The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 3)

VOL. IV. JULY, 1909. No. 3.

AMERICAN
RED CROSS
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WASHINGTON D C

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THE AMERICAN RED CROSS

Officers

President,
HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT.

Vice-President,
ROBERT W. de FOREST.

Treasurer,
HON. CHAS. D. NORTON.

Counselor,
HON. LLOYD W. BOWERS.

Secretary,
CHARLES L. MAGEE.

Chairman of Central Committee,
MAJOR-GENERAL GEO. W. DAVIS, U. S. A. (Ret.)

National Director,
ERNEST P. BICKNELL.

Board of Consultation

BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE H. TORNEY,
Surgeon-General, U. S. Army.

REAR ADMIRAL PRESLEY M. RIXEY,
Surgeon-General, U. S. Navy.

SURGEON-GENERAL WALTER WYMAN,
U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service.

Central Committee 1908-1909

Major-General George W. Davis, U. S. A. (ret.), Chairman.

Brigadier-General George H. Torney, Surgeon-General, U. S. Army, War Department, Washington, D. C.

Hon. Huntington Wilson, Assistant Secretary of State, Department of State, Washington, D. C.

Hon. Charles D. Norton, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, U. S. Treasury Dept., Washington, D. C.

Medical Director John C. Wise, U. S. N., Navy Department, Washington, D. C.

Hon. Lloyd W. Bowers, Solicitor-General, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C.

President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, University of California.

Mr. John M. Glenn, 105 East 22d street, New York, N. Y.

Miss Mabel T. Boardman, Washington, D. C.

Hon. James R. Garfield, Secretary of the Interior, Washington, D. C.

Hon. A. C. Kaufman, Charleston, S. C.

Hon. H. Kirke Porter, 1600 I street, Washington, D. C.

Mr. John C. Pegram, Providence, R. I.

General Charles Bird, U. S. A., Wilmington, Del.

Col. William Cary Sanger, Sangerfield, N. Y.

Judge Lambert Tree, 70 La Salle street, Chicago, Ill.

Hon. James Tanner, Washington, D. C.

Mr. W. W. Farnam, New Haven, Conn.

Note—Attention is invited to the recent changes in the Officers and Central Committee members.

The President of the United States has appointed Hon. Huntington Wilson, Hon. Charles D. Norton, Brigadier General George H. Torney and Hon. Lloyd W. Bowers members of the Central Committee to represent the Departments of State, Treasury, War and Justice, respectively. The Executive Committee has elected Hon. Charles D. Norton Treasurer and Hon. Lloyd W. Bowers Counselor to fill the vacancies caused by the resignations of the former Treasurer and Counselor.

CONTENTS

Entered at the Post Office, Washington, D. C., as second-class matter.

WILLIAM H. TAFT
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.

PREFACE

Hardly had our Red Cross work for the Sicilian and Calabrian earthquake sufferers come to an end when a new field for help opened before our American Society. This time it was not some great catastrophe of nature’s doings, but man’s inhumanity to man that brought about the need of aid and as from Macedonia of old again arose the cry, “Come over and help us.” In Eastern Turkey lay this field of suffering, and of the Red Cross help the July Bulletin gives a brief statement, hoping later to receive a fuller report from the field itself.

So great was the devastation wrought by the earthquake in Italy that later the less serious one in Portugal almost escaped our attention, but among a number of villages there has been much suffering and distress so that our Society was glad to send some small but tangible expression of our sympathy in its relief work to the Portuguese Red Cross. We have not forgotten the contributions it sent to the American Red Cross in 1898 for our sick and wounded during the war with Spain.

HON. CHARLES D. NORTON

The article on Italy by Mr. Ernest P. Bicknell, National Director of the Red Cross, with illustrations furnished by Lieutenant Commander Belknap, U. S. N., of the houses erected under his supervision will, we are sure, deeply interest our readers.

Two special departments will be noted in the Bulletin, one of the Relief Column and First Aid and the other on Tuberculosis, lines of work along which our Red Cross has plans for large and earnest development.

The Red Cross is needed. It is a blessing in many ways to the peoples of the world. It brings them closer together in the days of trouble and teaches them that nations, like men, are brothers. In America our Red Cross should aim to make itself one of the strongest and most helpful in this brotherhood of nations.

HON. LLOYD W. BOWERS

MASSACRES IN ASIATIC TURKEY

The spirit of unrest was seething in Turkey and the old antagonism that from the time of the crusades has existed between the cross and the crescent was ready to break out into action. On the 10th of April, at Adana, a town in Eastern Turkey, not far west of Alexandretta, an Armenian and a Turk were killed. This kindled into life the flames of hatred and on the 14th they burst forth in ferocious massacres. The Moslems being in the majority the Armenians suffered terribly. Throughout that part of the country it is estimated that some twenty-five thousand persons have been massacred during this reign of terror. Their houses and shops were pillaged and burned, and those who escaped fled in terror for their lives. The Government, in the person of the Vali, was either unable or unwilling to put a stop to this appalling destruction of human life and property. Once started the scenes of horror were repeated in town after town in the eastern provinces. At Tarsus several hundred Armenian houses were burned and in the yard of the American College were sheltered and protected 4,000 refugees. At Antioch, forty miles south of Alexandretta, the Armenian population of 7,000 was nearly annihilated. Kurds, Arabs and Circassians besieged the small Armenian villages, pillaging and burning the houses, killing the men and carrying the women into captivity. At Adana and Tarsus 15,000 and at Mersina 5,000 refugees were in dire distress and need while many more women and children escaped from the villages and were hiding in the mountains. The atrocities perpetrated reduced the people to a state of terror and despair. If some small village of Armenians succeeded in resisting the besiegers its inhabitants were soon reduced to the verge of starvation. Mr. Kennedy, an American missionary, secured some 450 Turkish soldiers and went to the relief of Deurtyul, an Armenian village of 10,000 inhabitants, on the coast, which was being besieged by hordes of Kurds and Circassians. The water supply having been cut off, the people were dependent upon the rain that fell, the children drinking from the water that collected in the footprints of animals. Frantic appeals for help and protection came down from scores of villages and the foreign consuls at Aleppo cabled to their Governments word of the great distress of thousands of refugees.

GEN. G. H. TORNEY, U. S. A.
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.

Turkish Woman, Emergency Surgical Case. American Christian Hospital.

(By Courtesy of the National Geographic Society.)

Armenian Children in American School at Adabazar.

(By Courtesy of the National Geographic Society.)

Thanks to the efforts of our Consul General, Mr. Ravndal, at Beirut, assisted by the French Cruiser “Jules Ferry,” Latakia in Syria was relieved. Thousands of women and children, most of the men having been killed, were being besieged there. Appeals to the Vali of Adana continued useless. Conflagrations were continually breaking out and often the entire city was threatened. Thousands of the refugees were homeless and without any means of earning their livelihood. Bodies of the dead were scattered through the streets and the pedestrian who ventured forth had to pick his way so as not to step upon them. One writer says in half an hour he counted twelve wagon loads of Armenian dead being carried to the river and in the Turkish Cemetery graves were being dug by the wholesale.

At Adana four hospitals were established; doctors and nurses were sent from Beirut and Tarsus. Women, children and even babies suffered from severe wounds. Among the hundreds in one hospital the average of wounds to each person was four. Thousands of refugees were without food, clothing and bedding. Those sheltered at the American Missions were completely disarmed before being received so that, to obtain as far as possible immunity from attack for the missions. There was not enough water to drink nor to dress the wounds. Garbage and filth collected in the streets and diseases of all kinds began to reap their harvest.

