»it Net o f Mercy drawn dmnitf
Ocean o f UnipeakablePain
eAmericanRedCross
EARNS 14 CENTS A DAY;
HAS WIFE AND BABY
PUTTING HIS MONEY TO WORK
A Fact Story Telling Just What
Did for Mme. Pellier.
Aad Yd TMs Tree Story Has a
Happy EndiBg.
Bren a Frenchman sometimes loses,
for awhile at least, hla “unfailing*’
sense of hamor.
Take, for Instance, the case of a
nun from Lille, a soldier, Waeltele by
name and only twenty-three. He had
Bone pretty well, for the youngster bad
already his own printing shop In that
northern french town, which Is still In
side the German lines. In the trenches
Waeltele developed tuberculosis, and
he w*a sent to a hospital at Grenoble.
There he was considered Incurable,
and after the usual three months of
treatment be was granted his 14 cents
a day pension. Said his fstherly army
doctor, “My son, you can perhaps cure
yourself If you will live In the moun
tains. If you will eat plenty of nour-
Whlng food and. above all. If you don't
Waeltele ehould have entiled, but he
didn't Me wae thinking of hie baby
and his wife—and his 14 cent«. “Bont
worry!" The humor of It entirely so-
oaped him.
Then the Bed Gross stepped In. He
was found by an American woman
with some American Red Cross money
for Just such cases, and within a few
hours he no longer had need to worry.
He was sent to the mountains at La-
aura, In the French Alps, happy In
the knowledge that his family was be
ing cared for by these amazingly kind
Americana
And now the army doctor's words
are coming true Waeltele’s lung Is
healing fast and be Is dreaming of
another printing shop and of living
again some day with that little family.
There have been over 400.000 new
eases of tuberculosis la France since
the war started, and to care for these
cases and check the White- Plague's
spread Is merely one of the big Jobe
the American Bad Gross has eat out to
accomplish.
FATHER AT JNAR,
TOAGEDTAT HOME
JnlWbat Hone Service Mesas
to a Soldier.
Tbs father kisses his wife sod kid
dles goodby, shoulders his gun end
Starch as away to war.
For a time the current of life flows
smoothly for the soldier's little fami
ly. Thao cornea the tragedy. Mother
b taken 11L The little brood of broth
ers and sisters Is helpless. No fathar
te turn to. A helpless mother I
To whom can the American soldier’s
esmtiy look st this critical period!
Must a bravt man's loyalty to hla
country mean desolation and suffering
to those nearest and dearest to hlmi
Not Emphatically not The Amert-
peopls will not permit the teml-
of their soldiers and sailors to
far because their breadwinners are
tghtlng for their country. And ee the
Bed Cross Department of Civilian Re
lief has created s nation-wide organ
isation for borne service for the fami
nes of soldiers and sailors.
Under the banner of “Home Bert
ie«" patriotic men and women have
enrolled and ere devoting themselves
to the noble task of helping soldiers'
families to meet and adjust the prob
lems of everyday life and aiding them
to maintain the standards of health,
education end Industry.
Home Service—True Service.
Home service means keeping the aol-
flier's children well and In schooL It
means tiding ths fnmlly over flnanclal
troubles, arranging the household
budget, meeting Insurance premiums
adjusting a mortgage, bringing med
ical aid and legal advice to bear at tha
right moment In short “Home Serv
ice" Is true service, in that It provides
the warm handclasp of friendship
rather than the humiliation of charity.
It calls for sympathetic understanding
and IntelUgant consideration of the
most vital needs of the soldier's family.
The Red Cross Is pledged to “Home
Service" wherever needed In the Unit
ed 8tatea In each chapter of the Red
Cross there will be a home service
section, under competent hands, whose
mission will be to protect the welfare
ef the soldiers’ anil sailors* homes and
to safeguard the normal development
ef their families In employment end In
Ideals of self help and self reliance.
to*******************
“The werk that the Red
Croee Is doing In Franse
this winter Is worth mere
than a million and a half
American soldiers In the
lines In Franoe today."
—General Retain.
HUSBAND GONE SONS GONE
HOME AND RELATIVES GONI
Cross
By an Eye Witness
MAUDE RADFORD W ARREN
Contributed by Charles Dana Gibson.
THE HOPE OF THE WORLD
. ,,
By HAROLD BELL WRIG.:~
T H E hope of the world is not alone
* that the armies of humanity will
be victorious, but that the spirit and
purpose of our warfare will prevail in
our victory. The hope of the world
is in the Red Cross, because the Red
Cross is voicing this spirit and pur
pose that must, through the force of
our arms, triumph. Just to the de
gree that we can evidence this Red
Cross spirit of mercy and brother
hood we will hold true in the dan
gerous hour of victory to the ideals
that have forced us into the trenches
in the defense of human rights and
human liberty.
