A WOMAN'S FARM JOURNAL - University of Illinois

WHEN 1 W^S IN FRANCE
A Personal Observation Story of a Red Cross Worker ^uring the War
MABEL SHONKWILER ERB
WAS my great good fortune to have
IT been chosen one of four from the
Northern Division of the American Red
Cross, to go to France1 our posts as soon as we were settled. Each
one of us had been trained in the making,
supervising, inspecting, assembling and
to work in the packing of surgical dressings, and we were
Department of Surgical Dressings. In due set to work in this department of
time, we received our passports from Washington,
then we proceeded on to New
York, where we joined 44 others, forming"
the first unit of women workers assembled
for Overseas Service with the American
Red Cross. We spent a few days in New
York, getting uniformed and equipped and
being instructed, and then one beautiful
day we sailed out of New York Harbor,
and for ten lovely days, we sailed as beautiful
a sea as anyone ever dreamed of, and
for those same ten lovely days, we feasted
on submarines. We had them for breakfast
and luncheon, tea and dinner. We
had them on deck, fore and aft and midship.
We had them in the salon and in
the smoker. They were served up by old
and young; rich and poor;, sick and well;
and in every possible shape known to language.
In fact , one could not find a single
secluded spot on board that great ship
1 the Red
Cross ur the places where we could give
the greatest service.
The first post I had, was in what was
called, "The Surgical Dressings Clearing
House." This was a work-room, established
just outside the great wall of Paris
in a French Barrack. The room was 175
ieet long, and 60 feet wide; the floor was
about 3 feet off of the ground, without
basement or embankment-there were large
rattly windows along each side and wide
doors in either end. These doors had to
be open all of the time, because wehrought
the cases in at one door and took them out
at the other. We had a stove.about fourteen
inches in diameter, and about three
feet high, and sometimes we had coal, and
sometimes we did not have coal, but we
always had plenty of cold. And we used
where the submarines sooner or later
would not get you. But it was all talk.
As for real submarines, for all any of us
knew, we were not nearer than 1,000 miles
to one of those hated German death dealers.
AND then on another beautiful day, we
** landed somewhere in France, and the
next evening found us In Paris. After a
good night's rest, we reported to the office
of the American Red Cross at 4 Place de la
Concorde, and were received and welcomed
by Major James Perkins, Major Murphy
beingout of thecity at that time. We were
very much pleased with the earnest and
cordial welcome we received from this interesting
man, who some months later,
upon the resignation of Major Murphy,
became our Chief.
We spent most of the first week getting
our permits: Permits to go—permits to
come-^-permits to eat—permits to sleep—
permits to stay, and permits to do atmost
anything else one wished to do, and in getting
ourselves established in our hotels and
boarding houses. And then the next thing
we all wanted to .do, was to put on our
trench coats arid run right up to the front.
It was only about 40 miles away, and we
were perfectly sure that our services were
badly needed. But we soon learned that
the French Government had very wisely
provided that women might not go nearer
than five miles to the front, and when you
get within five miles, you somehow feel
that you wish the French Government had
set the limit of your approach at 25 miles.
We learned too, that our work was to be
right in Paris mostly, and we were given
to wonder if we ever
would get [warm all
the way through
again. And then we
would think of the
boys just 40 miles away
at the front in
the trenches, and [in
their barracks, cold
and wet, perhaps,
and we would stop
thinking about the
cold; and stop wondering
about it, and
go on with our packing.
The business of the
Clearing House was
to receive, unpack
and repack all of the
cases of supplies coming
from the American
Red Cross. Those UABEL SHONKWILER ERB WHO TELLS THE STORY
of my readers, who
have been identified with the activities of
the Red Cross since first we came into the
war, will remember that in the beginning
we packed many kinds of dressings and
garments and other, supplies in the same
case. This was found to be very inexpedient,
as the hospitals overseas were becoming
over supplied with some things and
under supplied with others. As soon as
this feature of the work was learned, the
order was immediately sent to America, to
pack the supplies in solid cases, but in the
meantime, thousands of mixed cases had
been shipped, and the Clearing House was
established to handle these cases. Of
course, in time, the Clearing House died a
natural death, but we had an interesting
and very instructive time while it lasted.
