Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 43, Number 157, 14 May 1918 — Page 9

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND GUN-TELEGRAM. TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1918

PAGE NINE

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THE BLIND AND THE' MUTILATED

By Dr. ESTHER LOVEJOY

BRING THEM TO ME

IN the years to come this war. will prove a blessing to the blind. A new world is being evolved. Nature has at least one extraordinary sense in reserve for those who lose any of the five ordinary senses. The blind feel things that are not within reach. They are conscious of vibrations that are not perceptible to seeing men. The sightless learn to read very quickly by the Braille method. It is interesting to watch the face of a blind man as his fingers pass over the upraised dots of a Braille book and his mind perceives the mysteries recorded there for him. They have special stenographic machines and special printing presses. Books and magazines are translated into the written language of the sightless.; Men blinded in battle are acquiring great skill in the textile arts, as moulders, arid in other industries where a highly developed sense of tquch is essential to good work. The higher type of blind men have great personal charm. Their1 souls seem nearer the surface. They are peculiarly beloved people, and their clairvoyance makes them conscious of the kindness and affection with which they are regarded. Naturally they react to it. Perhaps that is why they usually seem so happy and cheerful. Unfortunately there are forms of mutilation which

have the opposite effect. When a man knows that he is repulsive to every man, woman and child who looks upon him; when he shrinks from the reflection of his own disfigured face in the mirror, and shudders at the strange sound of his own voice, he wants to die. A great deal is being done for these mutilated men. They are being refitted with arms and legs. Plastic surgery is doing its part, too, in the way of restoring palates, teeth and facial contour, and the American Red Cross in Paris is attempting to make life more livable for them by providing masks which restore their original features. They will be useful members of society, but, the soul of man craves more than service. Life and liberty are precious possessions, but the pursuit of happiness is the dearest right of man. We are all alike. We want to go through life with the sweet illusion that the blue bird of happiness is just within reach, and this illusion is almost impossible to the disfigured man. It is the sacred duty of all those who have been benefited by their sacrifice to leave nothing undone to restore their usefulness ; to employ every art to increase their mental and physical powers and the charm of personalities, to the end that their lives may be enriched rather than impoverished by the fortunes of war. How Would You Get Rid Of Miles of Barbed Wire?

0.i2 of the Many Problems the Red Cross Has to Meet.

Have you ever thought what strange iiit l Imlllln;? problems must come up to tli if Ueil Cross workers when they start out to rebuild n French town Just the jrnhlem of the barbed wire, for Inlance? This letter tolls It: "Wo have nearly every day about lialf n dozen Oernian prisoners working amongst us, who are escorted In to work In the morning by a poilu and culled for In the evening. They uppear quite harmless, but we have too many evidences all around us to prove that their race Is quite to the contrary. "You should see the barbed wire miles and miles of It. How any one could ocr get through It, let alone under tiro, Is beyond me. It's usually

coiled and stretched around Iron stakes or crosses about four feet long, and the whole thing makes a waist high mass sometimes 15 or 20 feet wide. There are really acres of it around here, and when you think lfow many strips of it there ftre, stretching from Belgium to Switzerland why, It's going to be a real problem after the war to get it all up and out of the way. 1

bet a lot of people walk into it through the snow this winter. We came across tinesploded shells now and then and hand grenades of various shape and sizes also ; but, believe me, we leave them alone. There are four on the wall In our back yard and several In a field near by."

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Contributed by Frank Godwin.

AT OUR HOUSE

Eyes O'Blue and Touslehead Learn About the Red Cross By JUDD MORTIMER LEWIS

The Red Cross Answers

Dy THEODOSIA GARRISON Of the Vigilantes. Pear God, to leave this sheltered place wherefrom I may not 0 To give my service to a world torn through with war and woe, To heal the wounds of broken men, to mend the shattered mind. To lend my hands unto the maimed, my eyes unto the blind; To give a woman back her man from out the very dead "Hut I will do this for you," said the great Cross of Red. Nay, but there are little towns that once were white and fair Now burned and bleak and desolate 'mid blackened fields and bare; If I might bring its people hack to lind there ns before The staunch roof, the decent hearth, the vines about the door; If I might lift a frightened child and leave It comforted "But I will do this for you," said the great Cross of Red. "You may heal the wounded and you may guide the blind. You may bring new comfort and Joy to humankind, If so within your sheltered place you give me for your part The strength within your two hands, the pity at your heart; Through you, from you, of you I am, by your own heart-strings led, ' Z fail but if you fall ine" said the great Cross of Red.

