Class ^JldJ?^^ Book . y ■ GopiglitN"..v-R4id COPYRIGHT DEPOSm SOME LETTERS 1917-1918 SOME LETTERS WRITTEN TO MAUDE GRAY and MARIAN WICKES 1917-1918 BY KATHERINE BLAKE NEW YORK PRIVATELY PRINTED 1920 COPTEIGHT, 1920, BT KATHERINE BLAKE OCT 2\ 1320 THE SCRIBNER PRESS ©CU601031 These letters are printed as they were written from France in those dark days of that last long year of the war. They can pretend to no literary qualities — they are only the truthful record of one who lived through that terrible ordeal with the English and the French. May this little book bring into the hearts of my compatriots a little more of our hereditary pride in Great Britain's courage and a little more of our glory in having shared in the victory of France's valiant spirit. SOME LETTERS 1917-1918 SOME LETTERS November 9, 1917. I am back at visiting the hospital and have a position at the mairie; an interesting work this last, but it takes it out of me. I have to give so much. You see, I take the official notification of death of this arrondissement to the nearest rela- tive and get the papers filled in. Some days I go from the rich to the poor with such violent transitions that it seems incredible such extremes live so near each other. I think I know the slums here now . . . some places are like illustrations to Eugene Sue's books. One day I had to break the news of her only son's death to a poor old woman . . . cook to a bache- lor gentleman, and she sat rocking herself and saying only her daughter could comfort her. Well, the daughter was working in a laundry at the other side of Paris, but I found her and drove her to her mother and had the satisfaction of seeing that she had what she wanted. The girl had no hat, an old black shawl on her head, and I don't believe she had ever ridden in a motor in her life. Suddenly she spoke: "You are kind to us, you 3 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 rich, but we must help each other these days." I answered: "Our hearts are the same, we are suffering with the same sorrows." Oh, what I have seen sometimes makes me ache all through. These women are so brave, I could not suffer like that and bear it as they do. And at the hospital it's the same. These peo- ple are the real people of France, those who are conquering. They are the ones who put "Bolo- ism" to shame. What the outcome of all those scandals will be, I know not, but sometimes their possibihties frighten me, for it makes the people blind mad to know such things exist. If only they could clear all the scandals up and let the censorship remain on the shelf for a while, it would be better. A little knowledge is so danger- ous. They say here that Clemenceau will be the next Cabinet maker. He is a fighter and no mistake. Russia's news to-day seems fantastic; I heard this afternoon the news had come that Kerensky had run away and no one knows where he has run to, and Mrs. L. told me she had received a letter from one of the Grand Dukes, saying the Czar was glad to go to Tobolsk to get his eldest daughter away from St. Petersburg as Kerensky wanted to marry her and make himself Czar. Somebody told me the United States and Japan 4 KATHERINE BIAKE were going to jointly handle the Russian prob- lem What price will Japan ask? She asked high before-too high for the Allies to use her. Now, with Italy's situation everybody is gloomy except me. I think this Itahan coup was Ger- many's last card to make it appear she was still victorious and to retain her control of Austria, Turkey and Bulgaria. Then, before America is ready, to get peace, her peace. The pessimists say if Russia makes peace, a million German pris- oners will be released ... but what good will these men be after years in Russian prisons ? And Italy ? I can't write what I think of that situation. But Cordona's order to shoot desert- ers seems to prove that he has been up against cowardice, to say the least. Are the Germans aiming to conquer Italy and to get to Greece and put Constantine back? It would seem the Kaiser has three hopes: to restore the Czar, to restore Constantine and to frighten us all into making peace before our American troops are in the battle. . An EngUshman said to me today, and he is just back from Passchendaele Ridge: "We know the Germans are beaten, Russia and Italy may delay the final victory, but we've got them. And the French soldier speaks the same way. They say the Germans are planning great air raids over Paris for the spring but surely by then 5 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 our aviation ought to be frightening them and knocking their marvellous Mercedes engines into kingdom come. The American Red Cross seems to be sending workers over on every ship. I wish they would use the French women more than they do. There are many ladies in Paris in grand uniforms and many others going to the front, God knows why and how. Even in the earthquake we are living in there are things to make me smile, but always there are tears in my soul. It's all frightful to me, this suffering, sometimes I cannot bear it. You over there don't know. Your complacent newspapers irritate me. March 5, 1917. Yesterday morning I had a paper to deliver from the mairie to a certain man. A harmless paper, only the official confirmation of the death of a young soldier on the battlefield in 1914. I went to the address. It was a small saloon. The place was crowded. A woman came forward and asked me my business. "Come this way." We went into a back sa- loon, empty and dark. I gave her the paper with the necessary instructions. "I will attend to this instead of my father," she said, "if madame will wait. You see it was this way. My father-in-law had three sons, one 6 KATHERINE BLAKE was killed, the other reported killed and the third taken prisoner. The news all came to him in one morning. He went crazy and now he is childish and nearly blind. We had hoped against hope that the second son was not really killed. This paper settles it." She left me and went into another room to fill in the paper while I waited. A halting step came down the hall and a man, no more than forty, but bent and blind and very old, groping his way with a cane, came into the room. "Are you the lady with the paper? Tell me, where can I go and get my little boy's watch ? I gave it to him long ago. If he is dead, really dead, they must have it at the mairie. "I want the watch . . . you see I am blind be- cause they are all gone, my poor little boys, and it doesn't really matter that I am blind for I have nothing to see any more . . . but oh, I want that watch." What could I say or do to help him.'* Just nothing but sit there with him and his daughter- in-law and weep with them and then go away and into my own world again. But we must win this war and crush this terri- ble menace out of civilization. I have told you this small story but if I wrote all I have seen . . . always silent courage, never a murmur, often "on les aura" even in their tears. 7 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 Tell this story over there to some of those who don't understand. Paris, November 15, 1917. I do not think the American newspapers give a correct idea of things as they are. And I think it absolutely necessary for our people to appreciate the fact that America must help and help soon. If it had not been for Russia and Italy, the war was won. Austria and Turkey were on the brink of separate peace. We are a one-man machine. Lloyd George's speech yesterday struck the "nail on the head." I hope you have read it. I have absolute faith in our ultimate victory, but I feel this hour is a serious one and that our American politicians don't appreciate anything. The congressional party now touring over here is, I hear, quite dread- ful. I don't believe they are seeing much. I am absolutely opposed to useless people coming over here and eating French food and using French coal and not doing anything to make it worth while. I am opposed to the invasion of the A. R. C. and the Y. M. C. A. workers in their grand uni- forms and the ladies in their Sam Brown belts and the canteen workers who bring their own maids with them to look after them and keep their boots polished. I am opposed to lots of things because, although the intentions are excel- 8 KATHERINE BLAKE lent, they are useless. No man and certainly no woman, ought to come over here unless they have definite and necessary work to do which they will stick to. I wish I could talk to you about many things. We have some good men. Foch and Petain are first-class. So was Nivelle. Paris, December 27, 1917. An old friend of mine who married a Russian reached Paris a short time ago. She managed to get out of Russia with her children and her hus- band is now in Stockholm on his way here too. He had great difficulty because he is a noble and Lenin and Trotsky won't let aristocrats out of the country. She was in Petrograd during the first two revolutions. Now she says she cannot understand the pessimism and nervousness she meets with here about the much-talked-of Ger- man advance with what they have on the Rus- sian front and in Russia as prisoners. She says the Germans have not had anything much on the Russian front since Verdun. They discounted Russia with the fall of Broussiloff. As for the prisoners, she says one-third are tuberculous, one- third are busy and satisfied, and one-third may go back to Germany; but that Germany will have to send an army into Russia to get them out if she wants them. Further, she said that for a long time Germany 9 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 had not been able to get food out of Russia, as there is no food to spare and transport is impossi- ble. Chaos everywhere and no sign of law and order. Some of the farmers may go with the Germans out of sheer fear of the Bolshevists and hoping the Germans will restore order and give them a chance to work and feed their families. She says the great bulk of the people are