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Show SHOWER BATHS FORGHILDREN Low Wash Basins and Little Shower Baths Adapted for the Use of the Tots. ! CHATEAU DES HALLES ! NOW CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL i One of the Most Complete Establishments Es-tablishments of Its Kind in France, With Jolly Playrooms and Toys to Amuse Patients. Up In the mountains, where the aaow falls early and lies deep, 30 miles from Lyons, is the little French village f Les Halles a story book village, with its massive stone church standing sentinel over two long rows of trim, blue-gray plaster cottages. And a mile farther on is the Chateau des Halles, where your Red Cross has established a home for 200 sick children. llanginl built the chateau. Man glnl was the man who built the railroad rail-road along the Riviera and many other oth-er railroads in France. And thirty odd years ago he built this castle up In th mountains for his country horn. Bat soon after his two children died. Then he died, and when his widow followed fol-lowed him she left the chateau to th city of Lyons to be used as a hospital for children. The War's Wreckage. Then came the war. A little rivulet ef the war's wreckage began to trickle Is at Kvian "repatrles," elderly mea and women, children, even babies, who had once lived In the parts of France engulfed by the German tides and whom the Germans, finding them use-leas, use-leas, were beginning to ship back Into France by way of Switzerland. Gradually Grad-ually this rivulet swelled. Soon 1,000 of these unfortunates were arriving at Evlan daily. And fully half of them were children, undernourished, thinly clad, dirty, sickly and, worse, grim, spiritless, with faces that had forgotten how to smile. To care for these children was the task your Red Cross at once assumed. Working with the French authorities, the Red Cross secured permission te make use of the old and almost forgotten forgot-ten Chauteau des Halles np there in the mountains. For years the castle had been closed. No effort had ever been made to fit it up as a hospital. Tour Red Cross had to begin at tha ery beginning. Rooms Big and Jolly. But what a wonderful task It has accomplished 1 The Chateau dea Halles, transformed Into a children' hospital and rest home In furious haste under the terrible pressure of war needs, with little time to think twice and no time to retrieve errors. Is not only one of the meet complete establishments of Its kind ; It Is one of the best children's hospitals in all France. The two rooms where the arriving children are isolated for a few days are big, Jolly - rooms Just what Is need to efface from the little ones' minds the memories of those iron days behind the German lines. The big play room Is strewn with rocking horses and wonderful smile-entlclng parrots and other toys carved by the wounded pollus. And so you stray from room to room, and everywhere you find new evidences evi-dences of this watchful care. And then you reach the bathrooms. This chateau was built by a man of wealth. Its plumbing was excellent, and yet It has been stripped out and replaced with little, low wash basins and little shower baths that the children can use more comfortably. |
