Evening star., 1926-11-25

like hospital wards and beautifully
running. Medical male and female
surgical tents, and now every day
we add another tent for obstetrics
! We've had 20 babies born and today
so far (noon) five are waiting. We
have a huge dressing tent and an
administration tent, in addition to
the IL ward tents. Fortunately, it
has been fair weather only today a
little slight driZZle. We've given care
to about 500-many discharged, and
now have about 800 patients.
Jim and / are on duty all day
and divide the night. The doctors
work all night in shifts. Great
wagons with patients lying in on
straw came in from the villages with
Russian doctors and nurses. What
a blessing it was to me to be able
to get along without an interpreter
noW--it seems as though overnight
I'd learned many words I'd never
before known. They have no other
hospital in the city but ours, so, Of
course. we come in for the share Of
visitors from all over. We've been
pictured and taken movies of daily
so look in the Pathe stuff for us. We
feel rather foolish to be made a fuss
over, for we've done nothing except
what anybody would do under the
circumstances-We couldn't help our
selves
THE student nurses are wonderful
their work and morale unques-
tionable and they're most untiring.
Take to Fields.
Until today Jim and. l have just
rolled in blanket and caught wink
when we could; but now we are to
have a pup tent. For food - (our
house is tinished) the woman who
acts as my assistant and secretary
has been hauling us into innumer-
able soft boiled eggs and cups of
coffee when she could get us. Every
one has been marvelously good and
helpful. The quakes continue
nightly there are small ones. We
have moved our personal belongings
0hey sure seemed of no value when
we again thought of them) to the
hospital building, and we thought
we'd sleep IN. But in the darkness
and silence the apprehension, after
cessation of duty, seems unbearable,
and we take to the open fields again,
and there sleep soundly. The seis-
mograph at Tif1is dances jigs, but
propaganda tells us to shut our ears
to the innumerable rumOrs going
around. The last astounding assump-
ton was the joining Of the Black and
Caspian Seas.
well, if l was SO much annoyed
guess | couldn't sit in my old office in
the building long enough to write all
this. Jim and l are pretty steady.
In the villages around it is ter
rible. Averaging in 10 villages are
70, 900 homeless, $50 dead and 1000
injured. Winter comes on and all
of their food is with their animals,
buried in the debris. Just after re-
covering in a sense from the Turks
invasion, and after a good harvest,
this to have happened seems utterly
hopeless. How they can have the
spirit or courage to rebuild is hard
to see. The big orphanage boys will
go out to help in digging out the
food. Jim, who was in Turkey dur
ing the deportation, says it is the
most terrible experience she has ever
lived through. Well, we haven't
lived through it yet, for there's ahead
nothing of which we can be sure.
But heavens. even in America there
are hurricanes-(We'Ve just heard OF
the Florida disaster)-So who is safe
anywhere? And who can be certain?
"Since our work is quite organized
we can sit a while now and again.
At night in the center of the big
compound, with the tents all around,
we sit around a huge campfire and
all together-chauffeur nurses, doc
tors, Russian and American. We
try to lift our spirits by singing and
chatting with a little violiniSt for ac-
commandment 1t does the patients
good, too-and the nurses so need
relief from the daily strain.
"Well, it's great times.
Much love and don't be worried
for we're 50 busy that we haven't
time to worry"