On April 28th, in response to an inquiry if financial assistance was advisable addressed to the American Ambassador at Constantinople by the State Department, at the suggestion of the Red Cross, the following dispatch was received:

“Secretary of State, Washington:

“As distress among population is very great, I am convinced that American Red Cross could not better fulfill the noble purpose for which it was founded than by such a contribution. If desired, money could be sent to the Embassy for transmission to Mr. Peet, treasurer of the American Missions in Turkey, and it would be a most humane act if our charitable organizations could be induced to follow suggestion, as thousands of the poor people are without food and shelter. If American Red Cross will wire amount of draft they are donating, I will hand over immediately such sum, as funds are urgently needed.

“LEISHMAN (Ambassador).”

Immediately upon receipt of the above cablegram the Red Cross appropriated one thousand dollars from its General Emergency Fund which was cabled by the Secretary of State to Mr. Leishman; and the Branch Societies were requested to announce through the press that the Red Cross would receive and forward to the Ambassador at Constantinople any contributions for relief work in Turkey.

On May 6th a further remittance of $5,000 was sent by the Red Cross to the Ambassador.

The Relief Committee at Beirut, of which the American Consul General, Mr. Ravndal, is chairman, cabled to the Red Cross on May 10th, requesting that it be permitted to act regardless of source of funds as Red Cross agents, rendering full accounts. This Committee had already raised about ten thousand dollars and had dispatched to Adana for doctors and trained nurses. With the full approval of the American Ambassador this Committee was recognized as its agent with full power to use the Red Cross flag to protect its hospitals and field force.

On May 13th $5,000 more was cabled to the Ambassador by the Red Cross as a contribution from the Christian Herald, with the request that $2,000 be sent to Mr. Nesbit Chambers, of Adana, $2,000 to Thomas D. Christie, Tarsus, and $1,000 to Mr. Ravndal, Chairman of the Relief Committee at Beirut.

On May 6th the Armenian Relief Committee organized in New York sent a special Committee, Dr. A. Ayvazian, Chairman, and Col. Mesup Newton Kahn, to the New York Red Cross Branch to ask if the American Red Cross would receive and dispense the funds raised by their Committee. In reply to this inquiry forwarded from New York the National Headquarters telegraphed its consent to receive and administer such funds, stating its desire to be as efficient in Armenia as it had been in other theatres of relief and that in this work it had the co-operation of the State Department and the American Ambassador at Constantinople.

Women in Waiting at Aintab Dispensary. Moslems on Left, Armenians on Right.

(By Courtesy of the National Geographic Society.)

On May 19th, $2,500 received from this Armenian Committee was cabled to the Ambassador with the request that it be distributed to Armenian sufferers of all denominations with the co-operation of the Armenian Patriarch in Adana, the Reverend Kevrok Arslandan.

On May 28th a further remittance of $1,500 was sent with a like request. This included a second remittance of $1,000 from the Armenian Committee, making a total of $20,000 sent for the relief in Turkey.

On June 16 an additional $5,000 was received from the Christian Herald, and was cabled to Turkey on the same day with instructions to distribute it in the same manner as the remittance of the 13th of May.

The last dispatch received by the State Department on June 3rd, and transmitted by the First Assistant Secretary of State to the Red Cross, reads as follows:

“Mr. Peet makes the following statement:

“‘Relief work prosecuted in nine centers where thirty thousand people are now supported. Present endeavor to rehabilitate refugees thus making possible to earn livelihood and reduce list. Permanent provision for orphans also required. Generous help now will (word indecipherable) thousands dollars relief and put thousands of people on feet again.’

“I have great confidence in Mr. Peet’s judgment, as he is eminently qualified by his long experience to speak authoritatively of such matters and the Relief Committee at Adana, although international in character, is largely composed of American missionaries headed by the British and United States Consuls, which furnishes an unquestionable guarantee that the relief funds will be fairly and judiciously expended. So far, the subscriptions from England and America have been comparatively small considering the enormous number of widows and orphans who, for the moment, are entirely dependent upon public charity, and I am sure that if the generous American public more fully realized the great distress prevailing in the Adana and Aleppo districts it would respond more liberally to the appeals which are being made.

“LEISHMAN.”

Armenian Orphans from Massacres of 1894-5, in School Supported by Second Evangelical Church of Aintab.

(By Courtesy of the National Geographic Society.)

CALABRIA AND SICILY TWO MONTHS AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE

By Ernest P. Bicknell,
National Director, American Red Cross.

The Italian earthquake occurred on December twenty-eighth and exactly two months later, on February twenty-eighth, 1909, I arrived in Rome. My first duty was to familiarize myself with the working plans of the American Relief Committee. Although Rome is about three hundred and fifty miles from Messina, it was the headquarters of the chief agencies engaged in relief operations. Through the kindness of the American Ambassador, Honorable Lloyd C. Griscom, I was quickly brought into close relations with the American Relief Committee and with the officers at the head of the Italian Relief Organizations. Count Taverna, President of the Italian Red Cross, and Count Somaglia, the Vice-President, showed me every courtesy and gave me all the information possible. The hurried emergency work of the early days had been largely closed at this time. Most of the injured had been discharged from hospitals, the field hospitals had been closed, and the relief operations had settled down to a long, slow struggle to help people of the ruined communities to make a fresh start in life.

Many thousands of sufferers from the calamity had been removed to Naples, Rome, Palermo, Catania and other cities immediately after the earthquake. This made necessary the organization of extensive relief measures in numerous cities which were not themselves sufferers. After two months, this work outside the earthquake zone had been greatly reduced, though still requiring considerable attention. Many public spirited men and women gave important services through these outside organizations without actually going to the scene of the disaster.

At Rome I also met Miss Katherine B. Davis, who had just ended her brilliant relief administration in Syracuse, to which city more than a thousand injured persons had been taken from Messina. Miss Davis had gone to Sicily worn out with hard work as Superintendent of the Reformatory for Women at Bedford, New York, and was looking forward to a long restful vacation. She arrived the day after the earthquake and probably performed the most strenuous and trying work of her life during the following two months. The people everywhere were speaking in terms of highest praise of what she had done, which was not only valuable in itself but which set an example, copied in Palermo. Naples and elsewhere.

Mr. Edmund Billings, of Boston, who, as the representative of the Massachusetts Relief Committee, spent six weeks in Sicily, also reached Rome at this time. Mr. Billings had cultivated close relations with the local relief administrators and in this way had been enabled to apply his relief funds with a personal knowledge of the extent of the need and the method of their distribution in each instance.

Policy of the American Committee.

The American Committee had occupied a delicate position in the midst of a group of active Italian relief agencies. It was necessary to avoid giving offense to any, as well as to keep out of the special fields of work in which the Italian agencies were occupied. So well did the Committee conduct its operations that I heard of no instance of dissatisfaction or criticism of its efforts. The Committee took no step until it had consulted the men in charge of the Italian relief work. It either appropriated specific sums of money for the use of other of the most efficient Italian organizations or it carefully selected relief tasks which had not been undertaken by others. In fact the American Committee had gained the enviable reputation of having ready cash instantly available for any important piece of work for which cash from other sources was not immediately to be had.

U. S. Supply Ship “Celtic.” Anchored in Messina Harbor.

After a few days in Rome I went to Messina, where I arrived in the early morning. As we drew into the land-locked harbor heavy clouds obscured the surrounding mountains and a driving rain swept the desolate ruins which were spread out before us. White as snow at her anchorage swung the United States supply ship Celtic with her flag floating high above the shattered quay and the heaps of debris which clogged the crescent-shaped water front. On board the Celtic Captain Harry P. Huse, in command, gave me a cordial welcome and immediately solved for me the problem of a place to sleep and eat. Captain Huse had distributed his cargo and surrendered most of his subordinate officers and crew for shore duty. Big and energetic, he himself paced the long decks of the Celtic somewhat restively because of his own enforced idleness.