The one sane and saving thought
in this delirium of death that now
possesses the world is the Red Cross.
Wherever the storms of battle
hell rage, amid the fires of ruthless
destruction, in trench and camp and
hospital, these soldiers of mercy with
heroism unsurpassed are carrying the
flag of the highest conceivable ideals
of humanity. The ideals for which
our armies have taken the field are,
by these unarmed hosts, proclaimed
to friend and foe, in that unmistaka
ble language of universal mercy and
brotherhood. In the terms of wasted
towns rebuilt, of broken humanity
salvaged, of dying children rescued,
of desolate families succored, the Red ,
Cross declares the cause for which we
war and proclaims the principles and
ideals that must and will in the end
prevail. Above the thunder of the
guns, the roar of exploding minee,
the crash of falfen cities and the cries
of tortured humanity, the voice of
the Red Cross carries clear and strong
the one message of hope to our war-
burdened world.
The black horror of this.world's
crisis would be unbearable were it
not for the spirit and work of this
mighty force. The normal mind re
fuses to oontemplate the situation
without this saving power.
It is the knowledge that in every
city, town and hamlet, men, women
and children are united in this work
of declaring to the world, through
the Red Cross, our message of mercy
and brotherhood, that keeps our
hearts from sinking under the burden
of woe and sustains our faith in hu
man kind. It is the constant daily,
almost hourly touch with the Red
Cross work that is felt by every citi
zen in the land, that inspires us with
courage and hope.
Out of this hell of slaughter the
Red Cross will guide the warring na
tions to a heaven of world-wide peace
and brotherhood.
Because it is the living expression
of those ideals and principles in de
fense of which we are giving our all
in lives and material wealth—because
>n every Held of death it is proclaim
ing its message of life—because it
keeps ever before us and the world
the cause for which we war—because
it will presefve us in the hour of our
victory from defeating ourselves—the
Red Cross is the hope of the world.
This la the picture I saw last Janu ing into Switzerland and than
ary in France,—and you have merci Haute-Savoie. From there they went
fully changed it I Color enough there to Lorraine. Mme. Pellier hoped that,
though her village had been bom
was—above, the eternal blue; In the even
her home might have escaped.
background, - fields of living green, barded,
She
found
nothing except her bare
which the German sheila could not fields.
prevent from creeping back; In the Ton changed that picture, you Amer
saddle foreground, a long village icans, who can never be bombarded,
street so battered and burned that who
can never loee through war five
It was merely a canyon of cream-col out of the seven dearest to you. It
ored ruins In front of one little was not your husband and children
broken house were four figur|p in who died; not your wife who was
widowed; not your little ones who
black—an old woman, poking among came
bony and tubercular, to a
the fallen atones la a vain search for home back,
that
had
vanished. Not youra,
someth Ins that could be used; a but only the grace
of accident saved
younger woman, seated on what had you;
not
yours,
but
It
might have been
once been s doorstep, with her face and so you changed the
Ton
hidden in her arms; and a little boy could not build up with picture.
your
own
and girl, who stared, half frightened, hands that heap of stones Into a homo,
half curious, at the desolation about nor till the fields, nor bring Mme. Pel
them. The little boy held In hla thin
back to hope and the children
hand a Red Cross flag. All four were lier
hack
to health. But through the Red
pale and gaunt; the races and bodies
yoo saved the remnants of that
of the children showed none of the Cross
family
that had suffered aa you might
round curves that make the beauty of have suffered.
a child.
This Is their history: When the
Things the Rad Cross Did.
war broke out Mme. Pellier, her Ton took the mother of Mme. Pal-
mother and her four younger children liar to a Red Cross hospital to be treat
were visiting her husband's mother In ed for anaemia. Ton took tha Uttla
the north of France. Her husband girl, who was In tha first stagea o t
sad two elder sons were at home In
Lorraine taking care of the summer tuberculosis, to a Red Cross sani
Stops. Then the war! The mother tarium. Tou found a place which
to-law of Mme. Pellier was HI and could be made habitable for Mme. Pel
could not be left Her old mother lier sear her fields which aba waa
wss afraid to travel to Lorraine with anxious to tUL Zoo gava her clothes
the full care of the four children. Be and furniture; you got her seeds; yon
fore they could all start together the
her Implements. Tou aent a vle
Germans Invaded. Bad news Is allow lent
tting
doctor to watch over her health
ed to come Into northern France, and and “that
of her uttla boy.. Ton s a t
so as the months passed Mme. Pellier nurses, who
achieved the mighty vic
learned that her village home had been
of making her and the child takn
bombarded and that her husband and tory
Later you persuaded her to 1st
two sons had „been'killed. Except for baths.