too ignorant to know anything about the Allies and victory and defeat. They say that war is 24 hours away from them and that they want peace and food and no more revolutions. So here you have Russian news which is not as discouraging for the cause of the Allies as it might be. She seemed to think more harm than good would come to Germany out of the Russian business. To answer you about other matters. I can only repeat what I have said before: these com- ing three or four months are the most difficult because of London and Paris. The morale of the soldiers of both the British and French front is fine. I don't believe the Germans have the strength in men and artillery that they had at Verdun, but I think they will try a hit at several points at once, hoping to force an issue before spring. We shall see. Italian news is better. The French and English 10 KATHERINE BLAKE are backing up the Italians and I doubt if there is any more treason there. They tell me the Ger- mans paid the Russian and Italian traitors with money they printed as they needed it with their own presses. General Pershing visited Joe's hospital on Christmas eve. He went all over it and delighted the French blesses by speaking to them in French. Paris, January 16, 1918. I have not at all your point of view about the war. See this way: the Russian peace is not yet settled and probably won't be unless Germany licks the country into it. The German people were promised an immediate peace with Russia. They aren't getting it. The Germans are mass- ing men and artillery all along our front, prob- ably for an attack on either flank — Calais and Belfort. The English and French say they can hold. That the Germans may advance at some point for several kilometers. Nothing much. Deadlock. The German people have been promised a decisive victory at once on this front. If they don't get it . . . then what.^^ The German people are told that their soldiers are fighting for the country's future commercial life — Wilson and Lloyd George say there will be no commercial war after the war. The leaders 11 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 see our papers; they — some of them — represent a peace party — then what ? French poHtics are better now than before. Clemenceau is honest. The army likes him. Caillaux is in jaiL Our troops are coming over in thousands. Given the foregoing facts, I see a defensive few months and then an American attack. The end in 1918. But we must deal a smashing blow. There must be a military victory. The French morale is better now than ever, so is the English. Don't judge either nation by Londoners or Parisians. To answer your questions about religion: all forms of religion are a help to men who are con- stantly facing death, and more men follow their creeds than before the war. The French priests are not like the Belgian and Italian priests — I am told these are no good. It is even claimed they are dangerous. I have arranged for both Catholic and Episcopal services in the hospital every Sunday. The army chaplain in Paris is a professor from Groton. He calls on me when necessary and we cooperate with each other. So do I and the Catholic priests get on. Paris, January 30, 1918. The German offensive is expected in February. The army men say they are not going to get any- 12 KATHERINE BLAKE where. The Russian peace, especially the Ukrain- ian peace, hangs fire. Wait and see what Austria does. I see daylight ahead and should not be surprised if victory brought an Allied peace, not a German one, before January, 1919. Things all look better and the Italian situation is clear. Paris, January 31, 1918. My first idea this morning was to send you a cable to let you know your husband is in Paris and that we were unhurt last night. For two hours the guns and the bombs thun- dered. The bombs struck near here with a sick- ening noise that hurt me in the pit of my stomach : a horrid sensation. In a house a few blocks away the two top floors were demolished, but con- sidering the numbers of German Fokkers, the damage was slight in Paris. I saw most of the places this morning. Every- where the people were furious and incensed. They were out in the streets in crowds, swearing revenge. A friend of mine in the police told me about things and the official communique is to be pub- lished in the evening papers. I suppose we can expect them every night for a while. The Fokker which dropped the bombs not far from here flew so low over this house that we could hear the engines distinctly. We all stayed 13 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 in our rooms. The children slept all through it, but I did not. Paris, March 8, 1918. Of course the French will be only too glad to welcome Americans over here after the war — they want them even now. There is already a "Divi- sion" of American women here. Wives and mis- tresses camouflaged in the A. R. C. and the Y. M. C. A. There is so much tragedy in the world and so much sadness that sometimes it does me good to smile at the ladies and the dollars. Not the least important chapter of the war will be the account of how the army discovered society. As I ob- serve current events I remember hearing my mother speak of how a certain prominent family discovered society in the 80's. It would seem that they had found it more difficult than the army is finding it. Don't believe for a moment that Christopher Columbus died childless. Some day, somewhere we'll talk and speak the truth ! Whatever you read in Wadsworth's speech might be applied to what I am talking of. . . . I've a good many more "if's" than you wrote and only hope they will not be written in red ink. We've got a big chance to do a big work and I hope to see the best of our country able to find expression iii activities intelligently used to win our war. 14 KATHERINE BLAKE I refuse to worry about Russia. Let that drunken harlot drag Germany into her whirlpool. Germany is presently going to have a giant polit- ical indigestion. "Just wait and see," to quote old Asquith. Paris, March 9, 1918. While we were at a friend's house last night the raid started. The guns boomed and every now and then that sickening thud, the sound of a dropping bomb. We sat around the fire until half-past eleven when there was a lull and we came home through pitch darkness. Our hostess moved her children to the cellar. I am afraid of cellars. If the house comes down it means burial alive. This morning I went to see the damage. In one place a bomb had exploded in the street. Every window in every house in the entire block was shattered. In another street two bombs had gone through a house. It was a fearful mess. Three other places I saw which I could not de- scribe without saying more than I ought to. Last night we were well defended, but the Ger- mans seemed to come in relays. However they got here I can't see for the barrage was terrific and the city absolutely black. The people are incensed, just as they were the last time, and again I fail to see the good the Germans get out of it. The proprietor of this 15 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 house who was ill in bed, died of fright. His house was not struck but a bomb exploded near by. This time they did not seem to get very far into Paris, I mean our part of it. The children slept all through it. I only hope those devils won't come back to- night. I wish I could work a barrage gun on them. Fortoiseau, March 16, 1918. The night of the last raid at dinner we were dis- cussing raids and the chances of the Gothas returning. One guest started it and another was certain we were in for it. In the midst of our conversation the signal sounded and Joe went over to the hospital. The rest of us stayed together. It was pretty bad, and I must say I felt sick at heart sitting there seeing my babies in my mind's eye being wounded or killed. Most of the explo- sions sounded very near. It lasted a long time. My guests emphatically advised me to move the children away and although I hated the idea of doing it, I knew it was crazy to keep them in Paris when I had a perfectly good place to take them to. The next morning the cook and kitchen maid gave notice. They wouldn't stay in Paris and I think every other servant wanted to do the same. 16 KATHERINE BLAKE When Joe came back from the hospital that night he told me that I must go to Fortoiseau. He said he could not do his work at the hospital when every time he heard an explosion the fear came into his heart that the children and I might be hurt. So the next day I made my arrangements to move down here and then I went to see some of the damage. One bomb fell right in front of the German embassy and blew in the doors and smashed all the windows. The H. L.'s live next door to this embassy. All their windows were smashed and their gas, electricity and water went out of com- mission. H. was in the front yard in dark green pajamas, unkempt, unshaven, unwashed but very grateful for sympathy. I wish I felt my letter would reach you if I told you details of where bombs hit. I think it is safer not to write. Believe me, after I saw what I did I was certain the children must be taken out of the city. Thursday I got off. Yesterday there was a big explosion in a sub- urb. In our apartment some of the windows were broken, some furniture was smashed, so I think I got my babies out just in time. The house here is all in a mess. Leaks in the plumbing and the furnace, no hot water nor heat. I only wish I felt Baker was going to see things 17 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 as they are and hear the truth. I fear he will say and in fact think, that "everything is lovely." We Allies are up against it and we Americans have got to do more and better in all branches of our service over here if we are to lick the Ger- mans. France and England need us and our help and not "just lovely" Baker statements. The French are very polite and so are the English, but it must shock them