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The Huron Expositor, 1917-10-05, Page 1e•••., ..,•••••• ,•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • 40 1.11/••••a. hf.6400/1ialif MISER 2459la SU uy; tation days ri 41040400.40400.4041K040.041004tP40. 'eig'JCIothiog Co'y Second to None" ••••••••••••••d•••• ,••••••••••4. SEAFORTH, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1917 1 THE WQMAN AMBULANCE— nal lot, so I've never taken a course in Home Nursing or First Aid. It DRIVER IN FRANCE. wasn't required then. Now they have a . -(Ruth Wright Kauffman) to take courses both in. Firet Aid and It's a dusty business riding at a good M. motor driving. The Find Aid is clip in an ambulance for twenty or very important. We never have an that/ miles on one of those long w,hite orderly with us, you ' French roads -the kind they have so- we come this way much poetryf about. I was glad I miles. We've often wasn't a. 'stretcher case -but let me men when they were r t y in too dan- 1 tell you how it happenedgerous a condition to beienoved, so as I was to be driven by the only sort to raalte room for incenti4 trainloads I of 'conveyance . in that part of the ' and it's rather awful wetted' know what world .to a large military hospital in to do if one of them faints or has a - northern France. The only sort of hemorrhage." "You don't carry them at this pace, do yoe?" I gasped. e "We crawl," she laughed. scarlet cross pull up on the other side "I suppose milling down that flap of the street, For a moment I at the rear keeps out *e 'dust?" thotight that the driver, who vealked "NO, not a bit, ThoVidoeon't seem toward me in xnotor cap and rubber to be any way to ppid: the dust. coat and bigh boots' must' beaa man, Sometimes the ettiteliCia eases have a eisetity and alert , and . somewhat dust all over their eyelid's when. We get young man. Then I sa*.tay mistakethein to the end of the jeterhey.t "You're to come with me, I think," In the town itself -a town once ov- she Said, holding out a strolig handerflowing with suramerlohrists from "Wait a minute, please. 'iieldve-- kept ' all parts of teh world, and gayly pia - the' cushions doubled over, so they turesque with its miXture of old wouldn't get dusty, tqrt z shali have to France and new, with itlelaotels and dust them, after all. I hope you .don't golf and tennis and white cliffs and mindnot starting for another hour, sands where the brigthly dressed ehil- I've a lot of calls to make. . dren used,th play -I same fleet the loll- and when ut twenty transfer • en buy - [d Coats ;hoWing h goOds to ,pu. ials and y en, and 4t6.o all itit rt f a g corn - 'La ies', land at s gI for e143ing e in ress es a or S a pleasure to -select a coat from our Fresh New - Stock of Choice Fall Styles. Every ga ent is skijfully made from good wearing handsome materials.; They are the delight of every woman that cnines to see. Our Coats are snperior in Style to almost every other ore's showing. You'll fully appreciate this fact when you see -yourself in one of 'these coats. Moderate.::Prites.; AL WAYS $I2$•18 to $39 w Overcoats atd Suits EOR. N AND \B YS rONSIDERING the. scarcity of cloth materials in the markets of the World, our large assortment of good cloth gaiments is an absolute wander. Our long experience in buying and selling enables us to know where to buy (and what to buy and how to buy to be prepared for the demands of a community like this. Men's Suits, reliable in color, etc..... .............. 1 Boy's Overcoats Bop' Suits.... 00000000000 Men's Overcoats, made of dependable cloth..... $15 to $20 • 0 • 060900 ... 0 • 0 $12 to $20 $5 to TRW $,5O to $10 1 Our Pure Wool Underwear THEREA our stock, We have had delivered in good time the varied weights of pure wools—medium and heavy sizes, weights, also the fleece lined for men and boys of all is no shortage of the all -wool underwear in Pure Wool Heavyweight -- $1.25 to $2.50 Pure Wool riedium weight— • $1.00 to $2.00 Fleece . . 50c th $1.00 conveyance ° was an ambulance. I waited at hese headquarter e until I saw the great gray creaturewith its I did not mind. But 1 was glad • that she invited me to go with her while she made them. None the less. I took my place -gingerly 'within the ambulance. I had never stepped lit- sidean ambulance before, and this one which had carried so many wounded soldiers' four by four -the last batch only yesterday -made me hold back for an instant. ' My, driver delivered hes.messagee here and collected her mail there, slinging, without the slightest hesita- tioneheavy bags of it that would have been beyond my strength, Soldiers saluted her, but she was left alone to hoist the boxes and big sacks. She wasted no time, her