We hnve talked it over at our house. Talked it over as we have never talked It over before. We did not want Eyes O'Blue to know about it, nor did we want to lay any part of the world's heavy burden upon the heart of Touslehead. We have taught them that the world is a good find a beautiful place, but last night, gathered beneath the light In the humble little parlor at our house, we talked It over between us. Eyes O'Blue and Touslehead were told that, while the world is good, it is not all good ; that there are men who have started out to enslave the world and who la the furtherance of that ambition have done awful things. . Gradually as the tale was told they drew nearer until we sat with our arms nhout them. We told them of hands hacked from baby wrists, of death rained from the sky upon helpless little ones, of murder rising from the sea's green deeps to feed upon helpless mothers and babies. And then we told them how these splendid soldier boys we see every day are going to the far front to fight and, If need be, die to keep this horror from our land. We told them of burns and wounds and suffering.

And then we told them of the Red Cross. We had a number of Red Crosses In our windows, but they had not known. We told them of the bandages and supplies needed to allay suffering. We told them of the noble women who are giving their lives to the binding up of hurts of the boys In khaki. We told them of the great need of money with which to carry on the work of mercy. Then Eyes O'Blue in a voice which choked with pity for the distressed spoke of her savings, and Touslehead clapped her hands at the thought. This morning I went to the bank and withdrew their savings, $63.29, and they are to be put to work to a better work than they have been doing.

At our house for the duration of the war we expect to "keep the days," we expect , to wear cobbled shoes and patched clothing, and If we ever hesitate In our sacrifice I shall see the faces of Eyes O'Blue and Touslehead as, with tears oh their cheeks, they smiled at the thought of the help they might be to the Red Cross. Are you helping us to carry the Red Cross?

FIGHTING SISTERS OF FIGHTING MEN Twenty Thousand Nurses Now -. Enrolled in American Red Cross.

JOHN MADISON'S FAMILY

When John Madison sailed for France there were no indications that his family would suffer in a pecuniary way while he served his country. John's father was earning good wages. John's younger brother, Henry, a driver, was helping out the family budget. Then John's father was stricken with pneumonia. His earning power Stopped. Henry met with an accident. If John had stayed home he coub' earrled his mother and little sisters through the crisis. But John was with Perching overseas. Must his family suffer destitution? The Madison family's dilemma was reported to the Red Cros and promptly placed In the hands of Home Service. As a result the best medical attention was secured for John's father and brother. Immediate funds were placed in the mother's hands to protide for the household us before the family income stopped. In the brief

space of a few hours Home Service had driven poverty from the absent soldier's home. The whole aim and object of Home Service Is to protect the welfare of the soldier's family while he is away and to maintain as far as possible the same standards of home life that prevailed while he was at home. More than this, when the standard of living is low it Is the duty and the opportunity of Home Service to raise the standard. Think of what it means to John Madison and his legions of comrades In khaki and in blue to realize that in their absence their loved nes will be safeguarded as carefully and as constantly as they themselves would have done. Think what it means to the morale of these brave lads to know that whatever may happen in the perils of warfare the future of their families will not be jeopardized,

Of the eighty odd thousand registered trained nurses In the United States about 20,000 have enrolled as Red Cross nurses, volunteering their services at the front, in cantonments and hospitals or In any other needed capacities. This enrollment is the nursing reserve of the United States Army Nurse Corps and the United States Navy Nurse Corps, and from it will also be drawn contingents for service under other allied flags than our own.

