of night air
but they have marvellous sense of the
beautiful for all that. wish you
s1h on0