With headquarters also upon the Celtic was Lieutenant Commander R. R. Belknap, Naval Attachè of the American Embassy at Rome, but now in full charge of the work of constructing the American cottages in the earthquake district. Captain Belknap is clear headed, tireless, executive to his finger tips, and a most courteous and considerate gentleman to meet. He had his hands full with clearing and laying off the land upon which American houses were to be built in Messina and Reggio and the organization of his working force consisting of half a dozen young American naval officers, about thirty American jackies and several hundred native mechanics and laborers. The first of the ships bearing lumber from America was expected in a day or two and arrangements for unloading the lumber upon lighters, transferring it thence to the dock, then loading it upon ox-carts and hauling it by circuitous ways through the ruins to the sites where it was to be used, demanded much attention. The revising of plans for the houses to adapt them to the Italian needs, the making of itemized estimates of cost and the letting of certain contracts also required time and much knowledge of local conditions. Captain Belknap usually worked a couple of hours before breakfast and the light in his cabin was the last to be extinguished at night.

A few days later when the first American ship anchored in the harbor, with lumber for five hundred American houses on board, a new activity began. Teams of great red oxen with horns of tremendous reach, each team attached to a massive two-wheeled cart, blocked the water front while a crowd of noisy, hustling Italian laborers, like ants about an ant hill, carried the lumber piece by piece and stacked it high upon the creaking vehicles. Processions of loaded carts moved sinuously among the ruins, each driver guiding his oxen by ropes attached to their horns and by means of mournful cries which the animals seemed to understand.

Impressions of Messina.

Ruins of Messina, Showing Method of Opening Street.

At this time Messina presented a strange and sorrowful picture. In the midst of some of the most beautiful scenery in the world the city lay a center of horror and desolation. All the world is familiar, through descriptions and photographs, with the appearance of the ruins of the city. These ruins had not been cleared away at the time of which I write. Certain winding paths had been cleared through a few important streets. San Martino, a street extending straight back from the harbor through the city, was so wide that the heaps of debris on either side left a considerable clear area in the center. Along San Martino all the life and business of the city had gathered. Tiny, shapeless huts of fragments of lumber, sheet iron, blankets, tin and scraps of cloth were crowded into this open space and swarmed with huddling people. Microscopic stocks of food and clothing were on sale in some of these huts. A temporary postoffice occupied a wooden shack in the center of the street and more cabs than one would have supposed could have been saved from the disaster drove madly back and forth through the clutter of huts and throngs of people. The most conspicuous business was the sale of postcards, picturing the results of the earthquake. At midday San Martino was crowded with probably ten thousand persons; at dark the unlighted street was empty. The disappearance of the people at night was a mystery which aroused much comment. The available shelter seemed to be absurdly inadequate to the need. The people in fact slept under the broken arches and in doorways and behind or beneath any projections or rude contrivances which gave protection from the almost incessant rains.

Discovering a Body in the Ruins of Messina.

Oppressed by the sense of the tragedy of the city a visitor was at first shocked to see the crowds in San Martino engaged in business, haggling and bargaining, quarrelling and jesting in quite a natural manner.

In all directions through the miles of ruins were to be seen knots of people gathered upon the sites of their former homes. Each group consisted of certain members of the family, three or four workmen with shovels and a soldier. The workmen were digging into the ruins to uncover the bodies of victims of the disaster and to recover any property of value which might be buried there. The soldier was assigned to the duty of guarding and directing the work and preventing curious or dishonest persons from interfering or carrying away property. At the side of each group would be observed one or more rough wooden boxes waiting to receive the bodies for which the workmen were searching. At this time it was officially estimated by the military authorities in control of Messina that twenty thousand bodies had been removed and that forty thousand bodies still remained undiscovered. About two hundred bodies a day were being taken out in the month of March. As the larger houses of the city had suffered the most complete destruction, it followed that the loss of life among the resourceful and well-to-do had been greater than among the poor who lived in the smaller structures. It was estimated roughly by Italian officials that ninety per cent. of the dead in Messina belonged to the resourceful class.

Burying the Dead.

Bodies Awaiting Burial in Public Square, Messina.

Sad and terrible as was the task of disinterring the bodies of the dead and burying them in the cemeteries, it was inevitable that the work carried on day after day should become a commonplace occupation and that the men engaged in it should eventually regard it with something of the same indifference with which any other daily task is regarded. This may be illustrated by an incident which was observed one hot afternoon. Four workmen, carrying upon their shoulders a box containing a body, were hurrying to the burial place in one of the cemeteries. The men were laughing and jesting as they moved rapidly along a rough road. Behind the men followed an old woman in rusty black, struggling painfully to keep up with the box. Under her arm she carried a small cross such as is placed at the head of each grave as the dead are buried. When the burial place was reached the men carelessly placed the box upon the ground and hastened away without a word. No grave was ready to receive the body and the old woman sat down on the ground beside the box, still clinging to the little cross. It would probably be some hours before the over-worked force of grave diggers had prepared a place for this particular body, and the old woman in the meantime sat in the broiling sun beside the rough coffin. She feared that if the body was buried in her absence she would not be able to identify the grave thereafter. So she sat there during the long afternoon, occasionally caressing the rough boards with tender hands.

Carts or groups of carriers bearing other coffins were continually arriving. It was impossible for the grave diggers to keep up with their task and the grass for a long distance about was covered with the waiting boxes.

A special cemetery was set apart for the burial of the unidentified dead. In this cemetery pits about thirty feet long, twelve feet wide and six feet deep were prepared and the boxes were stacked in them in tiers, about one hundred boxes to each pit. By the middle of March about twenty-five hundred unidentified bodies had been buried in this cemetery. The condition of the bodies taken from the ruins at this late date and the oncoming of hot weather made it imperative that all possible haste should be insisted upon. No ceremony whatever accompanied the burial or the preparation for it. Bodies were placed in the boxes the moment they were exhumed from the ruins, a little later were placed on carts and driven directly to the cemetery.

Extent of the Disaster.

It is unnecessary here to speak at length upon the extent of the disaster. The earthquake affected a strip of land on each side of the Straits of Messina. The extreme dimensions of the affected area were about fifty miles from North to South and perhaps forty miles from East to West. Within this area no town or village escaped entire or partial destruction. In all more than fifty cities, towns, villages and communes were destroyed. The lowest estimate which I heard of the number of persons made homeless was five hundred thousand. Estimates of the dead range from one hundred thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand. In the course of my travels about the region I visited about twenty-five cities, towns and villages, among them all the larger ones. Wherever I went I inquired of the local authorities, who seemed best informed, concerning the loss of life. Based upon the answers to these inquiries and my own observations, I have reached the conclusion that the estimates of the number of dead have been uniformly too large. When the final estimates are made, after all bodies have been accounted for, I doubt whether the total will exceed seventy-five thousand.

I have seen no estimate of the property loss and it is doubtful whether any approximately accurate estimate can be made. Neither have I seen any figures of the amount of insurance carried on property but the result of inquiries indicates that the total insurance was comparatively small. The Italian people do not seem to have very fully adopted the policy of insuring their property. Unless such insurance as was held covered loss by earthquake, the owners of property can, in any event, collect little, if anything, from the insurance companies. The poverty of this part of Italy, coupled with the overwhelming magnitude of the loss, both of property and life, must make recovery exceedingly slow. The Italian Government is preparing to introduce measures of great liberality intended to help the people re-establish themselves.

Most of the descriptions and photographs of the results of the earthquake have applied chiefly to the City of Messina, because it was the largest city in the earthquake zone and was the point to which relief measures were first of all directed and at which lines of transportation from the outside world centered. Tourists invariably get their first view of the earthquake at Messina and many of them go no further. Descriptions of conditions in Messina, however, convey a fair idea of conditions in all the other ruined cities and towns. Messina had over one hundred thousand population, Reggio about forty thousand, Palmi about twenty thousand, Villa San Giovanni about seven thousand. These were the largest communities in the region affected by the disaster. The ruin everywhere was as complete in proportion to population as was that in Messina. In Reggio about fifteen thousand lives were lost, in Palmi five or six thousand, in Villa San Giovanni about fifteen hundred.