The enrollment goes on at the rate of 1,000 volunteers a month. On a basis of an army of a million men over 30,000 nurses will be required for active duty in the present year. Up to the last of February over T.000 nurses had been actually detailed, to duty or were ready for Immediate mobilisation. So it is seen that there are none too many, in view of the requirements of the service, slhce between time of enrollment and actual assignment to duty the nurse must undergo a period of special study and training for war service, and the work of organizing and mobilising this "army of mercy" Is no small thing. A Nurse Is a Soldier. Surgeon General Gorgas has called upon the Red Cross to supply 5,000 nurses for the Army Nurse Corps by June 1, and if this quota is forthcoming the total number detailed will have reached 12,000. So the mobilisation of another 18,000 to 25,000 by Jan. 1, 1919, will be a big problem to solve. Now, a nurse Is a soldier. She Is

recognized officially by the government and included in those eligible for soldiers' and sailors' war insurance. A nurse goes Into actual danger of wounds and death by shell fire and bomb explosion. Her work is arduous,

exacting, calling for the finest qualities of mind and heart She is the right hand of the surgeon. So, because iiui'eing is primarily a woman's job, the war nurse Is properly the peculiar responsibility of the women of America. While the trained nurse Is urged to volunteer the risk of her life at the front, the American woman at home Is commanded by every dictate of patriotism and humanity to support her ''fighting sister." The nurse fights pain, disease and death, making her sacrifice with amazing cheerfulness and enthusiasm,

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THE LEilER i THE MORNING MAIL

How Mrs. Lane Finally Realized That Thousands of OlVj Mothers' Sons Are at War Scarred Battle Front

By MAXIMILIAN FOSTER. Of the Vigilantes.

Mathematics teach us that 1 from 1 leaves nothing, and there is also the well known biological theorem that you cannot get blood from a turnip.

It Is also assumed. Sir Isaac Newton having demonstrated the law, that what goes up is bound to come down, but this Is only abstract. Mrs. Lane probably would have denied it. The flat rent, previously 1,200 a year, now was $1,400, and It showed no signs whatever of coming down. The same condition applied also to her children's shoes. The shoes now cost $7, whereas they formerly had cost $4. But this was merely a detail. A similar phenomenon occurred as to beefsteaks, potatoes, butter, fish and the 57 other varieties of domestic essentials. All had gone up; none had come down. About the only thing stable in Mrs. I-anes cosmos was Mr. Lane's yearly income. This was .$7,000 a year. Already Mrs. Lane had given up one maid. The war literally was at her door. True, Mrs. Iine had no son, no brother no kin of any kind In the war, but the war still was at her door. Hard to Make Ends Meet. Give money for the war? What do you think she was doing, anyway? She was giving every cent she bad, trying to make both ends meet In her household. It hurt, though. Mrs. Lane was a kindly, warm hearted woman, and she would have liked to give. The war was dreadful! It was so dreadful she'd stopped reading about it. But one must read letters. One must do that when a friend takes the trouble to write them. The letter came in the morning mall. Mrs. Lane read it, then she read it again. Afterward she sat there absorbed, silent, rigid. The color had crept out of her face, and her breath came swiftly from between her parted Hps. " have just come lack from the canteen," it read. "Such an afternoon! A trainload of teriously wounded to be fed at once, which is trying, as on'e has to climb into all the carriages, one after the other. We begin with the men who are well enough to sit up and handle their cups, and those who are too ill even to lift their heads, of course, we have to lift and feed ourselves. Feeding the ones with bad face wounds are the hardest. I can stand ordinary wounds of blood, but when a man ought to have a nose and mouth and all he

