“The Hospital Elizabeth Griscom, at Villaggio Regina Elena, especially is a worthy group of buildings, based on a substantial concrete foundation, strongly framed, and well finished, all corners rounded in the wall plastering, tiled floors in the surgical rooms, bathroom, and kitchen, and roofed first with rubberoid, then with artificial slate. Painted white, with red roof, and situated high up on the hillside, it stands out from its surroundings, as seen from the harbor, most attractively, while from the windows of the wards of the hospital itself the view is unsurpassed. “The hotel building was turned over to the authorities with all the wood-working part finished, and in such general condition that a _concessionaire_ could in a short time complete and open it. The form is a wide H, the central part one hundred feet long by thirty-two wide, and each wing one hundred and thirty-two feet by thirty-two feet wide. It is arranged for seventy-five bedrooms, of several sizes, and thirteen or fourteen bathrooms, so grouped as to minimize the amount of branch piping necessary. Great care was taken with the foundation and to make a strongly built structure; and also to make one that should be in some degree worthy of the beautiful site on which it stands. “Nothing but cottage-building had been contemplated when we went to Messina, and this task had been accomplished at the rate of fifteen cottages built for every day we spent there, including Sundays, holidays, and days of rain. The other work--schools, workroom, church, hotel, hospital--were all additional, their undertaking made possible by the allotment of more funds by the American Red Cross. “To mark the givers, each house completed bore on the door a plate, reading, ‘U Italy S, 1909,’ or ‘American Red Cross for Italy, 1909.’ These were placed on the cottages, in the proportion of three to one, which was about the ratio of the respective expenditures of the U. S. Government and the Red Cross for this particular work,--roundly $450,000 and $150,000. “As nearly as could be figured, the whole cost of each cottage came to not more than $235, of which about $35 represented the cost to the Italian Government.” _Thanks from the Little Sisters of the Poor_ “To the Directing Manager and Gentlemen engaged in the erection of Barracks at Messina. “GENTLEMEN:--I, the undersigned, Provincial Superior of the Little Sisters of the Poor, having been apprised of your approaching departure from Messina, feel it my duty to thank you for the great kindness shown to our sisters in that unfortunate country; no words can express our gratitude for the noble manner in which you have treated us. “We have every reason to hope that our Home will be soon reopened, as it is the desire of our Holy Father, Pius X, that the aged poor should be taken care of.