Relief measures were slow to reach the smaller towns lying among the mountains back from the coast. Many of these towns are upon mountain tops and are inaccessible except by donkey trails. The difficulty of access made the work of relief particularly difficult and it is probable that the suffering for food and shelter was greater in the mountain towns than in the larger cities on the coast.

Tidal Wave.

Town of Pellaro, Leveled by Tidal Wave.

Much was said in early reports about the tidal wave which followed the earthquake. Had the tidal wave occurred alone, it would have been regarded as a great disaster. But overshadowed as it was by the earthquake, it forms but a small item in the sum total of ruin. The wave did not cause much damage on the shores of Sicily, its chief force being expended upon the Calabrian coast. As the wave rushed into the small bays, the funnel shape of the shores piled the water up higher and higher until at the apex of the bays it had reached a height of many feet and rushed across the low lands adjacent with irresistible force. If a village happened to be situated at the innermost point of a bay, it suffered great damage from the wave. Some injury was done in the harbor of Reggio in this way and some at Villa San Giovanni. The chief sufferer from the tidal wave, however, was the little town of Pellaro. Pellaro was, like other Italian towns, constructed entirely of stone and mortar. It was built up solidly along one or two streets which were parallel to the shore. Immediately in the rear of the village were large lemon orchards. The earthquake shook the buildings down and about ten minutes afterward the tidal wave came in and leveled the heaps of ruins in a manner which amazed all who went over the ground later. It was almost impossible to discover the street lines or to identify the sites of the houses. The stones of which the buildings were constructed were carried hundreds of yards inland and scattered among the lemon trees. The entire site of the village was reduced to a dead level and one found it difficult to believe that a town of fifteen hundred population had ever occupied the place. About nine hundred of the people of Pellaro were killed by the earthquake or tidal wave and hundreds of bodies were carried out to sea by the receding waters.

Stones from Pellaro Houses, Swept by Tidal Wave into Lemon Orchard.

How Catania Helped.

As before mentioned, many Italian cities outside the earthquake zone received and cared for large numbers of earthquake victims. Catania in Sicily with about one hundred and fifty thousand population was closest of these outside cities to the scene of the disaster and was the most accessible of all. The result was that at least twenty-five thousand people from Messina and other destroyed towns were carried into Catania for care. Several thousand of these victims required hospital attention, and all the regular and many improvised hospitals were quickly crowded. The municipal authorities of Catania, with boundless generosity, undertook to provide shelter and support for this tremendous influx of helpless people. Numerous large institutions and vacant private buildings were converted into refuges. There had been no time to make proper preparation for the comfort of these people and it should not be held the fault of Catania that the conditions in the refuges quickly took on a deplorable character.

The best of the refuges was that provided in the new municipal prison. This is a vast, massive stone building, with stone cells and the iron bars and grim, echoing corridors which characterize modern prisons. The building was barely completed and had never been occupied. Everything was clean and wholesome and sanitary provisions were ample. When I visited Catania in March twelve hundred men, women and children from Messina and other earthquake towns were living in this prison in comfort. It was strange to hear baby voices and the lullabys of women in the cells and about the long passages. The great number of cells made it possible to segregate the people by families or by sex and to give to each family a certain amount of privacy. Probably no other great prison ever received a dedication so strange as this.

Ladies of the French Red Cross Society Nursing in Neapolitan Hospital.

Bowdoin and Wood.

Between Messina and the mountain town of Taormina, thirty miles to the South, lies a chain of towns and villages which were destroyed by the earthquake. At Taormina, when the earthquake occurred, were two young Americans—Harry Bowdoin and Charles King Wood. Mr. Bowdoin was spending the winter in Taormina with his invalid mother and Mr. Wood is an artist who has lived in Taormina for several years. These men entered with the utmost zeal upon the work of relief. Taormina was not injured, but it lay close to the edge of the zone of destruction and many hundreds of fleeing victims sought refuge there. Others in Taormina also participated actively in relief work, but gradually Messrs. Bowdoin and Wood came to be recognized as the leaders. Afterwards, by common consent, these two young men became representatives of the American Committee in the small towns between Messina and Taormina. Day and night they went up and down the coast and back among the mountain communes, carrying comfort and good cheer. They organized local Committees in every community, gathering relief from the points of distribution at Messina and Catania and conveyed it to these local Committees. Without compensation and with a modesty which shrank from any words of commendation, these Americans performed a laborious and delicate task in a manner to stir the pride of their fellow countrymen.

Difficulties of Obtaining Information.

In attempting to secure reliable information of the methods and extent of relief measures in the earthquake zone, I found an obliging readiness on the part of those in charge at any given point to give me all the facts desired concerning their own respective agencies and a somewhat surprising ignorance of the operations in the same field of any other relief agencies. This in part arose from a deplorable lack of co-operation among the different agencies engaged in relief work and perhaps in part from a spirit of competition and pride which led each representative to desire to have it appear that the agency which he served was the chief factor in the situation. This may be illustrated by an incident which occurred one day when I was visiting the town of Villa San Giovanni.

Prince Chigi of Rehabilitation Committee Distributing Sewing Machines.

I took lunch with the Mayor of the town and in the course of conversation inquired of him whether the Italian National Red Cross had participated in the relief work of his town. He replied, with a shrug of his shoulders and in emphatic language, that the Red Cross had given no assistance in Villa San Giovanni; that it might as well have no existence so far as the people of his community had had occasion to know of it. After our luncheon was completed, the Mayor was called away to attend to official matters and I walked up the street toward the municipal headquarters, which were in a small, temporary wooden building. Presently I saw coming down the street in a cloud of dust, a large red automobile. Fluttering from a short staff on the front was a Red Cross flag. The motor drew up with a flourish in front of the Municipal building and two men with Red Cross brassards on their arms dismounted and began unloading several hundred articles of clothing from the tonneau. These they were carrying into the building and stacking up on the floor in one corner of the Mayor’s office. I entered into conversation with the man in charge of the Red Cross car. He told me that the Red Cross was sending out a number of automobiles every day from Reggio and Messina to deliver supplies of clothing to the people in the surrounding small towns. I asked him how it happened that he had not before visited Villa San Giovanni. He looked surprised and replied that he had brought several loads of clothing to this place before. Turning to his companion, they compared notes, and he then informed me that this was the seventh visit which they had paid to Villa San Giovanni, each time bringing a large quantity of clothing. Replying to further inquiries he assured me that he and his companion in no instance distributed clothing direct to the people, but had always brought their goods to the municipal headquarters and turned them over to the Mayor for distribution.

Work of Italian Red Cross.

It is unnecessary here to speak at length of the relief work of the Italian Red Cross, since the public is already familiar with it. Two months after the earthquake the largest part of the work of the Red Cross had been completed and the greater part of its relief funds expended. Immediately after the earthquake the Red Cross had a hospital ship which carried the sick and wounded from Messina to Naples, and ran a hospital train which conveyed many of the victims from Naples to Rome. The Red Cross also established and maintained ten field hospitals in different parts of the earthquake zone, and carried on a work of great magnitude. When the task of dealing with the sick and wounded was about ended the Red Cross turned its activities in the direction of supplying relief, one of its methods being that of sending consignments of clothing to the small towns by means of motor cars.

The Common Soldier.

