To Katherine Breckinridge, 1 May 1919

     digitized, transcribed, encoded, and annotated by Trey Conatser

Vic_sur_Aisne,
May first, 1919.
(Address Comptoir National d'Escompte
2 Place de l'Opera, Paris)

My precious mother:

                                    You have not had a real letter since I went up to Paris
and now I have been back four days, but such busy days and at night I was
rather tired. From Paris I sent you one hand-written letter and somee post
cards so you will have had news. I don't know whether L seeees has started yet
or not as I haven't heard since my return. Warren wired her to be ready to
go on a forty eight hours notice and said he was going to be allowed to take
her with him ioon the transport. So they may be sailing any minute and again
may be indefinitely delayed. I won't feel they are really off until they
get on the ship. It is most uncertain. You are going to be pleased with Warren
and he and Lees seem exceptionally well suited. He has just come back from
another trip into Germany and says the American troops now dislike the Boshes
as much as one could wish. At first all reports are that it was rather dis_
tressing. The Boshes made a lot over them, gave them whatever they wanted to
buy at half price, said it was they had won the war and they were the only
brave and splendid ones against them etc. and our boys swallowed it hhpewholwhole.
Prices had been high in France and here in Germany they were sold things cheap
and they believed the honey talk, bBut Warren say s that fortunately the army
of occupation has stayed long enough to see through the situation, for the
prices to go up and the German to resume his old arrogance and bul lying ways
and for the boys to get to know him too well anyway to be un ddeceived. He said
the Germans were getting harder to manage every trip. I asked how his German
held out and he said the only German weonone needed was a six shooter. When you
showed that and refused to tall k supposed diffuiiculties in transporation
melted away.         It was hard to say good bye to Lees. It seemed good to have
hneer so near. Nevertheless I am glad she is going home. The present life
should in the nature of things give way to a normal relation and home. She
  has no idea where they will     be stationed but hopes for Fortress Monroe.
I think he whhas quite decided to remain in the service and I don't doubt
makes an excellent as well as a popular officer. I met two of his brother
captains who seemed very fond of him. We ollunched together and Lees, Warrneenen,
and I and Madame Berynny went to the theater one night, an amusing and tho_
roughly indecent farce. Madame Berny is one of the people where Lees stays
and very agreeable. They are devoted to her there and unhappy over her
going. M. Zeno the Greek with an Italian mother, a charming elderly man, is
desolated and so is Madame Colin, whose apartmentappartment it is. I stay there too
of course when I am in Paris. It is most comfortable and most expensive
like everything else there. One can live two days and seven days in Pa the
Aisne, high as food is, on what it costs two and a half days in Paris. In
other words it is five dollars a day for room and food, in this private
aapartmentappartment. The hotels are way up further, except special war swworker hotels
which run a little less than Mme. Colin, but are nothing like so private or
comfortable, although better heated.     Emma had dinner with us one night.
She looked so well. I have a letter from Katherine     and it is fine to know
she is over here even if I don't get to see her. I shall write her of course
about getting the trophies of war for her if she wants them. I suppose they
will be cleared away some day but there are thousands to be picked up for atat
the present. The only things I care for are the brass shells which make
such beautiful bvvases but they are so heavy there is a limit to the number
one can take home. I will ask K. how many     she wants and I will ger her a
helmet too ifs she wants it. I hate the German ones and I don' t want any
helmets. They are useless and not pretty. I am fooond of my bayonet because itt
is such       a good pok er and I have no other and have become permanently
attached to it in consequence. The only way to ger German souveniers, except

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the helmets and shells which lie around is to buy them fromof the prisoners
working all around I could not bring myself to do this althhough most
of the others do. Belssides, I don't want their dirty old Gott Mit Uns belts
and water bottle.ss. §  I don't want to have anything to do with them. Every
one treats them decently but,, surrounded as they are by their own devilment,,
they don't look pretty. The French never have any other name for them
but Boshes. §  Braly, who spent two years in Germany years ago and speaks the
lingo fluently, talks to them now and then, asking them why they did it and
they always say they were attacked and had to defend their country and
the Kaiser and some love him still. None seem to think for themselves even
yet, but of course they are not much in touch so far as one knoswws with
the outside world.

