American National Red Cross

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Much has been written of the many beautiful and historic spots around Washington, but one which is a revelation to all who visit it, is the new Washington Sanitarium, located at Takoma Park, on an elevation of 300 feet. The Washington Sanitarium has only been in operation a little over a year. It already has a splendid patronage; it is undoubtedly destined to become well known not only for its beauty and delightful surroundings, but as a health resort. During the fall and winter the climate is almost ideal; the summer climate is good—no mosquitoes or other pests are to be found. ”

“ The work is capable of infinite expansion on almost any scale. It bids fair to reach sufficient magnitude to make the problems of organizations, permanence, finance, equipment and membership of importance to the future of Red Cross work. We cannot forget the essential functions of the Red Cross are gravest in time of war and calamity in relation to great masses of humanity, but there is as much patriotism expressed in teaching the individual in time of peace to attain maximum efficiency and resistance to disease. ”

“ There is a nurse’s school which claims to teach nursing in a short term of a few weeks and calls the graduates “red cross nurses,” who go out in competition with those who have served several years in hospitals.
In many of the large cities throughout the United States druggists are fond of naming their places “Red Cross Pharmacy.” In New York and Chicago physicians have placed this symbol on their automobiles—whether this gives them more privileges than they would otherwise have is a question; it appears more as an advertisement than an explanation for speed. ”

“ The Red Cross is a national organization, the only one chartered by the United States and maintained for the sole purpose of relieving the sufferings caused by war or by calamities in time of peace. In the United States, fortunately, the Red Cross has been almost entirely free from the demands of war, but has found an important and growing field in the relief and rehabilitation of communities devastated by fire, flood, storm or other disaster of an extent or magnitude exceeding local relief resources. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is customary to trace the history of medicine back to the story of Esculapius, whom the Greeks elevated to the position of the god of medicine. He was revered and worshipped throughout Greece, but the great center of healing was at Epidaurus, where a beautiful temple was built to his honor in which his statue by the sculptor Thrasymedes stood. This statue, of gold and ivory, the head bearded and surrounded with rays, a knotty stick in one hand, the other entwined by a serpent, gives us the original symbol of the healing art. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Sometimes the heart is suddenly brought near to breaking by some pathetic grief, by some simple incident, by some unexpected detail, which touches our deepest feelings, which tears the most sensitive fibres of our being and brings a realization of the horror of this tragedy. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Tourists invariably get their first view [17] 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. ”

“ 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 Columbia Park Boy’s club has set a national standard of efficiency in training boys in clean living, thinking and athletes and it is both the pride and pleasure of the California Branch of the American National Red Cross to wish this, the first squad of a detachment of the Grand Legion of the Red Cross to visit another nation, God speed and a hearty welcome in the Antipodes. ”

“ 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 [14] 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. ”

“ Scenes so full of pathos and the horrors of mental and physical anguish that could men be brought to even a partial realization of their meaning war would become impossible. Nothing in the world would be worth the aggregate of human suffering unless the cause was justified by a greater aggregate of human misery and torture. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ One becomes no longer affected by a thousand pictures of this formidable tragedy, the most hideously disfigured bodies are passed with indifference, scenes more horrible than any described, which the pen refuses to depict, are gazed at blankly. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ No stimulants whatever must be given to the patient unless administered under the instructions of one of the Red Cross Staff, as such stimulants are very likely to interfere with the work of the hospital surgeons, or may cause injury in other ways.
In all cases of injury sufficiently serious to cause a man to go home, the Chief Watchman should be notified at once through this office, so that he can get the necessary information for making his report. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Nurses’ Auxiliary, a very valuable adjunct to the California Branch, has undertaken to start factory lectures and demonstrations at noon hour, beginning Friday, April 30. Miss Brown, Miss Rutley, Miss Killiam, Miss Smith, Miss Jorgensen, Miss Fisher and Miss McCarthy, well-known specialists in their different departments, are to talk upon hygiene, dietetics, bedmaking, contagious diseases, tuberculosis, medical and surgical emergencies and first aid. Several factories, laundries and department stores are interested in these methods and consider them of practical use to working women. ”

“ One pavilion is devoted to men nurses and the other to women. This is the crowning result of the 44 dispensary schools of the society.
GERMANY.
The German Red Cross sent to Italy a complete hospital equipment, with five doctors, thirteen nurses and relief column men, which was established at Syracuse. Money, clothing and supplies of all kinds were forwarded from all over Germany to the main receiving station in Berlin. Large quantities of tents, a dozen wooden barracks from the Rhine Provinces and a hundred beds for orphans were among the gifts. ”

“ A placard has been prepared bearing three concise facts concerning tuberculosis—warning the public that the disease is contagious, and pointing out methods for its cure and prevention. The Boston & Maine Railroad has volunteered to place the placard in all its New Hampshire stations. And a further circulation in public places will be undertaken. The crusade against tuberculosis can be successful only by educating the public. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Those good old women and those beautiful young girls of Castiglione could not by themselves save the lives of many of those to whom they ministered. It was necessary that their efforts should be supplemented by those of experienced men and women, capable, firm, accustomed to order and discipline. Had such assistance been forthcoming in adequate measure at Solferino, many of the horrors need not have been related, and the living would not, as in some cases, have been interred with the dead. ”