The Italian soldier was found everywhere throughout the earthquake district. He was called upon to perform the hardest work and the most trying tasks. Heat, cold and rain were alike to him. Living in the rudest shelters and subsisting upon the most meager fare, he was uniformly cheerful, good natured and obliging. His brave uniform and military trappings were in sharp contrast to his hard life and to his simplicity about which there was something winning and childlike. He received no sympathy nor expected any. I had many occasions to ask information or other assistance from the soldiers and found them always ready to go far beyond any mere demand of duty in meeting my wishes. When far from headquarters, I sometimes went to the shelter of the nearest group of soldiers for food. With a hospitality which was almost pathetic, the men would bring forth the best they had from their cupboards and chests and set it before me with apologies for its meagerness. The usual supply of food I found consisted of dry bread and the native mild wine of the country. Occasionally a small can of meat or fish was found in their stock, but this was evidently regarded as a luxury only to be brought forth on special occasions.

Many Small Earthquakes.

The people of the country bordering on the Straits of Messina have always been accustomed to earthquakes. Slight tremors of the earth are likely to occur at any moment, as the record of any year would show. Since the disaster of December 28th last these small incidents are fraught with a new importance and frequently carry terror to the hearts of the population. Since the great earthquake many small ones have occurred. There may be two or three in a day and then a period of several days with no perceptible tremor. Occasionally one of these little earthquakes comes with a sharp bang and a swift rattle which distinguishes it from its milder and less noticeable fellows. In such instances the people rush wildly from their huts and shelters calling out anxiously to each other and exhibiting signs of the keenest alarm. Especially in the night is the terror pronounced. After a few minutes, finding that no harm has been done, the excited people become calm, retire once more to their shelters, and the clamor gradually quiets down.

Some odd effects of these earthquakes at night are observed. The commonest beasts of burden are the small donkeys. There are literally thousands of these animals in and about Southern Italian towns. Whenever a rather sharp earthquake occurs at night every donkey immediately sets up an excited braying and for a few moments the air for miles resounds with their unearthly noise.

This country is the home of a small tree frog which inhabits the lemon orchards and clumps of trees and shrubbery. During all the night these frogs keep up an incessant trilling which sets the atmosphere a-quiver. The slightest earthquake brings them to instant silence. After five minutes or so of quiet, following the earthquake, one will hear a few of the boldest frogs tuning up again in a timid and hesitating manner. In another moment the other frogs also become emboldened and a little later the concert is again in full swing.

Temporary Houses.

Everybody is familiar with the fact that much money contributed by America to the relief of Italy has been expended in the erection of small wooden houses for the temporary shelter of the people who lost their homes by the earthquake. About four hundred fifty thousand dollars of the money appropriated by Congress and about one hundred seventy-five thousand dollars of money contributed through the Red Cross have been applied to the purchase of materials for some thirty-three hundred houses and the actual expense of erecting about twenty-four hundred of this number. The lumber, hardware, glass and all other necessary materials for the building of about nine hundred houses were turned over to the Italian authorities, who undertook to scatter this number of houses in small groups among many different towns where they would be erected by the people themselves.

Each one of these houses is sixteen by twenty feet in outside dimensions. It is enclosed with a good quality of weather boarding, has a good floor and a composition roof which is expected to endure for not less than five years. Some of these houses are partitioned into three small rooms, while others are left in the form of a single large apartment. Upon the rear of each cottage is built a kitchen about eight feet square with a brick floor and with two walls of brick. In the angle formed by the two brick walls is a brick arch with a flat top. This forms the cooking stove with which the Italian is familiar. In the flat top of the arch are two openings containing wrought iron baskets to hold the charcoal which is the universal fuel of the country.

American Village, Messina. Parks and Streets Shaded by Lemon Trees.

The common people of Italy are accustomed to living in stone houses with stone or earth floors and have no idea of the importance of care in handling fire. The houses they have always known have been fireproof and it has not been uncommon for them to build fires on the floor of their living rooms. It is hoped that the provision of these small semi-fireproof kitchens will prove a sufficient safeguard against fire, but there is considerable apprehension that the inhabitants of the wooden houses may ignorantly or carelessly build fires in such a way as to destroy some of the buildings. As these stand close together, it is conceivable that a fire might start on a windy day and destroy a large number of the houses before it could be checked. The houses are built in blocks of twelve, each block fronting in all directions upon streets thirty feet wide, but within the block the houses are only about six feet apart. In the open quadrangle in the center of each block are the sanitary arrangements and the water supply for the twelve houses composing the block.

On a beautiful plateau, sloping gradually toward the Strait and commanding a magnificent view of the water and mountains of Calabria beyond, one thousand of the American houses have been built in the outskirts of Messina. This great group of houses is commonly referred to as the American Village or, as it is officially known to the Italian authorities, the Zona Case Americana. The Italian government issued a special order making this tract of land, for the time being, American soil and authorizing the Americans in charge of the work to float the United States flag over their headquarters. A pole was set up and with considerable ceremony the flag was hoisted while all the workmen, both American and Italian, and many Italian spectators from Messina listened to several short addresses and cheered lustily.

American Village, Reggio.

In the outskirts of Reggio, ten miles away across the Strait, upon another beautiful plateau, at the same time, was rising another American village of one thousand cottages. On the Northern boundary of Messina, sheltered by a towering hill, and commanding a lovely view of sea and mountain, is a pretty village of small wooden houses named after the Queen of Italy, Villagio Regina Elena. In this village the Americans have erected about one hundred houses. At the expressed wish of the Queen they have also built a small but model hospital of six pavilions. To this institution the Queen has given the name of “Elizabeth Griscom Hospital,” in honor of the wife of the American Ambassador to Italy.

All of these building operations are under the direction of Lieutenant Commander Belknap. In this he has had the efficient assistance of Lieutenant Allan Buchanan and Ensign J. W. Wilcox, two capable young American naval officers assigned to this duty from the naval yacht Scorpion, which spent the spring in the harbor at Naples. John Elliott, the well-known American artist of Rome, laid aside his brush and willingly became the architect and draftsman for this extensive American project. With headquarters in Reggio, Mr. Winthrop Chanler, of New York, took charge of the building of over two hundred American houses in some of the smaller towns near Reggio. Several young noblemen of Rome, fired with zeal to help in the work of relief, joined Mr. Chanler and, under his guidance, spent some weeks in individually going among the people in the ruined villages of Calabria, studying their particular needs and supplying them with tools, sewing machines, and other equipment necessary to enable them to become self-supporting.

At the end of March the lumber from America had been all unloaded from the five ships that carried it to Italy, the working forces engaged in putting up the cottages had been completely organized and Captain Belknap had the great satisfaction of reporting that twenty-four complete houses were erected every working day of ten hours. The American houses are turned over to the municipal authorities of Messina and Reggio and the assignment of the houses to individual families is in the hands of the municipal officers.

It should not be supposed that America is the only agency engaged in building temporary homes. Some have been built by other countries and a very large number by the provinces of Italy. I was informed at the office of the Minister of Public Works in Rome that sites had been assigned at the end of March for the erection of fifteen thousand eight hundred temporary houses. Considering the size of the average Calabrian or Sicilian family, it is probable that these temporary buildings will provide shelter for most of the survivors of the earthquake who are unable to obtain homes through other means.

Attitude of Italian Authorities.

This informal account of the situation in the earthquake zone, two months after the disaster, cannot with justice be closed without a word of appreciation, of the extremely friendly and helpful attitude of the Italian authorities. They gave every possible facility to Captain Belknap and his assistants, and the engineer who represented the Federal Department of Public Works in Messina co-operated with the American builders constantly and cordially. The Italian Navy assigned one of its brilliant young officers, Commandante Brofferio, to constant duty at the American encampment. He lived on board the supply ship Celtic until it sailed away for America and then with Captain Belknap and the other Americans moved into a group of the new cottages in the American Village. Practical, obliging, tireless and of few words, Commandante Brofferio soon became indispensable and was respected by every one. The Italian Navy also placed at the command of the American officers a torpedo boat for the purpose of conveying Captain Belknap and others back and forth across the Straits of Messina as their duties required. In every way the representatives of America, engaged in the work of Italian relief, have reason to regard the Italian federal and municipal officers, the officers of the army and navy and the heads of the Italian Red Cross and the Central National Committee with feelings of the highest esteem.

