Sister Marie Felicie, Who Nursed 5,000 Germans, Escapes and
Tells Shuddering Story of Desolation, Starvation and Death
# (Readers of Mary Boyle O’Reilly’s
article* front Belgium early In the
war will, perhaps, remember the story
of the efforts made by Stater Marl*
H'ellcl* and Mis* O’ltellly to get mill*
through the German lines to the babies
of Brussels. Every effort failed until
the climax, which was produced oy
Sister Marie Felicie, who bearded the
German governor In his office and de
manded that ahe herself be given per
mission to drive the farmer’s carts past
the barriers. The following “to*") - *■
from the same Sister Marie Felicie.-
Editor.)
By MARY BOYLE O’REILLY.
IX)NDON, England. Dec. 18-
mall.) —“Mon dleu! I’ve seen the de
vastation of u cyclone, the utter ruin
wrought by earthquakes —yet never,
never anything like the Belgium
countryside overwhelmed by the Ger
man army!"
Nurse Marie Fellcle of the French
lied Cross has escaped from Brussels
to London with u first hand tale of
the awful desolation of the stricken
land.
“All Flanders,’’ she said to me
when I met her here, “Is filled with
Belgian fugitives, returning now to
find If their little homes have been
spared. Spared? Good God! Every
thing—everything —haa been de
stroyed.
“You see, I know, for I have trav
eled over all this country on foot —a
fugitive with the other footworn fugi
tives!" Nurse Marie Felicie explained.
Nurse To 5,000 Wounded.
1 last saw' her lu Brussels, Aug. 29,
10 days after lta capitulation. Though
she was French, she told me then
that she was determined to stay with
the wounded In spite of German oc
cupation.
“Blnce then," she said to me today
In London, “I must huve nursed 6,000
wounded Germans! All were child
ishly Ignorant about the war, all piti
fully eager for peace. Scores of them
acted like men half asleep. Days of
leafenlng noise, racking fatigue, ter
rible tension had brought them to the
edge of Imbecility.
“Brussels Is a huge hospital. Not
two In a hundred stricken men die
from wounds. Rather they sicken
with sciatica or are killed by 72
hours’ of standing up to their knees
In water when their clay trenches are
like brooks. The flooding of Flan
ders started an epidemic of pneu
monia and typhoid. The fumes from
lyddite shells poison exhausted men.
Poor food, prolonged depression do
the rest.
“German officials acknowledge the
startling increase of suicide. When
this war was planned the German war
office remembered everything except
the human beings who must do the
fighting. Now they realize that mis
take.
Ordersd To Berlin; Flees.
“ 'These patients will all die un
less w’e get them aw'ay from this ac
cursed country,’ the chief doctor said
to me. ‘Nurse Marie Felicie, you will
go with the wounded to Berlin.’
‘“To Berlin! Me, a Frenchwoman!’
I thanked him circumspectly and that
night I vanished. My Red Cross pa
pers passed me at the barrier. After
that I was free —and a refugee, alone,
penniless, without food, In the land
of bondage.
“That explains how 1 came to travel
across broken Belgium on foot.
Wherever I went 1 saw little bogs
toiling’ht men’s work, old people wan
dering dazed amongst unrecognizable
ruins, and women half mad with grief
mourning beside black wooden
crosses.
“On the road beyond the Brussels
barrier 1 met with half a hundred
women refugees. Picture to yourself
how we walked through the night to
Waterloo. There was no moon. The
darkness was absolute, for the ham
lets of Flanders show no lights;
matches cannot be had.
PHesta Stay By Ruined Churchee.
“After walking for hours we wom
en refugees slept on straw in a church
near Gembloux. The parish priests
may no longer show themselves in
ecclesiastical dress. They must wear
mufti. But they calmly Insist on re
maining In their ruined parishes.
‘For,’ say they, ’if we leave, no oue
will remember where the vanished
boundaries ran, nor who ow'ns the
ruined fields. Neither will anyone re- i
call who married whom, nor where
the women and little children of the
Whizz! Whirr! Every One’s A-Skating
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CLAIRE CASSELL-
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BI3TER MARIE FELICIE, OF THE FRENCH RED CROSS.
broken-up families have taken refuge.’
“The kaiser, who fears little else,
fears friction with the Vatican, so his
military governors have orders to let
the priests remain.
“One good old priest gave me a
map he had made for the allies.
“ ‘For two months I have watched
these Invaders,’ he said. ’From Water
loo to Gemblou they have zigzagged
the plain with mines. Belgium has
become a vast field fortress, line after
line of hidden defences. The Ger
mans no longer care what they ruin;
they kuow that they cannot remain.