to see some of the things I see. . . . Joe telephoned me he dined with a couple of British officers one night and they were very enthusiastic about our men in the fighting line, so that's good news. They told Joe it was only right to get the children out of Paris as everyone expects more raids, but they were quite optimis- tic about what is coming to the Germans. The country looks ready to bud, the violets are out and spring has come over the earth. This house is charmingly old fashioned and we are moderately comfortable, but I had rather be in Paris. I get frantic at being so far away from news. But those raids . . . By the way, the cook and the kitchen maid have decided to stay as they consider this place safe. Fortoiseau, March 19, 1918. Joe has just telephoned me that they expect 160 wounded and gassed at the hospital this 18 KATHERINE BLAKE evening. It makes me sick to think of it. Per- sonally, and in spite of most of the wise ones to the contrary, I believe the Germans will attack on this front and it will be a terrible battle too, and may decide the war in our favor. If not, why then I can only see victory for us in the air. The American newspapers don't seem to visual- ize things over here at all. They worry me, only perhaps nobody over there believes them any more. Fortoiseau, March 28, 1918. So my prophecy was right and the German offensive was launched. You have no idea of the days of anxiety, nay anguish, I have been living through. The onslaught was terrific beyond belief. The line had to retreat, and not until yesterday did I feel sure the Germans would fail to get their objective, namely, Amiens, break the English communications, reach Calais and advance near enough to Paris to use their guns on the city. For three days I sat here wondering whether I ought to take the children in the motor and fly to Tours, shuddering over what would happen if they took Paris. . . . Joe was at Chalons. They were bad days and sleepless nights. I am glad they are over. Joe telephoned me yesterday after his return he had been to the Ministry on some official business and 19 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 they told him things were better. He had also seen a British officer who had told him the same. Now I feel the worst is over and as soon as the French throw in their reserves the whole situation will change. Now I feel the Allies will hold them, and because the Germans are held, they have lost their great last throw of the dice. France and England have won without us. Baker's rosy interviews seem so dreadfully ludi- crous. One year in the war, and only two thou- sand troops in the fighting line. My God ! it is not in 1919, but yesterday that our help was needed, not words, not promises, but men and guns. Organization here, organization at home. That's what we want. Yesterday morning H. appeared here. He came to tell me he didn't consider Fontainebleau any longer safe. He came to warn me. He had seen B. in Paris early yesterday morning, who had said the next forty-eight hours would decide. They are up to-morrow morning. Do you realize what all this means ? Had the British and French armies really broken, it was the end of the war, a German victory and a Ger- man peace . . . and America not here to help. What life would be to all of us under those con- ditions you must know and I am writing you after the worst and with hope and confidence in my heart. Bombardments from Gothas and 20 KATHERINE BLAKE quack long-distance guns are trivial incidents compared with what has been going on, on the battlefields. The French reserves have been held back because they were not sure the Germans would not launch another big attack upon Cha- lons. One thing to feel is, that Germany can never do this again. She stakes everything in this attack. She stands to gain all or lose all. Now, I feel she has lost. The fighting may keep on but that terrible onslaught with hundreds of thousands of men following each other in thick packed waves mowed down over and over again, but always coming on in overwhelming numbers, that onslaught Germany can never repeat. Not the least agony through these nights was the knowledge that Joe was down there in Cha- lons, with bombs going day and night. I lay through the dark hours sweating. You are lucky not to have your husband in danger. If anything happens to mine, and mind you every minute he is down where he is in dan- ger, I shall go mad. There are worse things than not getting letters . . . and I am only one wife in many thousands. Fortoiseau, April 2, 1918. Two Frenchmen lunched with me today, one is in the War Office. Most of their news was of a political character, which, unless you were very much in touch with English and French politics, 21 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 would not interest you. One of them told me the First Division is in the fight. Also that another tremendous offensive within ten days is expected from Ludendorf . One must face the possibility of the Germans taking Hazebrouck, Amiens and perhaps Calais, and the probability that the Allies will prevent it. In any case, these men were cer- tain that the British and the French armies will neither be defeated nor separated. They told me that Castelneau is really up north seeing that Foch's plans are being carried through. Both Frenchmen said the British were fighting like heroes. Some day I'll tell you more of what they told me. Fortoiseau, Sunday, April 7, 1918. I have just been talking to a friend of ours in Paris. He was very non-committal. Did he think the worst was over.? I asked. He couldn't tell — the news didn't look good. Did he think they would take Paris .^^ He couldn't say — no- body knew anything. "Well," I said, "then you are gloomy and pessimistic over the situation .f^ " "No," he said emphatically, "I'm not. When I see you I will talk to you." These days are anxious ones. I went into Paris yesterday and saw several people. Somebody saw the First Division on Monday on its way to the front. He watched the trains 22 KATHERINE BLAKE passing the railroad platform upon which he stood, crowded with Americans cheering, shout- ing and waving American flags. These are the veterans of our army over here, being the men who came over in July. This particular unit is to go in an army of Foch's which has not yet gone into action. I know about where they are. It has been arranged that any American wounded will be evacuated back to Paris where beds are being prepared. There has been a coun- cil about the plans. Joe is not to return to Cha- lons as he will have many hundreds of beds under his care in Paris. He may go to the front with a tent hospital. That will be decided in the next two days. But even in that case his main work will be in the city of Paris. Chaumont places the German losses at seven hundred and fifty thousand as against an outside figure of two hundred thousand Allied losses. This is the highest loss Germany has yet sustained and it has materially reduced her numerical superiority over us. She still has one hundred and ninety -two divisions, but some of them have been reduced to five thousand men. The Allies' reserves are still untouched: that is, the British reserves which have been coming across the Chan- nel, and Foch's army placed at one million, two hundred thousand men. The situation seems to be that the Germans 23 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 will launch another formidable attack, probably north, near Lille, where their lines of communica- tion are best. Their aim is Calais, even if it costs them five hundred thousand men. They won't get Calais. After they have shown their hand — watch Foch. They may get Amiens, but our American engi- neers have built three railroads back of the city and communications are established. Had the Germans taken Amiens at first, the situation of Paris would have been serious. No coal, which would mean the closing of all usines de guerre and the practical halt of daily life. The story of the Fifth Army cannot be written now, but it was a situation due to General Gough who, apparently, underestimated the German attack and overestimated the aid he could expect from the French when he extended his lines. The men were magnificent. Gough has been relieved. Paris had as close a call as in 1914. Some day I'll tell you the story. Every one seems to think heavy fighting is ahead and many weeks of anxiety, but the Ger- mans will be checked. Do you remember some time ago I wrote you that if an offensive came off and the Germans were checked, it would be victory for the Allies ^ Watch how things go. This will shorten the war, but we must achieve a military victory. Our guns are arriving, are 24 KATHERINE BLAKE here, somebody told me, as well as our aeroplanes. I know our men are coming. Speed up over there, come over and win. The British lost none of their big railroad guns and the American Red Cross lost very few sup- plies. I was told but one camion. Paris gave me a shock yesterday. I have never seen it so empty. Street after street has every apartment closed. All the iron shutters are up. In our street the only apartment open is ours. Many shops are closed, large and small. I walked down the Rue de la Paix and it was like a day in mid-summer before the war. Every- thing closed, hardly a dozen people in the street. All the streets are the same. The city seemed dreary and empty. Most of the windows are criss-crossed with paper ,to save the glass. The Arc de Triomphe statuary, the colonne Vendome and many other monuments are covered with sandbags and boarded in. Every now and then you see a sign "abri" — so many places. Oh, I don't want to go in town again, it makes me too sad. Fortoiseau, April 13, 1918. The American papers seem to say very little about the raids, so you may not have realized their severity. There was a lively one last night and quite some damage was done. The bombs 25 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 