has is ugh! -it ta!:cs all yovr courage to get through a feeding. I managed to get half a pint of milk and a beaten egg and-soma brandy down the throat of a boy of twenty who had no mouth left, and I had to clean it between every mouthful. lie had had no food for fifteen hours and was so thirxty that he was nearly insane. I held his head against me, and I gagged all the time, but I just kept thinking, 'Suppose it was my hrj whi needed a- drink and thert was no one to give it to him.' So I treat through with it, and he finally went to sleep. Oh. Martha, Martha Lane, we need everything all you and the rest can send!" If Lawrence Had Gone to War. N One o'clock struck. Mrs. Lone still sat with the letter clutched in her hand. "What's for dinner?" asked Hannah, the maid. Mrs. Lane hardly heard her. She was still sitting there when Olivia floundered in. Olivia was fourteen, the conscious age. "Mother," sha said fretfully, "I can't go to danclnjr school again In brown gloves when all the other girls have white ones." The plaint reminded Mrs. Lane that Lawrence at boarding school had written that morning about his socks. He had only two pairs of silk ones left. "And. mother," said Olivia, continuing Bui what Olivia said Mrs. Lane didn't hear. She had dropped her head on the labl and unaccountably was weeping. "Just suppose It was my boy mine!" slio was sobbing. "Why. mother !" ejaculated Olivia. ' She hurried toward her mother. "What Is It, mother? You're actlnt just as though Lawrence had gone to war !" Mrs. Ijine looked up, the teara streaking down her face. "That's just what is "the matter with me! I should be acting as If Lawrence were there. And so should you! U Willie were like these, the boys there. she pointed to the letter that had slipped from her lap to the floor "if ha were, like them, in need, dying, wanting eggs, milk, brandy, to keep him alive, would you be buying whlio gloves? And would we think what other people wear or how they live or whether we had only one servant now If my boy was over there, if my sol were " , But other women's sons are over there. Mrs. Lane had at last realized this. The tears were rolling down her cheeks. j

A THIRTY ROOM RED CROSS HOSPITAL

ALL UNDERGROUND

A young American Quaker found a

lied Cross station in a strange place. Read what he saw : "The work Is hard. I'vo been putting slates on a woman's house. It's easy,

like shingling, except that the slate Is cold early in the morning, and It cuts your hands. Her husband is a prison

er in Germany, and she has three kids. They were living in a very wet house because of the shrapnel holes In the roof. A shell lit right in front of her bouse and knocked off one whole end, but we've fixed that all up. . -. . Yesterday five of us walked over to the first line trenches. At one town we found a Red Cross dressing station underground. It had over 30 rooms, all away down in the earth. From there the desolation became more complete,"

"What Home Service Has Done for Me"

Dick and I had loved each other, although my father said I was too young and had forbidden me to talk to him. When he was called to war he and I married, and any father refused to have anything to do with us. Dick left me a little money, but when that was gone I did not know what . to do. One day the Home Service secretary called to see me, having been written to by Dick,, and after talking with me went to see my mother. That very night both of them came to toy little room and got me to return to my old home, where they had fixed things with father. I never knew that the Red Cross could possibly interest itself in such matters as this.

DRESS SUITS AND FALSE TEETH

Red Cross Has Changed Utterly the Old Helter-Skelter Plans , of Relief.

Before the American Red Cross too!: over the work of rescuing stricken Europe, a helter-skelter plan of helping Europeans was practiced by well-uieaa-ing but Inexperienced Americans. i For example, to Serbia, in th depths of misery, were sent boxes which might better have remained in the United States. In one box were six men's dress suits. In another an array of silk lingerie that would have delighted some young woman who lived on Fifth avenue but which were of no definltft benefit to the destitute women tramping their way down to the plains through the Macedonian passes. Sets of false teeth were sent, vari colored garters, linen handkerchiefs, neckties.

apparently whatever was no longer

needed by the giver. ', That method of helping stricken peo

ples has passed now for good. Through

ts various commissions, the American

Red Cross ascertains exactly What are .

the needs of the various European

countries which have suffered at German hands. What food, what cloth

ing, what comforts, what medicines are most demanded? This is not only determined by the commissions, but rne process of securing and transporting the supplies is attended to by them. ! The result, in foreign countries, has been an increased respect for American intelligence as well as a grateful regard for unselfish and generous glv lag. '