manner was busi- nesslike, and she performed ' her er- rands with military precision. For the first half of the trip I stay- ed back with an over -age Red Cross man, who spent his tune hunting 1113 three of the cars are nearly always missing soldiers and questioning the on the road, The duties consist in a wounded for details of their comradesgood deal more than transporting the There were two other' passengers- wounded. The drivers are mid& or - two roseacheeked young women in the ders to go whenever they are sent, V . A .D . (Volunteer Ambulance Driv- wherever they are sent, for whatevez ers) uniform that one conies soon to they are sent, for whatever purpose ing of .soldiers :in- theirblue invahd uniforms on the promenade by the sea, their figures silhouetted' 'against a brilliant sky. Casino and hotels are now'hospitals, but for 4 space I lost sight of that side of 'things, and, with the gracious permission of the co a- mending officer, I was taken to see the motor -drivers' headquarters and their immaculate garage.' • The officer under whom *e ads xectly work showed me; with an air of pride the fourteen ears, "Each girl' has her Own ambulance," the said, as he pointed, them out one by one; "and she takes entire care of it herself. There are no night shifts, so she must be ready for duty at any tune within the twelity-feur hours at a few minute's notice. Generallys, the girls are working here the better part of each morning, except that two or .000,000106•0 DIED FOR HIS COUNTRY. GEORGE, HENRY THAMER Killed in Action in France. July ist, 1917. Pte. Thamer was a son of Mr. William Thamer'of Walton, and enlieted with the 161st Hurons. He was selected in the first draft from that Battlaion, joining the 58th Battalion, and went to Fra,nce early in the year. used, and one can well imagine the struggle that. Must have ensued with the military authorities before they could be persuaded that women were as capable as men for driving. ambul- ances. For some months this unit of fourteen did its ova cooking and housekeping in odd leisure moments; but the odd moments were few and far between. The girls had no ener- gy left to edok and keep house soefine ally the unit was increaded to consist of eighteen ramnbers, including two cooks, a housemaid, and a parlor maid .-all voluntary. The unit is on laalf Government rations and receives en- ough money to pay for laundry. Tic- kets to England for the semi-annual fortnightly leave are provided, but in the end the girls are out of pocket, because they buy some of their food. A great deal of the food they receive is tinned, as if they were soldiers; and tinned butter,' can well believe is more than one can pleasantly endure. My return journey -in the ambu- lance with the monkey -showed an in - 1 mentioned this to the coennan.dant. "Well, I don't know," she said, mil- ing deprecatingly. "When- we had that huge lot of fifteen hoandred in- stead of our nine hundred and fifty ca- pacity, we were pretty sleepy.. 1 don't know about most of the girls, though they couldn't have had it any 'easier than I did; I know I got Only three and a half hours' steep in forty-eight h.ours, and as for food, seized.what I could whet I saw it. We didritt need much rocking after that stretch of work was over.' And the colonel in command, whb won his Victoria Cross under heafy fire in the South. African War long before the tradition of keeping women out of affairs military had ever been broken, confessed to xne; 'f.1 should feel a. lot safer with thos young women than with meet men." FROM SALONIKA TO LONDON The following interesting letter is from a former Seaforth girl, Miss Minnie Best, who has been a nursing sister at Salonika, Greece, for the past yealrs or more, to her aunt, Mrs. J. D. Iiinchley, describing her trip from Salonika. to London, England, where she is now on duty: three daughters, have arrived from Basin,gstoke, Sept 9, 1917 Minneapolis to take up el* home on Dear Aunt Jean, -Do you notice 1 iheolatohwnsorah'eatipe, eadwhtiletthmeoi..leeasBlakehenreof_ that am able at last to put ray abode Grey at the top of the letter? I wasn't able to do that irwGreece. We were not allowed to put our addrees any place on the letter conspicuoasty. Now we are free to do at we please in all things. In England, yest. Did mother tell you I sent her a cablegram of our safe arrival. Ithought it would save you needness anxiety. The journey was a dangerous one, but we travelled only by night when on the water, In all we took seventeen. days to come from Salonika to London. We left Salonkia (and this is the last -time I hope I shall have to mention the name of Salonika) on the sixteenth of Au- gust by the transport Aragon -only the