American National Red Cross; Red Cross and Red Crescent
One mile beyond town, the rain pouring in torrents, the ground
soaked, slippery, and caving, out into pitchy darkness, leaped three
men and seven women from a puffing, unsteady train, no physician
with them, and no instructions save the charge of their leader as
the last leap was made, and the train pushed on. "Nurses, you know
what to do; go and do your best, and God help you." Hand to hand,
that none go astray in the darkness, they hobbled back over a mile
of slippery cross-ties to the stricken town. Shelter was found, the
wet clothes dried, and at midnight the sick had been parceled out,
each nurse had his or her quota of patients, and were in for the
issue, be it life or death. Those past all help must be seen
through, and lost, all that could be must be saved. The next day a
dispatch from Southmayd went back to New Orleans for Dr. Gill, a
Norwegian by birth, tall, straight, honest, and true as the pines of
his native land, to come and take charge of the sick and the nurses
at MacClenny. It was done, and under his wise direction they found
again a leader. Their labors and successes are matters for later and
more extended record.
It is to be borne in mind that these nurses found no general table,
no table at all but such as they could provide, find the food for,
and cook for themselves, for the sick, the children, and the old and
helpless who had escaped the fever and must be cared for. No patient
could be left till the crisis was passed, and many are their records
of seventy-two hours without change or sleep or sitting down. As the
disease gradually succumbed to their watchful care, experience and
skill, they reached out to other freshly attacked towns and hamlets.
Sanderson and Glen St. Mary's became their charge, and return their
blessings for life preserved.
On November first it was thought they could safely leave and go into
camp for quarantine; but no regular train would be permitted to take
them. The Red Cross secured and paid a special train for them, and,
as if in bold relief against the manner of their entry seven weeks
before, the entire town, saving its invalids, was assembled at the
station at seven o'clock in the morning to bid them good-by and
God-speed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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