struck the Rue de Rivoli quarter. A long-range gun was going again yesterday and the day before. The Maternity Hospital was struck and the result was useless butchery of women and new-born babies. This kind of warfare is sickening and there is no military reason to excuse it. To answer your last letter I most certainly do see an end to this war, but there is hard fighting to be faced. The Germans are terribly strong and from all sides I hear Ludendorf is their very best general. Foch is quite able to handle him, and is proving it now, by not launching a counter- offensive and waiting for the surely coming thun- dering German blow, in either the Noyon or Amiens sector. They've been pounding at the English in the north with moderate success. I have reason to believe that General Castelneau is up there to-day with three French divisions to aid the English reenforcements. The hardest blow is undoubtedly yet to come, probably during April. They say there are close on sixty untouched German divisions massed be- hind the army facing Amiens. That is what Foch is watching. By the time this letter reaches you, the war news ought to be better for us. The Americans in the southern part of the line seem to have done well. The New York newspapers which reached me yesterday made me shiver. They had no ap- 26 KATHERINE BLAKE preciation of the situation from March 21 to March 29. And even now, the critical period is not over, and won't be, until the Germans are so checked that they cannot advance any distance anywhere. The Washington interviews are shock- ing. It's almost as if those people thought the head-liners were exaggerating, instead of under- stating actual facts. Fortoiseau, April 17, 1918. From your letters it is obvious that you do not appreciate the raids. The Times and Tribune received yesterday showed us how little is pub- lished. Believe me, the raids must have been really bad for me to move down here. You don't know how terrible the fighting up north is. The attacks on the British are formi- dable in violence and numbers. The Germans seem to launch new divisions against them every other day. Today the news is not so good, the Germans have taken Baleuil. I feel very con- fident that the British line will not be broken, and that Foch is equal to Ludendorf, but neverthe- less, these are terrible days and it is too dreadful for an American to be obliged to appreciate, as one does here at close range, how shamefully little the United States is able to do. What are two hundred and fifty thousand men in the fighting line as a real help against Germany's millions? It's all very well to talk about next year, in fact 27 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 it is "rot," all this complacent talk in Washing- ton. It would have been better if Mr. Wilson had conferred with General Wood and listened to what he had to tell him about what he saw over here. I suppose he has seen Mrs. X. and listened to her. Heard just what he wanted to hear; nice, comfortable, optimistic talk. But op- timism at this terrible time won't win the war. Fortoiseau, April 27, 1918. B. came down last night. He had seen Colonel M. He thought it was a shame that M. should be running a bombing school at Toul. With his intelligence he should be in a directing and high official position. B. told me that nobody over in America had realized the gravity of the situation over here from March 21st on. Apparently, nobody under- stood what was going on. But, I said, they only had to look at the map ! It seems when B. arrived in Bordeaux he struck a particularly gloomy crowd, who gave him some very alarming talk, so that he was rudely awakened from the point of view he had had in New York. He says the people he sees do not think now that Paris will be taken, but they do feel there are hard times ahead and that America must hurry up. He has been told that we are sending four thousand men a day since Baker was in London, but that they 28 KATHERINE BLAKE have to land most of the troops in England as the French docks are not big enough for the large German ships they are using as transports. On the other hand, I had heard from other quarters that the docks in France were completed. The fighting has been very severe all this week. This morning's news that the British have lost Mt. Kemmel makes my heart sick. This is part of their best line of defense. B. said last night that Kemmel was lost, but had been re-taken. I have just telephoned a French woman in Paris to find out how things are and she said the news is not bad and that they are satisfied at the Ministere. I shall hope for a better communique from the British tomorrow. I wonder if my letters have given you any idea of the tension and strain of these weeks. Do you know I am almost sick over it all. Joe says I lose weight between each time he sees me and that he is worried about me. I have been so near it all for four years now, that I feel everything more than I did at first. I can't see how the Germans can keep on — oh, if only some bomb or shell could strike the Kaiser dead! I am sure that then the whole Prussian political-military party would crumble. Of some of the news of the army departments I do not write — I feel that only Charles Dickens could do justice to them. Do you remember the 29 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 following in "Martin Chuzzlewit," when Martin asks Tapley to describe the American eagle? (Mind you, I most emphatically do not apply it to the eagle nor to the best and noblest in America which I love and honor, but this description might be applied to certain departments of the regular army.) Says Mark: "I should want to draw it like a bat, for its short-sightedness; like a bantam, for its bragging; like a peacock, for its vanity; like an ostrich for putting its head into the mud and thinking nobody sees it. . . ." And Martin interrupts and says: "And like the phoenix for its power of springing from the ashes of its faults and vices and soaring up anew into the sky ! . . . Well, Mark," concludes Martin, "let us hope so." "Enough said" — to quote another classic author. Shall hope to have more cheerful news to write you next mail ... of the war. I am hoping the Germans won't gain another yard anywhere, for if they are held for another month, I shall feel the worst is over. Although B. says what's to prevent their mak- ing another huge offensive against Paris in August. He says it takes them three months to prepare an offensive. Well, by August let us hope we shall be here 30 KATHERINE BLAKE in great numbers, with lots of aeroplanes and guns. I am not worried about August. . . . Fortoiseau, April 80, 1918. Fortunately for the Medical Service over here I heard General B. is to be given a long rest. Perhaps if this is true the Medical Service may start really preparing to organize the evacuation and care of our wounded. Present conditions I cannot write about, but they make me boil. At home there would be a grand howl if they knew. Fortoiseau, May 7, 1918. As to the war — I feel more cheerful. I know how many men we have over here now and pro- viding our Government carries out its program concerning men, guns and aeroplanes for this summer, I think the Allies can do something big before Christmas, and that by next spring peace will be with us in the negotiating stage. I tell you that if the present check continues, there is trouble ahead for Germany. Foch is getting the better of Ludendorf. The more I watch from day to day, the more my heart is filled with hope. The present dark spot is Russia. Supposing the Tzarevitch is put on the throne with the Grand Duke guardian. General Korniloff as the head of 31 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 the army, is the new empire to be Germany's ally or ours ? Are all the pompous and idiotic speeches made by many in high places, and especially by those in Washington, to be thrown into oblivion ? Are they going to damn the cut-throat govern- ment they first applauded and cheer for the return of royalty? How are they going to get out of what they have been saying and if they do dis- entangle themselves from the result of their loquacity, how is the royal government of Great Britain going to take it if Tzarist Russia becomes Germany's ally? . . . The Irish question will seem like a flea bite in comparison. If the Allies had a unity of command for the diplomatic side of the war, as well as for the mili- tary side, our future international career would have less blunders than it has in the past. And I don't care who the diplomatic boss is as long as it is not Colonel House. Fortoiseau, May 17, 1918. . . . Now as to the war news. In the first place I think today or tomorrow the second on- slaught will start. The German panther is on its haunches ready to spring. The sun has been shining brilliantly for two days. There is no wind. I think it will be terrific and just as bad as the first one. I think the Kaiser's clique are willing to sacrifice any number of men to reach their 32 KATHERINE BLAKE ends. It would seem possible that the Ypres salient might be yielded, that Hazebrouck and Amiens might fail. But the price of German blood will be a terrific reckoning for the Kaiser to settle with his people. The Allies have defences for twenty-five miles back. American troops are brigaded with the British in the north and with the French at Mont- didier. They are holding the line south. There are several divisions in. Each division has about thirty thousand men. So you can make a guess of the total number of men we have in line. Pershing's offer was a practical help within several weeks from the date it was made. I am told that the Allies will try to stem this coming offensive and hold it, not counter-attack- ing before August. No politician can hurry General Foch. He will never strike until he sees his moment. That's how I feel about it. There are pessimists who see Calais taken, Amiens taken, the big guns near