sisters of all the Canadian hospi- tals and two medical officers froxn each. We brought with us our quar- termaster and payxnaster, Captain Trump and our Registrar,Major liteeff Colonel MeVicar. Our first night - convoyed by two torpedo boat des- troyers took us as far as the Island of stance of skill. We had barely entered short -Ume there resting up before we start travelling again, because we are tired right out, and for one can not go on duty again until I have had a good rest. Basingstoke is a lovely place a little English town from which we are a- bout half an hour's walk. We walk- ed in the other day, through little English lanes and hay fields and it was delightful. I am learning to ride a bicycle as that is the only means of locomotion in England. At present we are most unsettled - cannot stay at anything for any length of time. I have only written one leter since I left Salonika. I sent you a card from Paris. Did you get it? Lovingly, AffINNIFe Basingstoke, Hants, En'g. • HURON NOTES. -The fine farm of Mrs. Thomas • Strachan, 6th concession -of Grey, has been sold to Mrs. Alex. McDonald, who owns another 100 acres 071 the 4th concession. The price for the 125 acres was $7,100. -Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Blake ant 'cently purchaeect. It is twenty-six years since he went west. Mr. ancl Mrs. T. Alcock moved to Brxissels. -The trustees, of Willis thumb, Clinton, have appointed MISS Mau& Torrance organist, to suce'ed Prof. Bristowe. On Prof. Bristowe's remov- al to Kincardine the. trustees voted him a liberal bonus in token of the esteem he which he is held by the congregation and the excellent service- `- he gave as choirmaster and organist. -On Friday last, at Goderich hos- pital; a citizen of Clinton passed away,.ay,e n the 'person of Florence Rosa Bren- nan, wife a Mr. James Johnston, of Clinton. The deceased lady had suffer- ed a' severe illness a few months ago and though sufficiently recovered to b; able to go about she never fully re- gained her health. She had gone to the hospital for further treatment a- bout a week previous to the end. -Elias Brenner, a well known res- ident of Dashwood, died at his home there on Friday night at the age of 78 years and 4 months. The deceas- ed had been in poor health for some thee and about two weeks ago he suf- fered a etto, ke a paralysis from whicle he never recovered. He is survived by his widow, three sons and three daughters, three brothers and two sis- ters who mourn his loss. He was a member of the Lutheran church. the city of Athens leave to England. They were .bubb- ing mails, bringing passengersaollect- the to of our destination when one Skyros just off . We anchored all day there. The next recognize, returning from a fortnight's -they are sent, and that 'Wens eaerW- ing over with the chatter , of their hol- ing stores, oncert pertied-anything utes exactly, of the tires collapsed In five min- w iday, and were anticipatmg seeing . that meist be brought or trans- ' snight took us to the Island of Milo l their old , friends agani. They had ferred. The girgt, never complain. with the uses' without any fus, but (of the famous Venus, the bust of l idle crowd that collects in a country at war as well as in a country at peace, a fresh tire was in place and we were again on our way. What I think, made me see most clearly into the lives of these girls watt a sort of diary, kept in very brief foam, tuto which their ettennendetat let me take a glimpee. It gave me what the spoken words could not of them- selves give, and showed, through its very lack of intent to show, the rare courage of these young women, set a- ino. I never experienced sucIl heat mong conditions that not so long ago as we felt on the ship in those Aegean would have been considered impossible ports and the next for Corfuten, both for -women to bear, especially as these, of these trips we were convoyed ht by motor -drivers belong to a class that i . • !Japanese torpedo boat destroyers, . in been doing Red Cross work m France for over .a year, and were 'practical enceighmot to look on the dark side of their clouds. They reminded nee more of school -girls returning after holi- days than anything elsegfor they must have been very young. d • - Thep, for I was white from, the dust sucked up from the road, I changed to a seat beside the driver, where she thought it might be cleaner. We moved at top speed and rattled over all the back roads while we exe- cuted our various official orders. We passed numbers of German prisoners. A groep of three of them smiled • good -morning to us. I seed a Tommy give a light to another German. My driver told me that she had driven many Germans to and from the hos- pital, but