Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-11-25

man. AZ you might pick rocks to
make stepping stones across =
stream.
As you walk into the tubes the
sounds Of its humanity come to
meet you. The breathing and the
snoring and the coughing. The
three sounds blend, but are dis
tinguishable. As you walk into the
tube the air seems to meet you,
pust gently, then shove, and finally
almost to wrestle with you. Toward
the middle Of each tube It Is 20
heavy and dense you really feel as
II you could take handfuls Of It
and pack them into mud pies.
Sleep Makes Them Human Again.
Whether it was space or the time
Of night, most people in the tube
seem lying In positions that showed
their faces. Or perhaps 1t was the
cumulative effect of walking past 20
many sleeping people-walking past
them until they ceased to become
merely . spectacle and began being
human beings again. But walking
past the people In the Liverpool
street tube made me cry. I thought,
many people become children again
when they are asleep. And all be-
come individual. They stop de-
tending themselves from each other
In their sleep, stop being frightened.
They curled against each other, or
they threw their arms out into each
others faces and the face they
struck turned away without know
ing and they slept that way across
one another.
The children kept stopping US.
Most Of the children have gone from
London and there are not many in
the shelters. But in the Liverpool
street tube there seems to be q lot.
Probably because 1t was so safe and
people went a long way to make
what was most precious to them
safe. There were lot Of children
in the Liverpool street tube. They
were very beautiful. Some put
their arms around each other or
around their mothers. There were
several whole families Of them. two.
three and four children, and seeing
them lie by each other in ascending
size you could tell how far apart
they had been born.
1t was late and the tube was very
sound asleep. We took a long time
walking through 1t and 1t was a
very moving experience. It did not
add up to anything except that these
were people and they were very
lovable.
Medical Supplies Inadequate.
We stopped in the first-aid bay.
A wonderful stout woman who had
been practical nurse through three
wars was in charge Of it. 1t was
to a modern hospital what the
garbage can toilets were to a modern
sanitary toilet. There was a long
table with white oilcloth that had
been scrubbed through to the web
bling. Along it lay a pitifully small
store Of tools and drugs. At one end
was cot. A small woman with
gray hair lay cross legged on it,
rocking back and forth.
The nurse said, "She is in great
pain. poor dear. She had a bad
foot and a small boy ran into it and
Knocked her down" The woman said
nothing, but looked at us with large.
unhappy eyes and continued to rock
back and forth. Hide said, why
don't you give her something's" II
haven't anything to give her" The
big lat nurse who looked as II she
would be jolly most of the time had
an assistant and the assistant point
ed to the things on the table and
said. "She bought most Of those with
her own money"
When Hide commented bitterly
and angrily at this the nurse got a
bag and took q letter out of it and
showed 1t to us. 1t was from q
doctor In answer to q request for
aspirin. 1t was q nasty letter, writ
ten by small and unpleasant man.
1t reminded the matron that she
should remember that she was only
a practical nurse and that flrst-aid
posts were just what they were sup
posed to be, place to give first aid
until somebody who was competent
could be called. The big fat nurse
to whom 1t was written had q row
Of little colored ribbons sewn on her
white uniform. They were decora-
tons given her in service. The first
aid bay had no telephone in it. It
served 1000 people who slept there
every night.
Hide Would See.
Hide was still furious. She said
she was going to do something about
1t in the paper. She took down the
name Of the doctor who wrote the
letter.
|, The first-aid post was halfway
down the first tube. At the end of
1t, as we turned the corner into the
second half, there was an emergency
exit, guarded by two policemen. In
the 20 or 80 feet nearest the exit the
air was all right. We turned the
corner and took long time walking
back through the second half of the
tube. When we were in the first
aid bay we looked at the case book
Three out of four entries were listed
mosquito bites" We noticed that q
number of people showed signs of
having been bitten. We thought,
INSTITUTIONAL
WTs71s r