With the Doughboy in France: A Few Chapters of an American EffortHungerford, Edward
History
With the Doughboy in France: A Few Chapters of an American Effort
Hungerford, Edward
American National Red Cross; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
Do not, I pray you, conceive the idea that all the warehouse work was
done in Paris. I have hinted at the importance of Dijon, the great army
store center, as a Red Cross stores center, and have, myself, stood in
the great American Red Cross warehouse upon the lining of the inner
harbor of St. Nazaire and have with mine own eyes seen 8,000 cases
stacked under their capacious roofs--foodstuffs and clothing and
comforts and hospital supplies which came forever and in a steady stream
from the transports docking at that important American receiving point,
and have known of warehouses to be established in strange quarters,
stranger sometimes than the abandoned stables of the horse-drawn
taxicabs of Paris, here in an ancient exposition building upon the
outskirts of a sizable French city, there in a convent, and again in a
church or a school, or even again in a stable.
Here was a little town, not many miles back from the northern front. The
Red Cross determined to set up a warehouse there, both for military and
civilian relief supplies. An agent from the Paris headquarters went up
there to confer with the local representative in regard to the proper
location for the plant. The local man favored one building, the Paris
representative another which was nearer to the railroad station. While
they argued as to the merits of the two buildings German airmen flew
over the town and destroyed one of them. And before they could
compromise on the other, the French Government requisitioned it as a
barracks.
Now was a time for deep thought rather than compromise. And deep thought
won--it always does. Deep thought moved the American Red Cross warehouse
into the ancient seminary there, even though that sturdy structure had
been pretty well peppered by the _boche_. When the Red Cross moved in,
you still could count fifty-one distinct shell holes in it; another and
a final one came while it still was in the process of adaptation to
warehouse uses. In this badly battered structure lived the Red Cross
warehouse man and his three assistants--all of them camion
chauffeurs--after they had put forty-five panes of glass in with their
own hands. Then the supply of glass ran out. In the former chapel of the
seminary fourteen great window frames had to be covered with muslin,
which served, after a fashion, to keep out the stress of weather.
Twenty-seven of the precious panes of glass went into the office--where
daylight was of the greatest necessity. The rest were used, in
alternation with the muslin, for the living quarters, where the Red
Cross men cooked their own meals, in the intervals between dealing out
warehouse supplies. It was hard work, but the chauffeurs did not
complain. Indeed it so happened that their chief did most of the
complaining.
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account