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Show - RED CROSS USES s IEIC OLDIERS American Women at Front Ever Ready for Duty in ' Face of Danger. WASHINGTON", July !). An incident inci-dent in the work of Bed Cross nurses, called to a new hospital near the front is told in a communication from Mis? Julia Stimson, chief nurse of the American Amer-ican Red Cross in France. The story follows: "Summoned in an emergency to. take care of American soldiers in a hospital near the front, twenty Red Cross nurses were packed in a large motor omnibus with an amy nurse who was going up with her surgical team. When the.-pwn the.-pwn was reached at 10 p. m. the place .(fas in such absolute blackness it was : impossible to read the signs in the streets, and difficult to keep in the road. Soon two American military police po-lice stopped the truck and guided it T?nd Cross headquarters, where a captain directed us through the black streets which were by this time full of heavily laden artillery trucks carrying carry-ing American troops. "By means of occasional flashes from a band torch, it was possible to follow fol-low the guide to the Kcole Profession-ale, Profession-ale, which had just that day .become an American hospital. When we drove into a sourtyaril the siren warning of the air raid and guns were booming. The nurses hurried in across a cloister-like cloister-like corridor into a pitch-black room because be-cause it was explained that it was unsafe un-safe for then: to stay out in the open. They Could not see the faces of the people who were speaking and not even a cigaret light was allowed. "For a few minutes talk was rapid while the situation was explained. There were about 200 American patients pa-tients in the building, also a, few French soldiers left from the preceding preced-ing organization, for this building had becu a French hospital for some time. The severe raids of the day before had completely demoralized the civilian employees, who had left. Has, electricity electric-ity and water mains had all becu put out of business and operations had beeu carried on the night before by the Jignt 01 nanu eicctrie torencs. "A larjre number .of patients, after twenty-four hours, were still on stretch-erg. stretch-erg. The six American nursea who had l'D collected from other places in the fuwu, ha.l been working day and night, ' but they wore still (ame as wero the American officers who were in danger. "ft was slated that at least eight of the new nurses would ,bo needed that night, and volunteers were asked for. l'lvcry ono of the twenty volunteered. The first eight women who could be touched in the darkness, much as children chil-dren pick, leaders in a game, were put over on ono side, while the rest were conducted to an empty ward which contained con-tained nothing but bed frames with metal slat springs. ' ' The eight, night nurses, discarding their hats and coats, wero taken to pitch black wards full of wounded men. As the truck with all their bags had not yet appeared, they had to go to work in their blue serge dresses. When tho chief nurse saw them the next morning, with their hair dishevelled, with their faces mid dresses covered with dust from their trip, with towels pinned across tho front of their cloth drosses, sho could not help thinking that some of the illustrators of modern magazines might change their opinions of war nurses if they could seo this group. As the other tiuek had arrived, the day group of nurses was able to appear in fresh gray uniforms." |