We received cases from all over the
world, where Americans have ever gone in
numbers, and it seemsthat Americans have
gone almost every places—and we made
some very interesting observations and
calculations. We received cases of supplies
from South America; from Africa;
Australia; New Zealand; the Philippines;
the Sandwich Islands; Alaska; China; Japan;
Canada; and from every State in the
United States. T"he contents of these
cases represented the voluntary unpaid
labor of many millions of people, and, yet,
the standard of the Red Gross had been set
so high and maintained so well, that the
records of the Clearing House show that
only one one-hundredth ; part of one percent
of these supplies had to be discarded.
This does not mean that even that small
percent were not used, because they were
sent to some workroom in Paris and made
over and utilized m some way, giving the
Red Cross a standard of practically one
hundred percent useable production.
Going a little farther
with the subject
of standards: I should
like to have a quiet
little word with those
of my readers who
will remember their
surgical dressings
class instruction.
Indeed, will any of
us ever forget it?
How we used to cut
gauze by the thread,
and fold it until it
looked as though it
had been folded by
some wonderful machine.
And then, do
you remember how
we worked at those
sample boxes, and
FIRST AMERICAN RED CROSS MILITA RY HOSPITAL, b RUE CHATEAU. NEUtLLY, FRANCE
none too high. We all realize this.
Everyone is interested to know about
the Canteen Service which the American
Red Cross established to serve our men
Overseas. There were three kinds: the
first known as the Rolling Canteen,
mounted on trucks, served by men and
going directly back of the line of trenches,
taking care of the needs and the wants
of the men who were on the firing line.
THESE canteens carried hot drinks
and wherever the American, Armywent,
there went large quantities of
ham and eggs and doughnuts, and the
Rolling Canteens carried these and other
supplies that could be carried in large
quantities conveniently. Women were
not. allowed to serve with the Rolling
Canteens, but another kind of canteen was
called the Line of Communication Canteen,
and these were served almost entirely
by women. These canteens were
situated at the stations, near the railroads,
over which the troop trains passed, going
to the front and the hospital trains passed,
coming from the front, and they- served,
besides, any man in the uniforrri of any
one of the Armies of the Allies, who happened
along any time of day or night. '
I spent a day in one of these canteens,
located in a city of about 135,000 people
—some 120 miles south and east of Paris.
THE
first evening I had dinner with
the Directress of the '.Canteen, and
she told me some of the interesting
things that occurred from time to time in
this busy place! There was located in this
city an American Base Hospital, a French
Artillery School, a French Aviation Camp,
an American Aviation Camp, a Camouflage
Factory, the headquarters for the
Italian Army of that Section and many
other minor war activities, so the Ameri-
how we wrote madly can Red Cross Canteen fed regularly three
in . those examina- times a day—anywhere from 100 to 250
tions? Well,!
don't soldiers of the Allies.
know how the rest of you felt about it, I asked the Directress to let me know if
but there, were some days during those they were going to have a troop train any
classes when I got dreadfully warm under time during my stay, and the next.morn-
the collar, and although I did not say it , ing very early she called me over the tele-
I thought there was a great deal of time phoneand told me that they would receive
wasted in this very particular class room. an American troop train with 2,000 sol-
But how glad, and how thankful I am diers on their way to the front at nine
now for the teaching I had, and that all o'clock, and these men would have break-
the rest of the women who are making fast at the canteen. Of course I was
surgical dressings, have had, because it eager to see and hear all that I possibly
is that very kind of training given so could, so I made swift preparations ac-
rigidly and with such exactness thai has cordingly.
made it possible to maintain a 100 per
cent useable product standard in the Red In the February issue of THE FARMER'S
Cross. And when we think of the men to WIFE, Mrs. Erb will tell us more of this
whom these supplies went, and what they deeply interesting story of how our men were
endured, and the sacrifices they made and cared for in every possible way while they
were willing to make, the standard was fought in tlie Greatest War of the World.