it made no apparent differ- ence to her; they- were wounded when she had to do with them'. She Was looking forward to the summer andwalled my attention to the luxuriant Lombardy poplars and the masses- of flowers that miraculously . grew and kept in order; roses that hung over walls, huge clusters of pe- onies. Not that it would have any effect on the amount of work. The hospital had always been full since she arrived, although there had been de- pressing occasions when it had sud- denly become crowded to twice its capacity; but slimmer Irma* easy Weather conditions, and motordrivers perforce consider the weather condi- tions. - The winter had been incredt ibly cold. For the nursing members, who lived in practically unheated huts it must have been almost unbearable; but what could be &me when there was e shortage of fuel? The drivers had a charnhifig house set in a lovely garden. It used to belong to a French Deputy. In Winter, however, it was conspicuous for single open fire- place, around which eighteen girls • could not comfortably toast them- selvee . • "There's one good thing about that," I was cheerfully told. `When you're kept , pretty mild all the time, you don't feel the outside cold nearly so much:• Most of our work last winter had a way of coming along between two and three o'clock in the Morning. Now that it's fine weather and make& no difference, the trains generally ar- rive about six. It is perverse of them!" There had been snow for long per- iods from Novernber until April, sometimes several feet deep. My driver had once run in to a drift dur- ing a storm and stuck there. Fortun- ately, she was quite alone at the time. She had walked back, got another am- bulance, returned to find the snow so banked up that there was no digging her first car out and she finally had to tow it home. She has now made it a rule never to go out without a sho- vel., I wondered if she had to know much about mechanics. "wen, you se," she explained, "I had myown car and had been running it for five years, so I had not trouble in qualifying. I can do any road- work, but I'm not a skilled mechani- cian. I mean, if the car completely broke down it would have to go to the garage for repairs. Several men are kept there to attend to the more serious troubles." "Do you have to take up Red Cross work before you qualify as a driver?" 1 asked. "Yes, now. But I was in the prigi- All in two -pie or combination(style. Greig Clothing Co SE AFORTH 1414001t0000,000114:40001) 4;000•0•0410041000•04 I've never heard one say she was tired. And the ambulances are kept in -much better condition' thee when the men had -them -we are forced to admit that. The girls 'take a pride in. them, ,you ',de:tete-eh Phinted I -loyi ftediWa- efii relied in front of ;one ambulance. • "Oh, that's a mascot. They all like masdots. Curious, ;isn't , it? be going back with that car, I ex- pect?" At the Deputy's house we 'carie upon the girls eating lunch, a sturdy- looldng assemblage, their faces ruddy front the winds, their eyes spirited, their whole bearing enthusiastic. As most of them had held .their jobs for at last a year, the newness and ad- venture of their work had worn off. They were not in France through any war hysteria. One girl said to me that after three months conies the hardest strain; for by the tirne that you are sick of just the same roade and the same stones day in and day out. Afterwards you get used to it and forget the monotony. "Don't a lot of you break down?" I asked. - • "No; surprisingly few. One girl went home to -day because the doctor thought she wasn't fit. The winter was pretty hard on her. But we're all strong to begin with, and of course we have a severe medical examination before we are accepted. We're sip - posed to have nothing to do besides driving, though in the end we do a great many other things, because no - bode is within reach, and things that must be done must be done at once." "What do you do when work's over?" "We ,never know when it's over! That's the worst of it. You can't count on the hour when anything's go- ing to happen in a war. If the Ger- mans wound our men or gas our men, and there's. a train -load to come, we • must be there. . We have a regular rounte to and from the station, so we never get in one another's way. For instance, yesterday, we brought the entire four hundred and fifty men - and they were mostly lyinm cases - in an hour and a half. The first train we unloaded and deposited at the cas- ino in twenty-eight minutes, but were delayed by the second train; they generally arrive in two sections." "How long does it take to bring in one load from the local station?" "Six or seven eninutes. But the return trip takes no