“ 'As for me, I am an old man, ig
norant of affairs military. Alone, on
foot, I worked out this poor map. It
is for the allied armies.
Belgium Vast Field Fortress.
" ‘When they enter Belgium I will
not be here. Let their generals be
warned. From Waterloo to Marbals
uslans dressed as peasants to deceive
the airmen have constructed quag
mires lined with electrified wires.
Traluloads of barbed wire have come
from Germany. The snares are spread
over a line 10 miles wide by at least
100 long. Everywhere are buried
mines. That means savage warfare.
“ ‘Above Bioux German engineers
have set guide stones across the
marshes. These show beßt at night,
being covered with phosphorescent
paint. It is an Indication of the
end. When t,Ue Invaders retreat they
will take with them as prisoners of
war the men of the Garde Olvique. I
foresee that we hostages will remain
—hanging on the trees.’
“When I reached Namur I found
further indication of the truth of the
old priest’H warning to the allies.
"Since Namur fell, the captured
fortifications have been reinforced. A
thousand men from Krupp's have
worked for months mining the fields
toward Marlagne and weaving wire
entanglements. All the villages round
the fortress have been evacuated and
destroyed to clear the range for gun
fire.
“For here and at Liege the kaiser's
hosts must make their last stand In
Belgium during their great retreat —
the retreat which every man and
woman in Belgium confidently awaits,
feels in his heart is absolutely in
evitable.
“Next day we refugees walked to
ward Dinant. Twice we were crowd
ed from the road by companies of
landwehr and landstnim. Just re
lieved from the firing trenches, black
as miners from the pit, stiff, sore,
The boat of all winter sports has
come into its own again—this winter
everybody skates, and the girl who
tangoes and the girl who "trots” has
made way for the girl who can skim
the Ice on skates.
The first nip of skating weather
brought Miss Claire Cassell, tne New
York -skating champion, to the rinks,
and her dally exhibitions are a fea
ture of New York's brief season of
winter sports.
THE DETROIT TIMES. MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 1915.
deafened, their clothing torn to
shreds, mummified with mud, the
kaiser’s men stumbled along, deaf and
blind to any but tbelr own misery.
Incaders Eat; Belgians Starve.
“But the unutterable misery of Bel
gium Itself Is famine. Prom Ant
werp to Dinant there is no flour at
all. None. Whoever dies, the in
vader must live. Therefore, all the
cattle have been seized and sent Into
Germany. The growing crops were
long since commandeered. Little re
mains. A few starved fowl scratch
ing In the shattered streets, rows of
empty shops without bread, sugar or
oil.
Nurse Marie Felicie paused a mo
ment. Then she said:
“There are two recollections of
that country of sorrows which stay
with me most vividly. The first Is
pleasant. It is of the one little vil
lage in all that desolate land which
remains peaceful, populated and
happy.
One Happy Village.
“Profondeville, with L7OO people,
lives ou untroubled and secure, know
ing nothing of war but the echo of
artillery. Only one road passes Pro
fondeville, for the valley is hardly 300
feet wide. One Sunday, while the vil
lagers gathered for mass, a disabled
motor car crept into the little squara
lu It sat two German officers, young,
arrogant and armed. But before they
could draw their weapons they were
surrounded and threatened with
death. Almost every old man in that
I crowd had served his time in the
great gun factories of Liege. Others,
although too old for the Belgian army,
were not too old to be revenged. The
Germans realized their lives were in
peril.
“Suddenly the parish priest inter
vened, pleading for the enemy. ’These
men are not spies!’ he said. ’They
came quietly, let them pass quietly.;
So may God show mercy to our men
in the field.’ Standing on the village
green men and women voted that the
prisoners be released.
“In three days came a document
from Berlin, signed and sealed. So
long as this war lasts no harm will
| come to Profondeville. For the Ger
man officer they spared is one of the
kaiser’s sons!
Dismal Trains of Dead.
“And my other most vivid remem
| brance is one of death,” resumed Ma
rie Felicie.
“Every night trains of dismal mys
tery clank across Belgium, back from
the front toward Germany. The
trains sometimes are composed of 26
•cars, and in every car are 100 bodies
of dead German soldiers!
’’The Germans who died advancing
on Paris were weighted and sunk In
the nearest river. Today, in conse
quence, typhus Is epidemic In north
ern France and there is true Asiatic
cholera at Mile. I,ater the trenches
about Charleroi served as great
graves. Belgium and the Argonne are
enormous cemeteries.
‘‘But now, mon dieu, the death toll
of the Yser is Incalculable. There
fore the iK)or bodies are collected,
stripped of accoutrements, roped be
tween boards In bales of sou
packed Into trains!
