Over Periscope Pond : $b Letters from two American girls in Paris October 1916-January 1918Root, Esther Sayles
History
Over Periscope Pond : $b Letters from two American girls in Paris October 1916-January 1918
Root, Esther Sayles
World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
They are not the type we can do much for, but I begged some warm clothes
for them and they came to the Vestiaire yesterday. The name is Pruvot,
and there are a mother and daughter, three sons in the war, one of whom
I am going to adopt as "filleul," a son and his wife and two little
girls, and a little illegitimate child of a son who has disappeared and
whose mother has abandoned it. He is the star child, Marcel Pruvot, two
and a half years, and I am crazy to adopt him. What would you say if I
brought him home with me? Think of what one could make of his life; but,
of course, I shall not. We sent a layette to one little mother. (My
mother should see the layette department, stocked up with the cutest
things I ever saw.) And as a special luxury, we included some talcum
powder, marked "poudre de riz" (rice powder). Mrs. Jackson went to look
her up one day and found her boiling the talcum powder with water in a
saucepan, just about to feed it to the little creature of three months.
She had never heard of powder before.
The next big branch of work is fitting out the blind. There is more
pathos, gayety, and inspiration on Tuesday and Friday afternoons than in
all the rest of the week. After the men are wounded at the front they
are brought back through a chain of relief stations, "postes de
secours," to hospitals, and finally to a Paris hospital. The blind are
allowed to recuperate here either at the Val de Grace or the
Quinze-Vingt (big hospitals), and are then sent away, usually to the
country to learn a trade or to rejoin their families, or both. They must
give up their military clothes, underclothes, and shoes when they are
discharged, and are given only the poorest kind of civilian clothes in
exchange. This is where we step in to give them decent clothes. In many
cases they are not given civilian clothes at all, although I don't
understand the Government system enough to see how that is possible. So
Miss Hodges, our representative in work for the blind, brings five or
six of the most needy and touching cases to us and we fit them out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account