We have had many visitors lllaately,++ and for dejeunerdéjeuner yesterday a French
baron and his wife who have been all that one could be devoted and kind to
their village near La Ferte Milon and with whom we have had pleasant relationss
before. TThey are extreme socialists and much against the present government
because they say it is reactionary. §  This makes me think of one thing about
the German prisonee r situation I don 't like. It is right to use themm to
help rebuild what they destroyed and there is work for ten times their
number, but in some villages,, since squads of them were sent in,, instead of
using them as additional labor to hurry up reconstruction the authorities
are making their being there an esxxcuse to deny labor to Frenchmen aoor to
cut down wages and wherever this is done you can imagine the ibbitterness.
It makes me bitter. At Montgobert the coming of thdee squad of prisoners to
expedite things lowered the wages from twenty two sous and hour to sixteen
and the advance had not kept pace with the cost of living either byy a good
deal. Five men and boys, frail boys of fifteen, came here yesterday
looking for work with nothing ahead, becauesse they had not been able to
find it at Compiegne and they were denied it here_ and Vic has a squad of
six hundred Boshes prisoneers working. We gave them money to supply them
while they walked back and food. But we boiplled. And I am beginningg     to think
the presence of the prisonrserers, if this is typical of many locallities, are
France more harm than good.§ 

Other guests ((who came in while I was in Paris)) were Miss Walkdd, Jeannette
Rankin, Jane Addams, Ida Tarbell, Willi am Allen White, some reporters, othreers..,
and Betty Ashe with the other women , the nursing head of the defunct
Children's Bureuaau.§  I suppose as the season advances we will have many more.
Some stay to lunch, some several days. I saw Miss Wald twice in Paris.
Saw Mr. Crane twice again. It would be imporrssssible to tell you how kind the
Red Cross was to me in putting me on to all the information I needed to
start the work here in this section of the Aisne. The Children 's Bureau no
longer exists and they are closing out the other deparmttmtments with the view
to withdrawing altogether as soon as possible except for the international
part. But fortunately for my work here the various heads of departments of
tehe Bureau had not yet left Paris, although the Bureau was closed out.
They gave me invaluable information and advice and I went to their clinics and toand to
abonone by the RockerfellowRockerfeller Foundation for delicate children. The Foundaation
was most kind to me too. Gave me stacks of literature and posters as did thee
Red Cross. The latter gave me a lot of cards for records, printed, they had
used, and two files to hold them and are giving is big scales and baby
scales, graduates, funnels, losttsts of stuff, all I asked for that they had lin
their salvage department, or educational department. The Free     ilk for
France is giiccvving us stacks of powdered milk, the best substiturTtTt for the
fresh [milk] there is, and I was given by my own committee fundxss sufficient to
get whatever else I needed so bought measuring outfit, bottles, etc. When thhe
stuff all arrives we will have the equipment for a big piece of work. We have

3.

just been assigned a new doctor here to our unit by the American Woman's
Hospital Association with whom wree cooperate. She is a Colorado woman daand
very up to date and worth whileworthwhile. With her comes a nurse, a very nice one,
to help with the dispensary work, and their own chauffeur__, a Colorado
girl. They all live together across from our grounds and eat with us. Now
Dr. Fraser is thoroughly alive to the big public health and child hygiene
programs of the day, ????????????????????????????????????????????????
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
???? and anxious to cooperate, which makes it all easy with the start we
are getting. She and Miss Smith ar e busy all of e very dayy     of course iwithwith
their dispernnsaries     in various villages and the sick but she is going to
give me time for the special baby work which falls to me. We are going to
hodlld well baby clinics, carrying the scales and etc. about in a camion
from village to village at regular intervals, and weighing and measuring
not only all the children under six but the delicate looking children over
six. Those that are underweight are to be assisted with special diets
until we bring them up to normal and the nursing mothers ditto. The things
they all lack are tohhe proteins and fzaats. We cannot build up a nursing mother's
milk when she has nothing but starches for food, such as vegetables and
bread. There must be meeaat or eggs or milk or cheese or something equivalent..
The simplest way I have found so far, and it meets what we have, is to
give the mothers an abundance of condensed milk which contains the cocoa proteiiiinn
( the unsweetened kind) and then with it cocoa to make an agreeable drink.
I was asking a nursing mother today how much often she had meat to eat and
    she replied with surprise, "Why, never."     But with her two pre_-ewaarwar babies
she had had meat for she hoowned the rabbits which formed part of every village
exsstablishment, and chickens, and there was plenty of cheese and milk too.
She sees herself why there isn't enough milk for this little mite. It is
for us to correct it. find the remedy. Dr. Fraser is going to examine the
babies and children for me and we will be able to have their physical
defects corrected when the hospital which was at Luzancy arrives at Bleran_
court with out unit there. We have also now two woman dentists whichwho are
busy remedying the most prevalent defect of zallall. tTheThe teeth in the Aisne
are dreadful and most people in their twenties have lost them altogheether
I should judge, although I have no figuerres.     The nursing mother I spoke
of just above is a war widow with three little children whose sole means of
support are the government pensions which total for her three francs fifty
centimes a day. That is exactly the price of one can of condensed milk, as
brought in by a village store. Ours cost us less. How can there by anything
but undernourishment with figures lik conditions like that? I have listed
the children of our twenty two fvvillages preparatory to beginning my special
work. We have on our files one hundred and eighty six from ages of two to
six and forty five under [the age of] two besides those over [the age of] six, many of whom     are so
below par that they must be included in our program.     tTThose are only the
villages of our Vic unit. Our committee has many others with the other
units two which I hope we can extend the work as it progressprogresses. General relief
is being given to all, as far as ewwe are able.