“These dreadful corpse trains bear
their burdens back to the new crema
tor near Ghent, or the huge furnaces
at IJege. Thus are the regiments
which devastated Belgium returning
toward the fatherland!"
WHO BROUGHT THAT
PET SKUNK TO SCHOOL?
PASADENA, Cal.,' Jan. 4.—ls a
I* Hunter, Janitor of the Pasadena
high school, ever learns which one of
the pupils it was who brought a pet
skunk” to school recently, he says he
will so far forget himself as to do
bodily harm.
Since the visit of the little white
and black animal Hunter has used
gallons of disinfectant with no last
ing effect, and all who pass through
the halls of learning are impressed
with the fact that the unwelcome
guest was present. Hunter thinks It
will be months before he, the teach
ers and pupils can forget It.
100,000,000 XMAS GIFTS
BY PARCEL POST
WASHINGTON^ - Jan. 4.—Prsllmln
ary estimates by postofllce depart
ment officials, place the number of
parcel post packages handled durinf
the Christmas rush at 100,000,000.
It Indicates that the total volume
of parcel post traffic for 1914 will to
tal nearly 1,000,000,000 packages.
The government main
tains an agricultural college and three
experiment stations.
Children Cry
FOR FLETCHER’S
CASTO R I A
EYESTRAIN IS
A FERTILE CAUSE
OF CONSUMPTION
Consume*) Nerve Force, lowers
Vitality and Makes System
Receptive of Disease
CITES CASES OF DIABETES
CURED BY EYE OPERATION
Young Woman With Consump
tion Took to Wearing Glasses
and Then Recovered
NEW YORK, Jan. 4 —Eyestrain in
the development of tuberculosis Ls the
subject of a paper by Dr. Frank D.
W. Bates, of Hamlltou, Out., lu a re
cent Isaue of the New York Medical
Journal. He relates experiences since
1396 in which the medical profession
has not given him much encourage
ment, but which have convinced him
that strain upon the eyes consumes
nerve forces, lowers vitality and re
duces the system to a condition fa
vorable for the reception of tuberco
lar and other germs.
His paper suggests to the profes
sion that it is quite as important to
keep the body in such shape that
germs will not take root in it ae It la
to discover germs or invent new
methods In surgery.
His attention was first called to
eyestrain in the development of dis
eases of the general system by a case
of diabetes that was cured by an op
eration upon the eyes. A physician
had been treating the case In the reg
ular way for four years, without re
sult, not expecting a cure. The pa
tient got Into the hands of a Chicago
oculist, who performed an operation.
The oculist gave no medicine.
Dr. Bates heard of the case one
year afterward and wrote Inquiries
about It both to the physician and
the oculist. The physician replied
that he had examined the man a doz
en times since the operation and not
a trace of diabetes remained. There
had been a complete cure, which he
attributed to his patient’s relief from
eyestrain by the operation.
Dr. Bates spent three weeks with
the Chicago oculist, then came to
New York and studied the work of a
specialist who believed eyestrain a
factor in general disease, and after
ward had extended correspondence
with, Dr. George M. Gould, of Phil
adelphia, originator of the eyestralp
theory. He became convinced, adopt
ed the theory Into his own practice
and, he says, in 18 years since then
he has had no reason to change his
View’s.
Hla attention was drawn to eye
strain as a factor In the development
of tuberculosis by a book in 1897 by
Dr. A. L. Ranney, of New York, re
porting casea of direct connection.
Cases of two slaters, born of a
hardy family In which there was no
tubercular heredity, next came under
treatment by Dr. Bates. The first
sister had lost weight from 113 to 82
pounds, Roughed much, had night
sweats and little appetite, and the
family physician had informed her
Unlock the FULL '
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WITH THE GERMAN ARMY
Germans Playing Cards With the Flemish Girls
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WHILE A PRIBONER IN A BELGIAN HOME NEAR ROULERS, I WATCH GERMAN SOLDIERB PLAY CARPS
WITH BELGIAN GIRLB,—By C. Leßoy Baldridge.
While at the front near Roulera, which the cablet aay the alliee have Juet retaken, I waa made prisoner and
sent back under guard to Thlelt for examination. I eketohed the above scene under the eye of the sentry. The sal*
dlers understood no Flemish and the girls no German, but that didn’t interfere with card games which they taught
each other. By the stove sat an old woman who had two sons with the Belgian troops. One of the glHs also had a
brother fighting. Sometimes she would sit silently at her cards and, when reproached by her German partner far
Inactivity, would say that she was thinking about her brother.
parents that she would die In three
months.