REPORT OF EARTHQUAKE IN PORTUGAL

By Louis H. Aymé,
American Consul-General at Lisbon.

I have the honor to furnish additional details of the earthquake shock experienced here April 23 and already briefly reported by me in my No. 75 of that date.

King of Portugal.

It is now learned that while some slight damage in the way of fallen chimneys, cracked walls and ceilings was caused in Lisbon, very serious damage was done on the other side of the Tagus to the northeast. Four villages were completely destroyed, 37 persons were killed, a very large number wounded and some thousands made homeless. The greatest damage occurred at Benavente, about 23 miles from Lisbon.

Twenty persons lost their lives at Benavente and some idea of the severity of the earth movement there may be gathered from the fact that the great church, the walls of which were more than 13 feet thick, was entirely wrecked.

At Samora de Correia there were seven killed. At St. Estevao three were killed and two deaths occurred at Salvaterra de Magos. Nine hundred buildings were destroyed in this last place and some 3,000 persons made homeless. The other three villages are also heaps of ruins.

Telegraphic communication was destroyed and the news came by messengers. Instantly energetic measures were taken for the relief of the sufferers. A dozen doctors, full ambulance corps, a huge quantity of medical, surgical and other hospital supplies were rushed to the scene; police, engineers, fire brigades and soldiers were also sent and the King, accompanied by his uncle, Dom Affonso, were on the spot as quickly as special trains and automobiles could carry them after they received the news. The parliament voted unanimously $100,000 to be at once available for the relief of those needing it, and great quantities of provisions were sent to the afflicted district.

The shock here in Lisbon upset a small lamp in a shrine in a private house, setting it on fire. The King and Dom Affonso were there almost with the arrival of the firemen. Too much praise cannot be given to the cool, clear-headed, swift and effective aid extended, especially in view of the fact that Lisbon was utterly panic-stricken. The usual idiots had issued predictions that another and greater shock would occur in twenty-four hours. Two light shocks, at 2 o’clock and 6 o’clock the morning of April 24, and the fearful news from the Trans Tagus made terror yet greater. Thousands had passed the night in the streets. In the Avenida, in front of this Consulate, many hundred richly dressed women slept out under shelters made from the park benches and chairs with shawls and rugs stretched over them to make a sort of roof. Amid this universal terror and fear everyone in authority gave evidence of coolness and energy. The newspapers used their heaviest type and great headlines for rational arguments to reassure the people; all parties in parliament praised the generous and energetic action of the King and the government, and the longest speech made in that body yesterday was devoted to counteracting the panic. There is no seismographical observatory or instruments in Portugal, but the scientists have come out with quieting explanations of what has happened and advised that all should think only how to relieve those who had actually suffered. I repeat that too much praise cannot be given for the able manner in which Portugal is handling the whole matter.

The last earthquake shock felt in Lisbon occurred in August, 1903, but was much less severe than this. Prior to that there was a shock in 1859. I have spoken with two gentlemen who were then here and they tell me it was not anything as severe as this. The whole lower city is built on made ground, filled in after the great earthquake of 1755, and in case of a severe shock great damage might be done there, but the new city is built on rock and all houses are built with a special view to withstanding earthquake shocks, having a skeleton of peculiarly and skillfully interlaced timbers that gives great elasticity and at the same time resistance.

While writing this I learn that the Portuguese Red Cross is already sending in stretchers and ambulances with the wounded from the villages to be taken care of in the Lisbon hospitals, and that doctors and nurses are now busily at work in the field. Thousands are still thronging the parks and wider avenues, but confidence is being gradually restored.

Examination of this Consulate yesterday revealed that the heavy moulded ceiling in the main business office is very badly cracked and a portion several feet square is liable to fall at any moment. The whole ceiling will probably have to be taken down. One of the large windows is also somewhat sprung. These damages are examples of the results of the shock in this city.

I do not believe that any foreign relief will be required and, should it be, our legation here would of course be the proper and natural channel by which such information would be forwarded. I have wished only to give a brief notice of the most salient features of the catastrophe, but could not refrain from saying an appreciative word regarding the splendid manner in which the calamity has been met, and I have had some experience in such things.

As later information the press told of much distress in spite of all the work done by the Portuguese Government and the Red Cross. The American Red Cross, through its representative in the State Department, Mr. Huntington Wilson, requested information as to whether any assistance would be accepted by the Portuguese Red Cross.

On May 17th the following reply was received from the American Minister at Lisbon: “Portuguese Red Cross accepts proffered assistance.” On receipt of this information the following message was sent to the Secretary of State:

“Will the Secretary of State please telegraph to the American Minister in Lisbon for, the Red Cross, as follows: ‘Draw for one thousand dollars and pay to Portuguese Red Cross for earthquake relief, contribution of American Red Cross.’”

Our American Red Cross has not forgotten the fact, not generally known, that during the Spanish-American war the Portuguese Red Cross sent to the then president of the American Red Cross $1,465.00 for the care of our sick and wounded.

Lisbon, May 25, 1909.

THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS,
Washington, D. C.

Gentlemen—I am directed by the Central Committee of the Portuguese Red Cross Society, Lisbon, to present to the American National Red Cross, Washington, our most earnest thanks for your kind and valuable contribution of $1,000.00 for our Earthquake Relief Fund, this sum having been forwarded in a draft signed by His Excellency Col. Charles Page Bryan, American Minister, Lisbon.

The receipt of said sum has been acknowledged by means of our local press and duly appreciated by our citizens as an eloquent proof of your sympathy towards the poor victims of the disaster, and was, at same time, of invaluable benefit to sufferers.

I avail myself of this opportunity to assure you of my high consideration.

PELA SOCIEDADE PORTUGUEZA DA CRUZ VERMELHA,
G. L. Santon Terreira, Secretary.

A TESTIMONIAL TO THE AMERICAN RED CROSS FROM ITALY

Under the advice of the American Ambassador at Rome and the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, T. Tittoni, $50,000 of the relief funds sent by the American Red Cross were placed in the hands of a special Italian Committee on rehabilitation. This Committee was called the Committee of American Offerings. The Chairman was Donna Tittoni and among its members were Countess Taverna, the Duke of Terranuova, the Marquis of San Ferdinaveto, Signor Tenerami and Signor Mario Ferdiani.

As a token of the appreciation of these offerings the Committee presented to the American Red Cross, through our National Director, Mr. Ernest P. Bicknell, a silver tablet upon which is inscribed the following Latin sentence:

“Fortuita non civium tantum modo, sed urbium damna, munificentia vindicat.”

Mr. Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress, in reply to a request for a translation and for the source of the quotation kindly wrote, “The quotation is from Velleius Paterculus, the Roman historian. It is part of a recital of the achievements of one of the Caesars, I believe (though this I have not verified), and might be rendered thus:

“Your bounty repaired the catastrophe (fortuita damna, i. e., accidental injury) not merely of individual citizens but of entire cities (communitas).”

A TESTIMONIAL TO THE AMERICAN RED CROSS FROM ITALY

(About One-Quarter Actual Size.)

REPORT OF PARTIAL EXPENDITURE OF AMERICAN COMMITTEE IN ROME

The following table contains a preliminary statement of the Italian relief operations of the American Committee in Rome. A complete statement will be prepared later which will show a substantially larger expenditure. The table here given, however, conveys a very fair idea of the extent and variety of the extremely important work carried on by the American Committee.

