Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 84, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1918 — YOUNG LADY WRITES FROM WAR ZONE. [ARTICLE]

YOUNG LADY WRITES FROM WAR ZONE.

The following interesting letter has been received by Mrs. S. L. Jordan, of Barkley township, from her daughter, Nettie, who is a Red Cross nurse, and who landed in France several weeks ago: Pension Galilee, Paris, France, March, 24, 1918. Dear Mother:— Will begin my letter before dinner which is held at 7:00 p. m. each night. It is just noon where you are. We have a lovely place to stay. A private hotel before the war has been taken over by the Red Cross and the nurses are housed here as a clearing house. I have talked with nurses back from the front, from the. refuge camps, hospitals in Paris and civic work here in Parish The conditions seem even worse than our American papers have told us and I don’t blame these people for hating the Germans. We have decided we hate them ourselves for they have done such damnable things that the world will never forgive. There is moonlight now and the Boches are making a great effort to get into Paris. Yesterday and today many shells have been dropped on Paris, but they have only ten casualties and it costs them over a thousand dollars a shot. We have a shelter near here and we have been rushed four times to that place in a little over thirty six hours. We are quite aware of the fact that we are in the war zone. Now don’t worry one minute about me for I will write you all that I feel is legitimate to tell >nd remember the transportation i& very conjested and that it takes weeks to get mail through. I don’t expect to hear from you for six weeks from the day I left the U. S. for that is the average time the girls say. Remember no news is good news. If anything happens to me the Red Cross will cable you so you need not worry if you miss a letter or two. I will write one letter a week and you can write as often as you want. I have been so rushed and in the company of the other girls so that it is rather hard to get letters written. Have just had dinner and had soup, salmon and potato salad, veal chops and new green beans, custard, bread, no butter and an apple. No sugar is served in any of the public restaurants and there is no milk or butter. I have a roll, butter and chocolate served in my room as all of the girls do that and the management prefers it. We have hot water for baths and are surprised at the comforts afforded us. Half of the girls have been assigned to a childrens bureau and will work in Paris, and with refugee children down at the front. They say the women and girls over twelve are retained within the German lines to work and the rest are herded like cattle in convoys across the French border. The children are sick, dirty and lousy and the wail of them is invariably, “Mad mozelle, jar faim, jar faim,” meaning “Miss, I am hungry.” The country around Paris is the most picturesque of all places I have ever seen and Paris itself ris the most beautiful and a thousand times more wonderful than I ever could have dreamed. The parks, public buildings, statutes and wide streets are simply wonderful. There are no alleys. The houses are limited to six stories and are of white stone and all seem to join in squares, circles and triangles with what we would use as alleys made into little paries all laid out so beautifully and the ground paved where the shrubbery does not grow. A man we met on the boat who was returning from America and

who had a government position has taken our group around several times and we have seen much of Paris. . We went down the famous avenue today and sat down for an hour near the Champs Eleyees and watched the people go by. Every allied nation was represented and there were literally hundreds of different uniforms and the me nin kakhi looked best to us of course. The women are all in black and I asked one of the English speaking Frenchwomen in the refuge the other night why they all seemed, to wear black and she said so many were in mourning. The French are a delightful people and are so happy tp think we are conning to their rescue. There is no such thing as trained nurses in France so that we American nurses are having a great work in the construction work. I will know this week where I will be sent., Our five are guessing that we will be going t oone of the Allies hospitals. We certainly have had a thrilling time so far. There is a great offensive at the front now and the Boches are attempting to get Paris. I feel fine and eating well so I will regain what I lost on the boat. This is my fourth letter since I went on board the boat. Love to all, NETTIE B.