Her eyes troubled her at the same
time and she went to Dr. Bates. He
prescribed glasses and soon the night
sweats stopped, the cough lessened
and weight Increased. With the view
of accelerating improvement he sug
gested to the parents an operation
upon the muscles of the eye. The
parents objected, and Dr. Bates did
not presa the matter, not then feeling
so sure of his ground as he would
now. The girl kept wearing glasses
and remained In fair condition for 15
months, when her tuberculosis took a
sudden turn for the worse and she
died.
Two years later the second sißter
had tuberculosis and the family phy
sician Informed the parents that she
would go as the other had gone. The
girl also suffered from eye trouble, for
which she consulted Dr. Bates, who
found she had simple myopic astig
matism. She tvgan to Improve Im
mediately on wearing glasses, and Is
alive and well today.
Dr. Bates says that since then he
has had a number of cases of pro
nounced tuberculosis In his practice,
all of which have recovered after
treatment for the eyes except one
young woman, whose condition was
already hopeless,- bfft she lived two
years.
“Eyestrain cannot produce tubercu
losis by any direct connection with
the lungs or the organs Involved.”
Dr. Bates writes, "but the eyes do
more work than any other organ of
The rich nutriment in oatmeal can only be
unlocked with one key —
thorough cooking.
H-O is the only steam-cooked oatmeal, the
only oatmeal which is cooked at the mill for
over 2 hours —in sealed cookers.
The full, delicate flavor of H-O is secured
mainly by this thorough cooking.
H-O Oatmeal with 20 minutes’ cooking
on your stove produces perfectly-cooked,
delicious, strength-giving oatmeal.
And there’s another reason for the H-O
flavor —that is the zealous care with which
we select our oats from different sections —all
plump, clean oats fairly bursting with
nutriment.
Why not serve H-O Oatmeal tomorrow
steaming with its tempting, rich aroma?
the body, and, If there is trouble with
the refraction or muscular equilib
rium, we are using up a certain
amount of nerve force all the time.
“If a person is manufacturing only
just as much as he is using up every
day the additional nerve force used
up by eyestrain is sufficient soon to
place the system below par, where the
disease to which he Is predisposed is
likely to develop, and that may be tu
berculoßls."
Tramp Steamers Make Money.
Owners of British tramp steamships
are deriving great profit from the
war. For weeks past freights have
been rising not only steadily, but
sometimes rapidly, and they now are
on a very much higher level than
when the war began. For Instance
freights for grain from the Platte have
risen from 13s a ton to 29s lid a ton,
while freights from the Pacific coast
of North America have advanced from
about 35c to 45c. The rise Is due
largely to the acquisition of many ves
sels by the government. Many of
the finest British liners have been
converted into armed merchant cruis
ers 'or have beeu employed as troop
ships; some have crossed the Atlan
tic packed with horses; many have
been chartered for the carriage of
stores or to act as colliers. British
shipping has not only been doing the
bidding of the British government, but
It has been at the service of the
French and Russian governments as
well.
I
Oatmeal
H-O Oatmeal 1$ endorsed iy Ilf **M 'nthoM
Book of Pu* Foods ’ and A* the “/V«
hood Dtfoctory ,t of the Ne» Yo+ Ook*.
Th« H-O Company. Buffato.N X \
Makers hHD. Fore*. Prfto>| \
Page Seven
SEEKING DIVORCE, THEY
BLAME “13” AS HOODOO
WICHITA. Kan.. Jan. 4.—Many
people claim that there is nothing to
the superstition about “13/* but in
Wichita is a couple seeking a divorce
in the district court that bellevaa the
number la an ill omen. They cite
their own lives since they met and
were married. Here is the atory aa
told by he man:
Thirteen years ago the man and
woman met in Topeka on March 13.
They became well acquainted in tha
months following, so on Oct 13 war*
married. They were married at No.
213 East Seventh-st., and atartsd
housekeeping at No. 218 East Eighth
st. The rent on the house came to
sl3 a month, and they have had three
children.
Oct. 13 this year the suit for di
vorce was filed in the district court.
The sheriff served the papers In the
case and made his final return Oct.
23. The woman asked for temporary
alimony and the judge granted her
sl3 a week. Each la 43 years old.
I»uis Duiaki, a rancher of McKen
zie county, N ,D., uses an automobile
to herd hia cattle. He finds that hla
automobile enables him to corer as
much ground aa could be covered by
two men on horses.
A man found drunk In Denmark la
turned over to the carp of a doctor
and the bill la sent to the proprietor
of the last saloon visited by the man.