Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 194, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1918 — ABODE OF KINGS IS FOR SICK YANKEE FIGHTERS [ARTICLE]

ABODE OF KINGS IS FOR SICK YANKEE FIGHTERS

Sarisbury Court, Favorite Hunting Box of Charles I, Now a Hospital. RED CROSS DOES THE WORK American Women in England Carry on Vast Aid for Wounded —Con. valescents to Recuperate Amid Pleasant Surroundings. London— Sarlsbury Court, an old Jacobean mansion that stands back almost hidden by the tall elms off the Southampton road and Is said to have been one of the favorite hunting boxes of the first King Charles, has been converted into a hospital for 8,000 Americans by the American Red Cross The work of the latter organization now comprises more than twenty departments, and is carried out by American women who were residents of Great Britain before the war, many of them the wives of Englishmen and the others wives of relatives of Americans In business in this country. Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, widow of the former American ambassador to Great Britain, was a pioneer In the work of the American Red Cross in this country. The American. Red Cross has provided a number of hospitals in Great Britain, some of them before America entered the war, for the use of the British wounded; others established since that time for the accommodation of both British and Americans. One of the Beet. One of the finest is the Mossley Hill hospital at Liverpool, which is staffed by American army doctors and nurses under Maj. Udo J. Wilo, formerly professor of surgery in the University of Michigan. Another,American hospital de luxe in London is the new naval hospital on Park lane, which occupies Aidford house, the home of CapL Frederick Guest, M. P., who placed it at the disposal of the Red Cross. There are several other American hospitals in London, notably the Lancaster Gate hospital for officers and American Hospital No. 24, givfen by Mr. and Mrs. A. Chester Beatty of New York. But the largest of all the American hospitals in Great Britain is that at Sarjsbury court. No more ideal spot for the purpose could be imagined. Standing In a great park of 186 acres of thicklywooded coverts and gently undulating pasture lands the grounds dip

down to a half-mile frontage along Southampton waters. Already the woodland acres of the estate are resounding with ax and saw and several hundred trees have been selected to furnish the heavier timber and joists for the hospital buildings. With the Manor house as apex, these cover over ten acres of frame hutments.

Tents to House Sick. During the pleasant English summer these tent wards will be very comfortable and agreeable, and long before the first chilly weather of autumn comes the frame hut wards, A steam heated, will be ready. It is possible that some of the tents will be retained for the use of convalescents or for overflow purposes in the event of a big offensive on the northern part of the western front. The hospital will have Its own electric lighting plant and Water supply. There will be probably a double system of water supply, water from the river being used for ordinary purposes, while special distilled or spring water will be used for drinking purposes and in the kitchens and operating rooms. The Manor house, which will be the central building of the Sarlsbury hospital, is a large and handsome building of what Englishmen call modern construction, inasmuch as it dates back only 35 years. , The house contains about fifty rooms, and more than half of these are large enough to be available for use as wards containing from six to 16 beds each. The great entrance hdll is easily the feature of the interior. It is as large as many an American church, open to the roof, and with a balcony or gallery running all the way around it. The ambulance which will bring the American wounded from the piers at Southampton will approach the hospital by a long carriage drive through picturesque woodland and well-kept lawns. The convalescent soldier win find several miles of sunny or shaded walks without going outside the hospital grounds. Strolling northward he will cross a broad meadow and a little patch of woods to the hospital piggery and chicken farm, and just below this he win come to the boathouse and the jetty, where he may dangle his legs just above the water and sit fishpole /in hand, with good prospects of a profitable catch. It he chooses to stroll northward from tbe main hospital buildings he will find the forest denser and wider, and at the other side'of the forest he will qome to the hospital vegetable gardens and greenhouses.