Thousands of vouchers covering every item of expense have been preserved by the Committee and will eventually be filed in the office of the American Red Cross in connection with the report of the Committee. It will be recalled that the members of the American Committee in Rome were Honorable Lloyd C. Griscom, American Ambassador to Italy, Chairman, and Messrs. George B. Page, H. Nelson Gay, Winthrop Chanler, William Hooper and Samuel L. Parrish.

Note.—The amount of expenditures is given in terms of Italian money. It is to be remembered that one lira amounts substantially to twenty cents of United States money, and that accordingly the number of dollars expended was one-fifth of the number of lire indicated. For instance, 500 lire would be equivalent to $100; 100 lire, to $20, and so on.

The Red Cross needs members. If you are now a member will you not endeavor to interest others? Subscription to the Red Cross Bulletin is 50 cents a year. Help us to increase the circulation.

THE RED CROSS AND PRESIDENT TAFT’S INAUGURATION

At the time of presidential inaugurations between two and three hundred thousand strangers, including large civil and National Guard organizations, come to Washington. The great crowds at the railroad station, in public conveyances, on the streets, the excitement and exposure involved—all tend to produce an unusual number of accidents and sudden illnesses. Under the Inaugural Committee a sub-committee on Public Comfort has heretofore taken entire charge of such emergency cases as have arisen, but a need was felt for a number of well-equipped relief stations with a competent personnel to act in co-operation with the physicians of the city. The American Red Cross offered its services, which, having been accepted, it immediately began its work of preparation. A relief column with thirty-six members, many of whom were medical students, devoted two months to weekly instructions in First Aid and hospital drill. The first course was given by Dr. Charles S. White, lately resident physician of the Emergency Hospital, and the second by Captain Reynolds, of the U. S. Army Medical Service. Each of these surgeons kindly donated their time and services for these instructions. The District Red Cross Branch, at an expense of over three hundred dollars, provided uniforms and equipment for the members as prescribed in Major Lynch’s Red Cross First Aid Book. Through the New York Branch the Brooklyn Relief Column was invited to take part and promptly accepted the invitation, meeting themselves the expense of their uniforms, equipment and transportation.

The question of the nursing personnel was next considered. The committee on nurses of the District Branch secured thirty-six of its enrolled Red Cross nurses, each nurse promising to secure a substitute in case she was prevented from serving. Besides those from the District the Pennsylvania Branch sent eleven, the New York and the Maryland Branches each five. These branches paid for the transportation of the nurses and the National Executive Committee defrayed their expenses here. The salary of the six nurses who were on duty for the week at the Railroad Relief Station, two nurses being on duty for each eight hours in the twenty-four, and those of the nurses who were on duty parts of several days at the Pension Office station were paid by the National Executive Committee, but the nurses who were on duty for the day of the inauguration all gave their services.

Thanks to the Army Medical Service and to the Quartermaster General’s Department twenty-two hospital tents, with a complete equipment of cots, tables, chairs, oil stoves and field hospital chests for all of these stations, was procured. It is always a great help as well as a pleasure to have the Army as an assistant in any Red Cross work, and too much praise cannot be given to the efficient and prompt assistance its officers are always ready to render the Red Cross. Major Merritte W. Ireland, of the Surgeon General’s Office, knew what was required and how and where to obtain everything not only for the relief stations along the line of march, but for the larger station at the Union Station and for a complete small hospital equipment, with operating room, installed at the Pension Office. Major William E. Horton, of the Quartermaster’s Department, under direction of the Quartermaster-General, procured the tents, made plans for wooden beam foundations, where they had to be raised on asphalt, and the Chief of Staff gave an order for a detail of soldiers to put them up. General Johnston, who was the marshal in charge of the inaugural parade, gave the Red Cross every assistance in his power, as did Major Sylvester, Chief of Police.

Dr. D. Percy Hickling was Chairman of the Sub-committee on the Hospital and Ambulance Service, Dr. Wm. P. Reeves and Dr. Emory W. Reisinger had charge of the Emergency Hospitals at the Union Station and the Inaugural Ball, respectively, and Dr. Frank E. Gibson of the relief stations along the line of march. All of these busy physicians, with a large number of others, gave up many hours of their time to this work and the Red Cross Personnel served gladly under their competent direction.

Red Cross Relief Station. There Were 22 of These Stations on Line of March.

Washington’s oldest inhabitant had to tax his memory to recall a worse morning than presented itself the fourth of last March. A driving wet snowstorm that had raged all night still filled the air with large flakes and covered the ground with several inches of melting snow. The picture of one of the relief stations gives some idea of conditions later in the day when the storm had ceased, but unfortunately no picture was taken of the tents that collapsed under the wind and weight of snow, no picture is given of the brave efforts to again erect these tents, nor of the nurses driven out of the tents taking refuge in the ambulances so as to remain on duty, or securing in two or three cases a room in a nearby building for their station. At every station in spite of the weather our nurses reported promptly for duty and the Red Cross is proud of their record and reliability. Our Relief Column men likewise did excellent service, as will be noted in the doctors’ reports. With equal devotion to duty the Brooklyn Column, twenty-two in number, left for Washington the night of the third, but with many others were detained by the storm-demoralized railroad service, and did not reach the city until late on the afternoon of the fourth, so that it was not possible for them to take active part, much to their and our regret.

Were these Red Cross relief stations of use? The fact that over two hundred cases of accidents and sudden illnesses were taken care of at these stations, not counting those which were removed to the hospitals, is a sufficient answer as to their value to the public. Some parts of the reports of the physicians in charge are appended to this article.

Detachment First Legion (New York) Ready to Proceed to Washington for Duty in Connection With Inauguration of President Taft.

The morning of the fifth the nurses from New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania were presented to President Taft at the White House and the following week some of the physicians, the nurses and the Washington Relief Column men were entertained by Miss Boardman at a tea.

The names of the nurses and Relief Column men who participated in the Red Cross work of inauguration day are as follows:

Relief Column Men—(Washington), Messrs. Dickens, Fitzhugh, Simon, Collins, Luckett, Sloat, Espinosa, Huske, Leonard, Watts, Carroll, Drew, Read, Hall, Eckhart, Hankins, Kelley, Webb, Newton, Townsend, Bruder, Sutton, Heally, Brick, Jobson, Rhees, Butler, Dougherty, Kennedy, French, Bricker, Robinowitz, Rollings, Colver, Rudolph, Posey.

Nurses—(New York), the Misses Phelan, Collins, Miller, Patterson and Hallahan; (Maryland), Kinhart, Murphy, Boyer, Lucas, Spielman and Bartlett; (Pennsylvania), Beitel, Rice, Simon, Uomer, Suddoth, McKnight, Calhoun, Zellfelder, Seiwell, Akeley and Bierstein; (Washington), Bauer, Hayes, Hart, Donnelly, Davis, Fitz, Backofen, Mahan, Bauer, Burhman, Grunwell, Stith, Lohr, Strong, Carbauld, Hewitt, Brown, Braun and Roach.

INAUGURAL COMMITTEE

The New Willard.

MAJOR RICHARD SYLVESTER,
Chairman Committee on Public Order.

Dear Sir—In compliance with your request I have the honor to report the operations of the Hospital and Ambulance Service of the Committee on Public Order for the Inaugural period of 1909, of which, under your appointment, I acted as Chairman. In order to facilitate the work this sub-committee was organized by the appointment of Drs. George M. Kober and G. L. Magruder as Vice-Chairmen and Dr. P. C. Hunt as Secretary, the work being divided among four sub-committees, as follows: Sub-committee on Ambulance Stations, Sub-committee on Hospital at Pension Office, Sub-committee on Hospital at Union Station and Sub-committee on Inspection of Quarters. These Sub-committees were in charge of Drs. Gibson, Reisinger, Reeves and Gwynn, respectively.