enough to Paris to shell the city with eight-inch shells. I feel this time the Germans are up against men in command who have learned the lesson of March 21. I have been talking with a man who went to Albert to see a British general on official business towards the end of March. He was motoring along and came to the cross-roads just outside 33 SOME LETTERS; 1917-1918 the town. Huddled against the cross-roads post, in a heap, lay a dead British traffic soldier. My friend, the American officer, couldn't understand, for he had had no news of an advance. He went into Albert. Dead British, dead Germans, dead horses. The silence and rottenness of death about him. The cannon loud and near. He knew. So he motored on and beyond the town and then he met the British army retreating. He picked up officers and carried them where they wanted to get to their men. The whole evening was spent in listening to what he had to tell. He said: "Next time it will not be like that." Fortoiseau, May 27, 1918. I thought I had made it clear to you that Amer- ican troops have been brigaded with the British and French ever since Pershing made his offer to Foch. That has been done, and is being done, and every week more troops are being fed in. The only place where the Americans are in as a unit is south. The big gun started this morning on Paris at six a. m., and has been going ever since every seventeen minutes. It must be a new gun, no old gun could be so regular and fre- quent. The shells are dropping in the quarter of the Gare de Lyon, about the same as last time. This I got over the telephone just now. Your friend. Doctor C, turned up in Paris last 34 KATHERINE BLAKE week and came down here yesterday. He asked affectionately after you, looks well and was en- thusiastic about the Italians, with whom he is. They expect an offensive down there. About the coming one here, he said he thought the Germans would make a formidable attack, would probably take Amiens, get a little nearer Calais, but no more. By the time this reaches you, you will know if he is a true prophet or not. I think nobody knows anything. It's all guess work. Logically, the coming blow cannot be heavier after two months' preparation, than the first one was after six months' preparation. The Allies have had time to profit by their mistakes and to let General Foch organize his unity of command. You have no idea what a tremendous undertaking such a reorganization is. It's not done in a day. I seem to be learning every day. I devour news- papers from New York, London and Paris, besides pumping all my friends. That's the only way to keep in touch. I can truthfully tell you that I shall always be sailing the rapids of Niagara, and that to its last beat, my heart will be that of a storm-queen. A little calmer on the outside but the same old throb going on inside. Fortoiseau, May 28, 1918. Joe telephoned me he had seen a newspaper man yesterday who had just arrived from where 35 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 W. is and who was full of optimism and enthusi- asm about our troops and the French. Evidently they expected the German attack and were ready for it. Yesterday the attack was made, but south of Montdidier. The insiders have known right along that there was a tremendous concen- tration south of Montdidier and it was rumored the next attack might be in the Soissons-Rheims sector. Yesterday, on his return from the front, Cle- menceau wouldn't be sure that this onslaught, for- midable as it is, is the big one. There is evidently an idea prevalent that Luden- dorff wants to get Foch to use his reserves first, then go at Amiens and Calais. I've been busy on the telephone all morning and can find no one worried. I must say, looking on my map and seeing that the Germans had advanced to the Aisne at one point and had averaged an advance of five kilo- meters on their front of attack, made me feel it was a pretty big thing. B. came down again last night and was quite pleased with himself at having told me some weeks ago that he thought the Germans would make their attack just where they did. Well — if everyone's guesses are wrong, perhaps the Germans think the Allies are too ready for S6 KATHERINE BLAKE them from Montdidier up and that further south they might be able to push near Paris and get at that city with eight-inch shells. They'd like nothing better than doing to Paris what they have done to Rheims. These next three days will reveal their real gain. By the time this letter reaches you, I hope things will be as we all want them. If only our aeroplanes were over here ! The weather is changing and we have not the clear day of yesterday. The German prophets were wrong this time and I hope the rain comes down and soaks their roads and upsets all their calculations. They do everything so according to rule that I always feel, one thing wrong, and it upsets th^m considerably. The Italians have attacked the Austrians hard and this may be a very important part of the situation. Italian soldiers have always beaten Austrians. It was only German troops that gave them their bad time last spring. Now, that Ger- many is too busy on this front to help Austria, and the Austrians are driven back, with the pres- ent situation inside Austria, Germany may have the devil of a time. She is having real trouble with Austria. Bulgaria and Turkey may follow. Remember what I wrote you about the "House of Cards." 37 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 Fortoiseau, May 29, 1918. These days I am very anxious. Just now I got a telephone message from a friend in Paris giving me this morning's war news. I woke up at four this morning and until seven o'clock lay there seeing the battle ... I heard the guns booming dimly in the distance . . . and if the Germans push any further we shall hear them close by. From the communique I judge the French have checked them at Soissons, but that their continued advance near Rheims means that they will prob- ably take that city today. The news is better and different from what it was in March but just to show you: my house- maid in Paris telephoned me this morning — all up in the air: "Oh, they went twenty kilometers yes- terday — it's very bad" . . . etc.! I had to soothe her down over the telephone. In some ways you are lucky to be so far away as you aren't right up against the facts. I read the pamphlet yesterday afternoon which you sent me and found it interesting as a concise statement of a disastrous muddle. I followed Washington news closely right along. The London Observer had an excellent article about General Maurice. I hope you read it. I am told that Robertson and Maurice are Asquith's tools. Evidently Lloyd George won out. He 38 KATHERINE BLAKE and Clemenceau must stay in oflfice for the war's duration. There is much I could write you on politics over here. . . . I think loneliness has been the incarnation of temptation for our men. Fortoiseau, May 30, 1918. The news last evening and this morning is bad. I couldn't sleep all night and was so on the nerves this morning that I called up M'F. for news. He wasn't very cheerful, but did say he didn't think they could get to Paris and that General Foch's reserve army is not yet engaged. That is cheering, for it means that the Germans are getting a terrific fight by numerically inferior troops and that matters must look very different when General Foch's hour comes. He saved us at the Marne and he will save us before Com- piegne. I think in spite of the fact that the Germans have advanced this time, there has been no break, but continued sustained defense — the fighting must be horrible. All night I seemed to see the streets of Soissons with the French fighting from house to house . . . this morning the news came that Soissons was taken, that the fighting is in the outskirts. Yesterday was the third day, always the worst, and perhaps tomorrow's news will be better. I honestly feel sure that within forty-eight hours 39 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 we shall see a change in our favor. But this ter- rible situation is almost more than I can bear — my heart aches so, and beats like a wild thing. Some day I am going far away to be in peace. But I can't bear to be anywhere but near Joe just now. At least here, he can sometimes get to see us. Today I got the London papers since the attack, and shall read what the Germans are saying. I wish they would print the German communiques in France. That would enable one to judge so much better of the situation. The rain did not come — a north wind blew the clouds away — confound the German luck ! Fortoiseau, May 31, 1918. Last night's communique made my heart beat with joy, for at last the Germans are getting resis- tance strong enough to check them. This morning they seemed to have pushed nearer Chateau-Thierry^ which I don't like, as they are after the Chalons railway. But, held on both wings, they have made a salient dangerous to themselves, unless they can widen it. A French friend of mine just called me up on the telephone to say that they had been so worried those first two days and that the news was so bad, she didn't dare telephone me, but that since yesterday, the situation was slightly better. She 40 KATHERINE BLAKE said the numbers of Germans were simply over- whelming and until America gave enough men, France and England will have to stand up un- aided against the masses freed from the Russian front. She said that yesterday, the day which is the feast of Corpus Christi, and the day on which the Pope asked England not to bomb Cologne because of the religious processions and celebrations, Ger- many's long-range gun bombed the Madeleine. God ! it's beyond belief . . . everyone must save them for they are a super race; other humans can be destroyed at their pleasure. I could see well from her talk that we shall have dark days ahead, for these coming months will bring more German blows — the next will be for Amiens or Calais, the Allies' part being to resist, to hold, to wait until we have a striking army ready to deal a smashing blow. Of course our men are coming, and where they are in the fight are doing nobly — everyone gives them praise and honor — but how can General Foch counter-attack against this German on- slaught now, and use up his trained reserves.'