Now about the goats. I have seldom been more moved than by your letterss
and Aunt Jane's and Aunt Florence's about the Goat fFFunds which simultaneously
had been started by Caroline in Kentucky and initiated by Aunt Jane's con_
tribution, and by Aunt F. in Alabama and you and Aunt R. in Tennessee.
I thiknnk I can promise that every penny will go directly into goatgoats. It is
indeed the most necessary thing for this country which was a goat coo untry
before the war, the huiillside villages, and should be retsstocked. Cows are
prohibitive in price except for the prosperous but the poorer can keep a
couple of goats and had them before the war. It would be the salvation
of the little children. The only question is the gettinghow to get them. They were
plentiful at five or six dollars before the war, and they cost twenty about

4.

or more now any where near the Aisne. Sojmme one told me in Paris that they
were as cheap as ever in places like Corsica but whether they could bree
transported to Mardsseilles from there and up to us is another question.
Miss Morgan is investigating. I can get a few here and there west of the
devastated country, with the money you are sending, and if the matter
goes no further     I figure that a baby will be saved practically forbby each
goat. I hope the thing can go further and that I can bring in a greater
number from a greater distance. It can be done just in proportion as there
is money to do it with. The greatest progbblem is always transportation. There
is enough of the things we need,; they just aren't here. The committee pays
transportation on everything so that is why I think I can promise that the
goat money will al l go into goat, in to actual goat.

You ask if I want magazanesmagazines now and then like the Scribners sent.
I only want one and ytthat is the Literary Digest. If you can send that with
a fair degree of regularity it will be a comfort as one cannot keep up with
developments at home from the     Paris papers. Of course if there is somethigngsomething
you know I would especially like such as the Kate Douglas Wiggin story in
the Scribner's send [it] along, but otherwise send no other magazine reguallllarly.
We get occasional magazines as people drop them in passing or through the
mailsmail, more than we have time to read. I am subscribing for the two pPParis
papers reviews which have their best things on child hygiene in them, the
"Nourrisson" and the "Presse Medicale." In addition I am buying several
books by their     leading authorities and am steeping myself in their point
of view and informing myself as to the work they have done up to date.
The Children's Bureau of the Red Cross aligned itself definitely with evergyy
thing worth while they [the French] had done and is leaving a permanent impress of its
own work in various places, notable in introduccing public health nursing in
several cities. Now the minister of the inrtterior has zaasked the only training
school for such nurses, modeled on the Anglo Saxon plan, at Bordeaux, for
their fivv e best graduayttes to makes a survey of conditions in the Nord, one
of the worst devastated provinces, the one where Lille is, and to report
as to wherein public health nursing can best help conditions there. It is
a wonderful advance and but the beginning.

Since I began this letter I stopped to go out on an obstrieeeetrical call,
in the absence of the doctor, in an adjacent village. Got back one one thirty
at night. It had been a false alarm and dwindled off into nothing.

Thanks so much for going through the copies of Breckie     for me. From
your description I sholdshould judge all the copies all right to send although I
would not send out the copy with the extra pages while the others were
left unsent, the since that is really imperfect.

[illegible] your daughter[illegible] your daughter

Mary.