SUB-COMMITTEE ON AMBULANCE STATIONS.

This Sub-committee cared for 81 cases, 10 surgical and 71 medical, 53 of whom were males and 28 females. This work was done under the most unfavorable circumstances on account of the weather, which not only interfered with the well-planned arrangements in many of their details, but made many of the physicians at some of the stations use Pennsylvania avenue as a thoroughfare to carry urgent cases to the Emergency Hospital instead of the longer runs to the other hospitals, as it was practically impossible to get the mules to pull the heavy ambulances over the snow-covered streets. While this was all done in violation of orders, yet suffering was materially lessened by so doing. Many of the tents were blown down, so that three of the emergency stations had to be established in three of the public buildings, namely, the District Building, State, War and Navy Building and the Marine Hospital Building.

Every station reported cases having been treated except No. 19. There were on duty during the day over 70 members of the Committee.

The work of the Red Cross is to be specially commended in connection with the Ambulance Stations, as they had not only furnished a complete relief equipment for each station, but two trained nurses in uniform at each station, all of whom, in spite of the weather, promptly reported for duty and rendered very efficient service. The stretcher men, trained and uniformed, at the expense of the American Red Cross Association, did excellent service and ought to be highly commended.

SUB-COMMITTEE ON HOSPITAL AT PENSION OFFICE.

The Hospital at the Pension Office was opened March 4th at 9 A. M. and closed March 7th at 11 A. M., having treated 24 cases.

The thanks of the Sub-committee are specially tendered to Lieut. Judge, of the Metropolitan Police Force, for the excellent assistance given and the order maintained, also to Mr. Graham, of the Inaugural Committee, through whose kindness supper was furnished to the Red Cross nurses on duty at the Hospital.

The work of the Red Cross Society in placing at the disposal of your Committee the equipment, trained nurses and stretcher men is highly appreciated.

Physicians and Nurses on Duty at the Red Cross Emergency Hospital at Union Station, Washington.

SUB-COMMITTEE ON HOSPITAL AT UNION STATION.

Owing to the courtesy of the Terminal Station Officers and of the American Red Cross your Committee were enabled to establish and maintain a well-equipped emergency hospital at the Union Station. This emergency room was in operation from 8 A. M. March 1st until midnight of March 7th. During this time 105 cases were treated.

To the physicians, Red Cross nurses and Red Cross stretcher-bearers, who performed this work, covering the whole 24 hours, my thanks are specially due, as the work was done faithfully and well.

SUB-COMMITTEE ON INSPECTION OF QUARTERS.

In compliance with your desires, a number of the members of your Committee on Hospitals and Ambulances were designated to inspect the quarters of soldiers and organizations, who were quartered in large numbers in any one place during the inaugural period. This not only included those located in hotels, halls and tents, but also the numbers quartered in Pullman cars at Sixth street and Virginia avenue. The number of these places obtained from the Committee on Public Comfort was 25, all of which were inspected by the members of your Committee, who paid special attention to the ventilation and sanitation and also rendered efficient service to four men who were sick and in need of treatment.

In closing this report, I desire to call your attention to the fact that 214 cases have been reported as having been treated by your Committee without any expense to the Inaugural Committee, except the general printing and badge expenditures, and that the physicians willingly gave their services night and day in order to make the work of your Committee a success, and up to this time I have not heard of a single complaint.

I desire to specially call attention to the kindness of Miss Boardman, of the Red Cross Association, for her active co-operation. Through her efforts hospital tents were furnished along the line of march and at the fireworks. These tents were thoroughly equipped with appliances for the First Aid treatment of the sick and injured, and also two Red Cross nurses were on duty at each tent as long as the same was in commission, as well as two being constantly in attendance night and day at the Union Station and four at the Pension Office. The stretcher men, who had been drilled and uniformed, performed active and efficient service at the Pension Office, Union Station, along the line of march and at the fireworks, all of which was done without expense to the Inaugural Committee.

I also desire to express my high appreciation of your many acts of kindness and valuable assistance in carrying out the work of this Sub-committee.

(Signed) D. PERCY HICKLING, M. D.

REPORTS TO RED CROSS.

March 18th, 1909.

I have the honor to submit the following report:

The weather on the Fourth of March was unusually stormy, especially early in the morning, and six of the tents (Nos. 1, 4, 5, 11, 12 and 16) were blown down and the ice and snow made them so heavy that it was impossible for the men to place them again in position.

Cases at stations Nos. 1, 4, 5 and 11 were treated in the ambulances—that is, the slight ones, and the others were taken to the hospitals. Stations 12 and 16 were removed to a room in the District and War Department Buildings, respectively, and very comfortable quarters were provided indoors for these two stations.

On March the second I took Sergt. Frank G. Motz, of Company H, Engineer Corps, around to the different places where you wished the tents pitched, and early on the morning of March 4 he had his corps of eight good men at work pitching the tents. I was with them until they finished at six o’clock in the evening. These men deserve great credit, as they were compelled to work in the rain all the afternoon and they were wet to the skin, but did not give up until the last tent was pitched. The next morning when they knew it was snowing they came out without orders and pitched some of the tents that had blown down.

Too much praise cannot be given the good corps of nurses that so faithfully did splendid duty on that day. I visited several stations about nine o’clock in the morning and no one was there but the faithful nurses under your command. There was not a station at which the nurses did not report. In the reports from the different physicians much praise is given the nurses for their excellent work.

Every station had work to do, except No. 19, which was not on the route of parade.

Eighty-one cases were cared for—ten surgical and seventy-one medical—twenty-eight females and fifty-three males.

I most earnestly recommend that the next time the Red Cross is to do duty along the line of march and the weather is not good that rooms on the ground floor be utilized for Emergency Stations instead of tents.

FRANK E. GIBSON, M. D.,
In Charge of Ambulance Stations.

Washington, D. C., March 3-8, 1909.

D. PERCY HICKLING, M. D.,
Chairman Sub-committee on Hospitals and Ambulances.

Sir—I respectfully report that the Red Cross Hospital, at the Pension Office, organized by the Inaugural Committee, was opened March 4, 1909, at 9 A. M., and closed March 7, 1909, at 11 A. M. During the maintenance of said Hospital 24 cases were treated, which varied from incised wound of index, third phylanx, to la grippe; most of the cases were syncope and the majority of these were in males, this being due to the heavy snow. I wish through you to thank the Red Cross, the physicians, the nurses and the Red Cross stretcher-bearers for the hearty co-operation given, and especially Lieutenant Judge, of the Metropolitan Police Force, for the excellent assistance given and the order maintained.

Thanking you for the honor conferred, I am,

Respectfully,

(Signed) E. W. REISINGER, M. D.,
Physician in Charge

I have the honor to submit the following report:

The Relief Station situated in a room at the Union Station was in operation March 1 at 12 noon, the first case being treated at 5.30 of that day and the last one March 7 at 2 P. M. The total number of cases treated was 105.

The ambulances were used to transfer seven additional cases to hospitals.

The character of the cases treated was varied, practically an equal division of medical and surgical. Most of the cases were not serious, the patients being able to leave the hospital shortly after first aid was rendered. The serious cases were sent either to their homes or to permanent hospitals. There were one doctor and two nurses constantly on duty, the doctor being relieved every two hours and the nurses every eight.

The Washington Terminal employees were most kind and courteous and seemed to appreciate the work.

Very respectfully,

NELLIE REED, Head Nurse.

Mr. Barney Robinowitz, one of the Relief Column members, also made an excellent report of the work done at Station No. 8.

THE APPROPRIATE INSIGNIA FOR THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION

Samuel P. Gerhard, A. M., M. D., Philadelphia.