^ Some of these newspaper writers, and others, annoy me beyond expression with their innuen- does and suggestions. The lady who telephoned me this morning was, evidently, badly frightened by this situation. 41 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 Fortoiseau, Sunday, June 1, 1918. From the time I put down my pen in my letter to you Friday was a bad day for me. I went for a walk and met the neighboring farmer — all up in the air — a man had just told him he had received a letter from his wife from a village near Chateau-Thierry in secret code, saying the Germans were carrying all before them, and that they would be in Chateau-Thierry before her letter reached its destination. Then refugees were pouring into Melun full of terrible tales, a woman had arrived in Dammarie to visit relations from one of the captured villages, and in our village they were so frightened that the people were packing up, preparing to leave. The farmer said he was wondering whether he ought to get ready to go. . . . "Ruin for us if we do," he said. I tried to cheer him as best I could but I felt he did not believe anything I said. I came back to the house and had a talk with the telephone central at Dammarie. She had had a terrible day — apparently this one woman arriv- ing in Dammarie had caused a panic, and the telephone operator had been continuously be- sieged with frightened questions. She seemed a brave woman and said it was disgraceful to stir up people like that and that she was doing her best to calm them down. 42 KATHERINE BLAKE Presently the cook and my maid returned from marketing at Melun. They had talked to the refugees and their tales were even worse — and the shop-keepers in Melun were ready to close up and fly and they have seen twenty military camions passing through Melun laden with beds, so the army must be flying . . . well . . . there was just the devil to pay in my household. So I called up Dr. Taylor at the hospital, who is in touch with all sorts of people, and told him all this. "Why," he said, "I never heard such nonsense. I was at the Ecole de Medecine this afternoon and saw some men from the Ser- vice de Sante, and they said they felt the worst was over."— "Then it's safe here .?"—" Why , surely.'" The strange thing was that although my reason said no, my heart was beating like a sledge-ham- mer. I was alone, with the children to decide for, and if any of this news were true, why what should I do} I went through an agony of panic — I knew it was crazy and weak, but yet I just couldn't bear the situation. On the map I saw we were not ninety kilometers from Chateau-Thierry. . . . All night the trains went by — I could recognize the "thug, thug" of our heavy American locomo- tives every five minutes through the silence of 43 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 the night . . . the railway is about six kilometers from here following the Seine. When I heard the trains I knew the reserves were travelling into battle under cover of the night. French reserves. Oh, the sorrow to know that our great army is not here in this hour of anguish ! But I know the French army cannot be beaten. Saturday night Joe came down. He had had a very interesting trip — but no sleep, and on his return to Paris had found the hospital full of American and French wounded. The hospital was so crowded that they had the wounded every- where. The Americans were all from the battle of Cantigny, and all our division. So you see I was right that those wounded would come under Joe's care. These men were very dirty, very hungry, but proud to have been in a good fight and in excellent spirits. No panic in any of those American or French, and they had been through hell itself. Joe had been told one dreadful story — a certain hospital in the present battle zone had not been evacuated in time, the onrush of the Germans was so rapid just there. It was a fracture hospital and the patients were all in those appliances of Joe's — suspensions, etc. — very slow and difficult to move. An officer told Joe that when the Germans got 44 KATHERINE BLAKE there, they went through the wards and killed the wounded, helpless as they lay . . . the surgeons were shot where they stood, they drove the nurses, a frightened crowd, in a corner of the court-yard and then turned the machine guns on them and killed them that way. They seemed to have gone amuck, those Ger- mans, like niggers in the south. Joe was very calm, sure that the French would get the better of the Germans in this battle, is more worried how we are going to have beds enough for our wounded than anything else. Last night's communique was grand — this morn- ing's not so good. A French friend of mine called me up just now, and said she had just heard that the French have pushed the Germans back ten kilometers around Soissons. She had also inside "dope" about the rapidity of the German advance. General X. was ordered to blow up the five bridges across the Aisne and to make the stand on the heights beyond. Apparently all the plans were made by Foch and the reserves were on the way. But the bridges were not blown up and the Germans came across the river as they pleased with all their guns, munitions, etc. Then, with lightning rapidity, everything had to be changed, another plan made. It was ter- rific, this situation. Foch handled it as the news tells, for his counter-offensive was made on the 45 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 battle-ground of his own choosing. Ludendorff tried to force him to give battle near the Marne, but he would not. That was a master mind, to be able to overcome such a terrible mistake, and in one night to move his attacking army to another sector. Those were the trains I heard all that night. Fortoiseau, June 4, 1918. The battle now raging is the biggest battle of the war — evidently Germany wants to brow-beat France into making peace at any cost to herself. Her onslaught has been beyond belief — that you can see in the communique. Today it looks as if the Germans were held within Chateau-Thierry and were doing their best to get Villers-Cotterets forests and Compiegne. My French friend called me up yesterday after- noon. She had seen an officer who had just come from la Ferte-Jouarre and he said the battle was going better for us today. But she also said that the journalists returning from the front to Paris on Thursday and Friday last, said that the war was over for the French. Now you can appre- ciate that it has been dangerous business. I am wondering if your newspapers have been telling you the truth. One fact shines out. Foch is there, and the French will hold, and eventually win, when we have a big army here. 46 KATHERINE BLAKE I doubt if there will be any counter-offensive until the end of the summer. I think the Ger- mans will attack again with their armies and un- touched reserves at Villers Brettoneux, and that they will go on the defensive. The German losses must be terrible, but ours must be heavy too — villages lost and retaken four or &ve times, hills and forests won at the point of the bayonet, do not mean fighting with losses only on one side. To my mind the question is: will Germany throw in the rest of her reserves against the French now, and if she does, can the French army hold.^^ I think it can and will, besides I doubt Germany does such a dangerous thing, for after all there is a strong army from Amiens to Ypres which may have to be reckoned with at any time. I hear the Americans are magnificent fighters and that two of our divisions have gone in on the Soissons line near Meaux. But I tell you, this is a terrible hour for us all. I wish this week were behind us and Foch the absolute master of the situation. The French army is covering itself with glory and against frightful odds. I hope to send you better news next week. Fortoiseau, June 7, 1918. Wednesday at noon I saw horses outside our gate and went down to see what this meant. . . . All the length of our avenue were horses, cows 47 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 and oxen tied to the trees. The great empty barn which stands in the field outside the gate was full of old men and women and little children and boxes, and cases and cooking utensils and bed- ding and rabbits in baskets and birds in cages . . . little, little children and babies at their mother's breasts ... a mass of human misery and weariness huddled together on the straw. There were seventy all told. They had fled from a village our boys have since taken back. For a week they have travelled a long way, stopping where they could find some shelter on the road. Fortunately I had some things to help: a little milk for the babies, all my stock of jam and macaroni and the big brass mar mites on the kitchen fire to make them soup. ^Yhile I was there with them I marveled at their courage. Once only did I see a fierce, terrible hate flush the women's faces, and that was when the farmer's German prisoners stood and stared as they passed on their way from their work. I looked at the prisoners, and do you know the eyes of those men were full of fear as they saw the misery huddled there. I wondered if the thought flashed into their hearts that some day their ovm people would be driven across the German country like this. For the war in all its four long years has never touched German soil. All these days a long stream of refugees is pass- 48 KATHERINE BLAKE ing on the road at our gates, until yesterday. So I know the German advance must have stopped. One evening Joe came down and I took his American soldier chauffeur with me to help dis- triVjute the food