Out To Win: The Story of America in FranceDawson, Coningsby
History
Out To Win: The Story of America in France
Dawson, Coningsby
World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
"Loud mockers in the angry street
Say Christ is crucified again--
Twice pierced those gospel-bearing feet,
Twice broken that great heart in vain...."
That is all true at Evian. But when I see the American men and girls,
leaning over the Boche babies in their cots and living their hearts
into the hands and feet of the spiritually maimed, the last two lines
of the poem become true for me:
"I hear, and to myself I say,
'Why, Christ walks with me every day.'"
The work of the American Red Cross at Evian is largely devoted
to children. It provides all the ambulance transportation for the
repatries, to and from the station. American doctors and nurses do
all the examining of the children at the Casino. On an average, four
hundred pass through their hands daily. The throat, nose, teeth,
glands and skin of each child are inspected. If the child is suspected
or attacked by any disease, it is immediately segregated and sent to
the American hospital. If the infection is only local or necessitates
further examination, the child and its family are summoned to present
themselves at the American dispensary next day. Every precaution
is employed to prevent the spread of infection--particularly the
infection of tuberculosis. Evian is the gateway from Germany through
which disease and death may be carried to the furthest limits of
France. Very few of the repatries are really healthy. It would be
a wonder if they were after the privations through which they have
passed. All of them are weakened in vitality and broken down in
stamina. Many of them have no homes to go to and have to be sent to
departments of the interior and the south. If they were sent in an
unhealthy condition, it would mean the spread of epidemics.
The Red Cross has a large children's hospital at Evian in the villas
and buildings of the Hotel Chatelet. This hospital deals with the
contagious cases. It has others, especially one at the Chateau des
Halles, thirty kilometers from Lyons, which take the devitalised,
convalescent and tubercular cases. The Chateau des Halles is a
splendidly built modern building, arranged in an ideal way for
hospital use. It stands at the head of a valley, with an all day sun
exposure and large grounds. Close to the Chateau are a number of small
villages in which it is possible to lodge the repatries in families.
This is an important part of the repatrie's problem, as after their
many partings they fight fiercely against any further separations. One
of the chief reasons for having the Convalescent Hospital out in the
country is that families can be quartered in the villages and so kept
together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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