timee-wetoot along with empties." - "But, I persisted, "it isn't only driving these ambulances that keeps you looking so well." "Oh, nit," said another driver, the most rosy-cheeked of all, I think. "We're -great believers in exercise aed open air. Whenever -we get a mom- ent off, we go out. Tennis and walke ing and golf and bathing when it's at all safe. There's a swift current, and we're not allowed to bathe without a boat. We never go so far away that we can't be found quickly. That's the really hard thing, that awful feel- ing of responsibility. But we, do manage to take a lot of exercise. And then we aon't worrk. It's a rule not to worry." in the beginning the girls had come as „a unit of fourteen motor -drivers only. They vrere, the pioneers, for this was the first place in France where women ambulance drivers were whom was found in the twelfth cen- tury). That night we left for Crete, staying three days there. We landed on the first afternoon and I drove to the town of Caneat-an An- glicized. town, as Crete formerly be- longed to England for years. The next day we went to Crition to ewe the wood carving. It took us an hour to sail over and three hours to come back. The next night we left for Never- have never dreaened of earning them living, and were certainly unused to hardships before they signed on for their present work. The bald state- ments of fact from the diary are the more poignant because they are ex- pressed as mere commonplaces. I quote bits lifted here and there, with- out dates; whom the British sailors have the greatest confidence. On Sunday -morning we reached Ta- ranto but remained on ship until Mon- day morning. On Sunday evening, howew, the Naval Transport Officer took us for a trip around the harbor of Taranto in a small tug to see a sunken "The rush of work for this unit be - Italian dreadnaught, sunk in gan on Sunday and -continued roughly ten days. All the unit without excep- tion worked • splendidly, and besides being many hours on the road kept their ears in such excellent condition that, in Bette of hard usage, not a car euffered from neglect. — and joined the unit to assist with- house- work, as all the drivers evere•wanted. NI/Rhin the fortnight we carried 2,115 lying eases, 719 sitting eases. The Mileage was 8,718 miles. . there, and reached Bologna about el - "In one day two ambulance trains even. We, had from eleven to two at were evacuated and three hospital Bologna. Had lunch there, shopped., ships were loaded. . • . "The latter half of the last fort- and did the Cathedral night has been very busy. Three trains We reached the city of Turin have • been met, and, though the men have not been able to be evacuated to England, . large numbers of sitting eases have been carried by the con- ovy to convalescent camps. The gar- age has been converted into a tem- porary hospital, and the cars are at present parked on the square. Sever- al members of the unit have volunteer- ed to help with the patients in the garage'and their offer has been very gratefully accepted by the matron, as the increased number of beds has been a great strain on the nursing staff. The assistance rendered in get- ting patients' meals, cutting up dress- ings, making beds, etc., by the unit, especially by those who hold the Home Nursing certificates, has been most appreciated.... . "The weather has been intensely cold, and it has been difficult to pre- vent the cars from freezing during the"Transport or.t 'ha's been difficult owing to the state of the -roads, whieh in places have been several feet thick in snow', On more than one occasion drivers have had to dig their ears out of the drifts. . . . "Repairs have again been •heavy, and have been done by the unit them- selves. Most of the evacuations have taken place in the night, and this has frequently entailed a full day's work in the workshop being followed by a night on the road Netwithstandina this. the health of the unit is excel - What' struck me most was the fact that menion was made of the possibil- ' iv of the cars freezing, while nothing was said of hands and feet. That is the essential quality of these drivers; thev are so much xnore distressed over their individual ambulances than over their person discomforts, the harbor before the war, before it had ever made a trip. On Monday morning we landed in time to have lunch at Taranto and proceeded on our journey by rail. We ran across to Bari on the coast and had a pick-up lunch. We managed to get a chicken some bread and butter and fruit, and scrambled on the train to teat it. We slept on the train that night, six of us in a compartment. Did I say we slept? We spent the night at midnight, had a bath, and went to bed in the