to the refugees — "They can't see it at home — I didn't know — I can't bear it," he said. Yesterday a wave of pessimism seemed over everybody. A French friend called me up on the telephone, very depressed over Clemenceau's speech in the Chambre. Very depressed over the whole situation. The Minister and Ministry of Finance and the banks are supposed to have left Paris. No one knows when the rest of the Min- istries are going. They say that within a couple of days another and worse onslaught is coming . . . Then another friend, an Italian at Fontaine- bleau, called me up to say that she had received word from Paris to leave at once. Then I got Joe on the telephone and told him of this. He was hot over alarmists. Neverthe- less, he went and saw Slade at the Equitable for me and told him what I had heard. Slade told him to reassure me and to say that in the banking world, Paris was not considered in danger of being taken. He told Joe that the most fantastic rumors were going all over and that most of them were untrue. Then I began to wonder whether secret German agents were not working up all this panic, so as 49 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 to undermine Clemenceau and get a change of government. Perhaps get those Socialists who be- haved so badly in the Chambre, to start trouble, which would mean help for the German peace. I tell you they are working just as hard inside Paris as they are outside. They are dangerous every- where. Clemenceau spoke magnificently and truthfully and said the worst, which was the best. Under his guidance the people know all the truth. God help us all if anything happens to him. Apparently the American and English officers are confident and so are the French officers. Joe has several under his care, one French officer from Soissons. He was told to hold out twelve hours and the men under him held out three days. Do you know that part of that poor tired British Fifth Army was resting at Soissons when the rush came, the rest of it was resting before Rheims. I believe those Germans knew every detail concerning the disposition of the Allied troops and struck accordingly. Our men saved the day at Chateau-Thierry. They were rushed out there in motor-lorries and went right into the fight. We are full up again at our hospital, this time with marines from Chateau -Thierry. Joe has been operating all day. Two tables going at the same time in the operating room. 50 KATHERINE BLAKE But it thrills me to feel our soldiers are making good every time. The news of the submarine attack on the American coast gave me a shock. If the Germans did much of that it might be very serious, for we have got to get our men and their equipment over every week. Men, men, and more men — for the Germans are still terribly strong. I've been in a miserably nervous state for the last ten days. Each bit of bad news gives me palpitations ... at night I think I hear the guns coming nearer and my heart beats so I feel as if it would burst my breast. This war is a terrible thing to live near year after year, and now that it seems almost at my doorstep, I can't bear it. If you saw the sad faces of those women in the shed and heard one of them tell how the Germans had used gas shells on her village, of some of the children who had died, how her own little girl had seemed better, recovering from the shock of a nearby explosion, so they had brought her along, only to watch her die on the second day of the journey ... if you saw and heard such things day after day, your heart would beat as mine does. Oh, these Germans must not keep on — our men must drive them far away into their own kingdom where they must meet their punishments. It would seem as if from now until July 15, 51 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 were the critical time. After that our men, and perhaps our guns, will be here in sufficient strength to enable Foch to strike, as only he knows how. The days ahead seem dark, but I believe that Germany shall be conquered, and because of her terrible onslaught now, she will meet her fate before many months. Fortoiseau, June 10, 1918. Our troops make me proud of our country. They've done better and fought better than even the papers say. After the Chateau-Thierry fight the hospital was swamped. They have been pouring the wounded in and there are not nearly enough beds. The men are lying on the stretchers they are brought in on, in the halls, in the reception rooms, in the garage, everywhere. The nurses' dining-room has been changed into another operating room. Five tables are going all day and all night. Teams working on eight-hour shifts. Joe operating hour after hour. He did twelve cases in one afternoon, then went down- stairs to look over the men as they came off the ambulance and directing everything himself. Last night eighty cases came in at eleven o'clock and he was there looking to each one. He has been telling me of the fighting and how splendid the spirit of the men and officers is. He says they are pushing the Germans back and they 52 KATHERINE BLAKE are fighting better than any soldiers ever fought. You would appreciate how thrilled he is if you could hear him talk. It is a wonderful flame, this fire of patriotism, and our men are proving the real spirit of the United States, and just because they are what they are, we shall win the war. Joe says the French have plenty of men. Evi- dently the officers in the hospital are more opti- mistic than the newspapers and the French friends who telephone me. I wonder if it is possible that the situation of the last two days and today shall be the turning of the tide? After all, such resistance and coun- ter-attacking are a very different thing to what the Germans got at the end of the March offen- sive. Until now, they have been able to go right along, executing their plans, attacking at their own time and place. Now, suddenly, unexpect- edly, the resistance ceases to be passive and be- comes aggressive. What will be the result? The Germans succeed when all their plans go through on schedule time; now, this is not the case. Do you see in the papers that General B. has been " canned ".^^ The present head. General I., is an excellent man, but up against a terrible proposition. If you over there only knew how little B. has done, you would realize why we have been worrying so over here. Joe foresaw just 53 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 what is happening — he is trying to do his utmost and when you reaHze that he has about two hun- dred and fifty more wounded in his hospital than he had beds for, you can visualize what his "ut- most" means. Oh, if only those in power had listened to him and followed his suggestions last October ! Some day there will be a terrible hour of reckoning for those who were blind or lazy or incompetent. Thank God, Joe is doing his share as he is — like a man and an American. Fortoiseau, June 11, 1918. So the expected blow has fallen just where it was expected: the obvious thing for the Germans to do was to endeavor to straighten the salient between Montdidier and Chateau-Thierry. Joe telephoned me just now — to tell me that by one o'clock this morning they had gotten their work in the hospital up to date — that means all the worst cases operated, the others being pre- pared and all the wounded in beds. Yesterday when I called the hospital, the tele- phone boy was slow to answer — " What's the mat- ter?" I asked. — "There's a man dying in the hall and I was trying to get extra help for the nurse . . ." I wonder if you could conceive of how they dumped ambulance after ambulance at the door of Joe's hospital — the wounded lay on stretchers 54 KATHERINE BLAKE on the sidewalk. . . . It's too late now to say "I told you so," but just such a situation was to be expected. These last few days have been the same at Neuilly and at the hospital in the Bois. Joe said he might come down late to-night to get some sleep and that he had lots to tell me about why the Germans advanced so rapidly in their push to the Marne. If I can, I will write it to you. Joe says this new attack is being terribly costly to the Germans, as they are up against Foch's good troops and our divisions. Joe's confirmation as Lieut. -Colonel has not yet come — perhaps after all he has done for the marines, it may be hurried. It does my heart good to think his hospital took those men in. To answer your inquiry about books — the new French ones on or about the war are not very good. Follow my example and read over Dick- ens. He has saved me many a time since these battles began. I read "David Copperfield" last night until early this morning. That Simmonds article was pretty good but I like the articles of correspondents at the front best. You and I can guess and deduce as well as Simmonds, perhaps better, for we aren't expert critics. Here is my guess against his "two years more": check of present attack everywhere, as, with all reserves in, Ludendorff's cards are on the table; counter-offensive in September; and when 55 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 our planes are here in numbers, the most ungodly bombing of German cities and peace negotiations under way by January. Victory might easily come in the air. No civil population can endure daily bombing. Ask any soldier, he will admit that the effect of bombing by airplanes on the morale of resting troops, is worse than the guns or anything else. Fortoiseau, June 12, 1918. Joe says he has a Colonel of the Marines in the hospital and he is a "live wire," that they all are splendid men, no grumbling, no whining, brave. Those German devils flew their machine guns low, so most of the wounds are in the thighs and in that region of the body. They are dreadful wounds to take care of. Joe was deeply stirred over this deliberate destruction of manhood. The tears were in his eyes over their sufferings. Sev- eral deaths — but on the whole the men are doing remarkably well. He