go to a refugenot far away where
the Belgian Relief Commission, which him
might attend school and where she
"6 pe rates In northern France also, she he
often visit him. Through the
and her little ones would have starved could
help
of
Red Cross hope and cour
outright. At the best they were un age and your
ambition have come back to
dernourished. Then the great push that woman,
and she la rebuilding her
began, and hopes for France grew family life. The
biggest thing one hu
high. Bnt as the French soldiers ad man
being can do for another you. If
vanced they had to bombard the north you are
helper of the Red Cross,
ern towns. Mme. Pellier begged the have done a for
mother.
Germans to let her go away with her Rad Cross! that
I
saw
werk «very,
children—even Into Germany. This where In France—In its fields
was refused. She tried to seek safety blasted villages; In hospitals and and Hi
In some cellar whenever there was a schools and clinics; in refuges and
bombardment Nevertheless a shell vestiaries
for widows and orphans and
killed two of hor children.
for
the
sick
children ef aeIdlers fight
Found Her Home Gene.
ing to keep you safe from the enemy.
Home gone; husband gone; brave This symbol of help has a double
soldier sons gone; little, tender hoys meaning now for Americans, who have
torn Into shreds I That woman’s face always taken for granted the blessing
would have shown you what she had of safety. It stands for your willing
suffered—her face against tha batter ness to pay the price of exemption, of
ed ruins the Germans had made. At pity, of sympathy. A bitter, black
last she and her mother and her two road this road of war, but across It.
remaining children were repatriated. like a beacon of hope, you have fitmg
,
They knew the Infinite.relief of cross the Red Cross.
HE GAVE HIS SHIRT OFF HIS BACK
How
an
Italian O fficer Traveling on Train
Helped a New Bora Baby.
One of the waya to say that a man
Is good hearted la to descend to ex
pressive Amertcanese slang and aay
“he'd give you his shirt.''
A young Italian officer did exactly
that—gave the shirt off his hack to a
baby just born. It was during a flight
of the Italian refugees just after the
Italian army had been tricked by the
Austrians.
Here's the story:
An Italian officer, who had been a
volunteer worker at the station when
the crush came through, walked Into
the American'Red Cross office at Bo
logna, Italy, and told of a poor young
woman who had given birth to a baby
on the train tn which he was riding a
few night’s previously. They had been
riding for over 16 hours, and the
wretchedly poor and disheartened
mother had been jammed in with the
hundreds of other frightened Italians
on the same train. Hungry, tired and
miserable and in a frightfully weak
ened condition, she bail scarcely suffi
cient clothes for herself, not to speak
of properly caring for a newborn hah*
The young officer strip|>ed himself of
his shirt, and there among this fright
ened, half starved, forlorn crowd’ tha
poor Italian Infant was wrapped in Its
first ^kody covering.
Mother and babe were afterwards
nursed back to health, clothed and
looked after by the American Red
Cross. And this Is only one small. Is
olated Incident among thousands that
come under the working of tha Rad
Cross.
ten minutes for refreshments
FULL MAN-SIZED stopping
at a Red Cross Canteen.
- Think of a big cup of hot coffee and
a
ham sand
HAM SANDWICH wiches wealth served of by raan-slsed
the Red Cross—wo
Whit Ten Minutes for Re
freshments Means in
Modern War.
Think of what refreshments mean
“ovar there." Think of ttfe Samtnle or
the Poilu coming out of the trenches
with a thirty-six hour leave of ab
sence, getting aboard the train or mo
tor on the L. O. C.—the Line of Com
munication between the front and tha
rear. Think of theee tired tallows
men with the Joy of service In their
eyes. Think of ten minutes for ro-
freshments within sound of the guns—
such refreshments served by such wo
men. Did ever a weary lad have such
refreshment«? Did ever a cup of cof
fee and a sandwich taste so good?
It Is service like this, the supplying
of “food that's got a homey taSta'' at
p time when a man’s spirits are likely
to he at lowest ebb. that moved a Cot»
mandlng General of the American
Forces to write on December 30: ‘"The
extent of the work of the Red Cross
la only limited by the number of mem
bers It has and ths amount of furdf
available for Its