hotel. It WELS/ deli- cious. We spent the day shopping and boarded the train again at 4 p.m. I might say that Italy is even ophre wonderful than the tales I have heard of it. It is a perfect flower garden, with prage vines festooned from tree to tree. I cannot describe it. I am glad to have seen it. , From Turin we went through the Alps -and the Italian Alps are won- derful. Once again I cannot describe then,. -the natural scenery, the wat- erfalls, the villages nestling at the foot of the hills -all are wonderful. We spent that night also in the train and reached Paris at noon. We spent two days and two nights in Paris, shopping and sight -seeing - shopping the first afternoon and sight- seeing the next day. Everything is too expensive to buy. The girls bought some blouses. Then we went out to Versailles, but the palace was closed; but we visited the Grand and Petit Triason. In the afternoon we visited Notre Dame Cathedral and the Church of the Sacred Heart, the Tuileries Gar- dens, along the haraps Elysses to• the Bois du Boulogne, the Louvre, and the Tomb of Napoleon. I like Paris for sight-seeing and London for shopping. We left Saturday morning for Le Havre, spent the rest of the day there and left for Southampton that night. We had a choppy crossing. I was un- comfortable but not sick. We reached Southampton at night and London at noon. We slept the first two days and 'shopped until Thursday afternoon, when we left for Basingstoke, and here we are till our trunks edene,when we will go on leave some plate. We had planned on Scotland, but all feel too tired to go_ yet, so it may be that , we will go to Cornwall first and spend -Mrs. W. W. Harris has disposet1 of the well known Shamrock Butter - Factory, at Brussels, to `C. Klockmant. of Stratford, who took possession ore , October 1st, The purehaser is an ex- pert hand at the business aid wilE no doubt sustain the good name of thet factory. Mr. Harris has not solct her comfortable home and will con- tinue to reside he Brussels. Mr. Klockman will remove his family to Brussels in the near fame. -The first Flower Show in connec- tion with Brussels Horticultural So- ciety was held on Saturday afternoon% and evening of last week in the aud- ience room of the Public Library. Thanks to the willingness of the mem berg and others, a large and beauti- ful range was put on display.Waltom members sent fine contributions, and Mr. W. Hartry, of Seaforth, who was present at the organization, showecd3. his interest by motoring over with a. fine lot of his justly celebrated Gladi- oli and other choice flowers. No prizes were offered and most of the flowers were sold, close on 425 being realized for the Reel Cross in this way. -The north side of the Maitlantl river, Brussels, possesses no less than seventeen people or more, who have passed their 80th birthday and are all able to be about, a number of theme being so active that persons ten yeare their junior have to brisk up to keep step with them. In the list are; Mrs. 5. Crawford, Charles Howlett, Mrs. William Newson, Hugh Lamont, Alex Ellis, David Heist, George Crooks, Mrs. George Crooks, Mrs. William Ross, Mrs. James Menzies, MTS,.. Ran kin, Mrs. Walter Smith, ex -leve j. Leckie, Mrs, (Rev.) Paul, Alex. Rosse, Mrs. H. Wilbee, William TurnbUll, Mrs. II. Wilbee and Mr. Ellis are past 90 years and Mrs. Menzies is not. far from it. -By a new arrangement with Thuel Bros,, the Brussels Council bee secured the restoration of eled la lighting. The following is the plait on. alettlaa test will be made for the next few months; The town will rent the plant at $45 per month and silently the necessary coal, the proprietors furn- ising all other necessaries; Robert Thuell will receive $'75 per month for his serettes as manager of the sys- tem; the'°limit will pay $80 a montle for street ighting and the other usere will get tbejr light at cost,. not to ex- ceed 15 centper killowatt, the rate having been 12k cents; the council mak- ing good if coat exceeds the new rate: Nearly all the ti,trons signed the new agreement as tide was the only way in which a continuance of the sygera could be obtained. Care will be taken. 'n reading the metres and collectious • made promptly by the town. Already the proprietors are busy getting the plant into shape for an early start. This will be good new to Brussels an& of no small importance as the long dark nights hasten along. Thuell Bros. will no doubt do their best to fill the contract in firsteclass manner, and as they were formely in cbarge, they should make it go watout costing the town a very large increase. With *0 rise in price of coal, oils, repairs wages, etc the old 'rate was, of course, out of the question, —1 . oi ,••••