has about thirty surgeons under him. Joe says our men did far better than is pub- lished — he told me what happened between the Chemin des Dames and the Marne, but I can't write it to you. Some day I will tell you and it will make you all the prouder of our Marine Corps. He thinks the present onslaught will be checked, but that we have heavy fighting ahead right along. He says he knows we shall win. 56 KATHERINE BLAKE He told me how the English before Rheims have covered themselves with glory. The complete story of this attack is a tremen- dous thing. Believe me, General Foch is a great and wise man. You spoke in your letter about French servants — well, the cook goes up in the air over the war nearly every day. Some days they are all in a panic — ^they were last week, and there are mo- ments when I wish I had Chinese. You have no idea what housekeeping is at times. Fortoiseau, Thursday, June 14, 1918. I think you needn't worry so much, because the worst of this attack is over. I feel as if our Marines had stemmed the tide. By the way, so many of them were sent to Joe because they were the worst cases. Fortoiseau, Sunday, June 16, 1918. Sometimes it is just as well not to know how very bad the situation is. Yesterday morning my aunt, Mrs. G., called me up on the telephone and asked me to go over to see her. I went. She had been told by R. B. on Thursday that the danger was over and that it was safe to remain in this neighborhood. She thought on account of my children I should like to know. I got her talking — it seems Monday and Tuesday last everyone on the inside was 57 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 seriously alarmed and that B. was arranging for his wife to go south and was sending all their valuables out of Paris. Apparently they all actu- ally feared the Germans would take Paris ! Joe and I knew, of course, that the situation was serious, but we believed in Foch, we believed in our British, French and American armies, and we felt the black hour must pass. German vic- tory would remain unwon. Looking soberly and with a little perspective at the situation, I appreciated that the worst effort was that March offensive, covering a longer line, using more troops; that the second, third and last Compiegne offensive were each smaller than the first one. Germany missed her chance when she did not keep on and take Amiens. Fortoiseau, Monday, June 17, 1918. The people who were here yesterday gave me a dose of Paris gloom over the situation which resulted in my spending the evening poring over maps and wondering whether I should take the children to Dinard. "Safer to get some place near St. Nazaire," said one of my guests, "so if the worst happens you can be shipped home on an American battleship!" This man thinks the Germans will take both Compiegne and Paris, that the next thrust will be the worst yet, that nobody knows the size of the French army nor 58 KATHERINE BLAKE the size of the German army, that always the Germans seem to be capable of producing a new army wherever they need it . . . At first I tried arguing, then subsided into a worried silence and finally resorted to the map. Joe thought I was a nuisance and I knew I was myself, but nevertheless the thought was pound- ing in my brain: are we all mad? Are the Ger- mans coming down upon us, sweeping all before them, are all the Allied armies done, shall we get here too late? I hardly slept and when early this morning the big anti-aircraft guns, just installed at Melun, began booming, I collapsed. I wonder if you can understand that it's not me, it's the whole terrible danger that I can't bear, with all the incident possibilities for Joe, the children, our lives ? To no one would I admit such a mood — it's all because I am too terribly near it continually, and have been ever since the beginning, without any respite. The noon letter brought me an optimistic let- ter from David G. from Tours, saying his dope was that Foch had been playing the clever game, letting Ludendorff commit himself in this attack, recklessly using his reserves, so that he, Foch, could not again be surprised anywhere. His let- ter was really cheering and because of the people I know he has seen, I rather feel like believing it. 59 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 Fortoiseau, June 18, 1918. From what Joe told me over the telephone, the general situation is not alarming. He spent the evening at a conference with Colonels X., Y., and Z. I think the "damned New York specialists" as General B. called them, have been horribly upset and worried by our Medical Corps situation when this rush came. Our preparation was about on a par with that of the French Medical Corps at the time of the battle of the Marne. I am not at liberty to write of what I know, but believe me, one whole year has been wasted. Evidently Joe felt from the way he spoke that last evening's conference will bear good results. I hope so. His war news was not depressing. The men he has seen and who were just sent back from differ- ent parts of the front say the morale of the French army is magnificent and that the French have lots of men, and besides there are thousands of Americans between Paris and the front. One man who is in diplomatic life, told me the worst that could happen would be that the Germans, by some fluke, something going wrong, as at the Chemin des Dames, might get within gun range of Paris, bringing up their big guns and then offering peace terms which it would be difficult for Clemenceau to refuse without a revolution. You see the radical Socialists, whose chief is Caillaux, even though he is in prison, are working 60 KATHERINE BLAKE with all their power to overthrow Clemenceau. Your papers give you no idea of this situation, which is very serious. Clemenceau, Foch, and the army are one, as well as the best in the government and the coun- try, but there are dangerous influences at work, and "near-good" peace offers would increase Cle- menceau's difficulties a hundred-fold. This situa- tion can only really become dangerous if the Ger- mans are not checked in their next attack. Every- body thinks they will be. I certainly hope the best in France will keep on top for all our sakes. England and America are ready to fight to a finish and settle this German menace for all time, so are Clemenceau and the French army. The future lies on the knees of the gods — who can tell it.^^ Joe didn't say all this; he was principally talk- ing about the strength of the Allies, their chances of success and worrying over the urgent need for the immediate improvement of the hospitalization of our wounded. Fortoiseau, June 22, 1918. H. is in the A. R. C. I lunched at his house on Thursday and I had a very interesting time with the two French journalists who were there. I sat between them and we talked. It seems the situation was as critical as I wrote you, but the English have sent over two hundred 61 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 and fifty thousand more men and our troops are coming in tremendous numbers. H. told me he had his wife and child at Biar- ritz, that he had sent clothes, a typewriter, and some stationery to a safe place and had a valise ready packed in his room, as he did not mean to be made a German prisoner. He said things were better, that he wasn't afraid, but believed in tak- ing precautions. The French journalists said the danger is that the Germans may advance within gun range of Paris and shell the city to bits like Rheims. They expect two more big attacks, one towards Abbe- ville and another against Compiegne and Paris. Then they say it will be our turn, that General Foch has done admirably and that the situation had been difficult and critical after the Chemin des Dames disaster. They told me one General had been broken because of it and gave me details I can't write but that won't happen again. The L.'s are in Biarritz, so is nearly all Paris. The city is emptied. Only workers and the army remain here now. I think people got horribly frightened — it was a pity, as I honestly think that they should have more faith in their army. I have, for my apart- ment is as I left it and I have not moved anything from it. . . . D. hired a chateau near Tours for his paintings 62 KATHERINE BLAKE and his servants. He is at Biarritz with the rest of the American colony. I went to the hospital after lunch. French and Americans lay side by side. They didn't know who I was and they were all enthusiastically say- ing how well they were looked after. But oh, what wounds ! They may install a two thousand bed hospital for Americans near Melun and put Joe in charge. I hope so, but I fear some favorite of the "regu- lar" crowd will be put in. Fortoiseau, June 23, 1918. The news from Italy means much more than just a victory, and may be the reason why the Germans delayed their attack against the English which was due last week. They may switch off and try for Compiegne again, or they may launch a big blow at the Americans between Chateau- Thierry and Rheims. Undoubtedly, we may ex- pect another blow, a big one, and then some smaller ones, but if they get what they got at Chateau-Thierry, at Compiegne and more recently at Rheims, I think they will be compelled to draw back, intrench, and wait for the Allies' offensive. The length of the war, to my mind, depends on our military power being big enough to be used by the early fall. Our blow then, and victory is won. Germany will have played her last cards. All this fighting will shorten the war; no country 63 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 can keep on doing what Germany is doing now. She has been at it for three months and where will her reserves be three months hence? Some of the Y. M. C. A. and A. R. C. workers talk too much when they get home. Don't let their "glooms" worry you. Not a man in the army feels the way they do. The air raiders failed to reach Paris last night but did quite some damage to a village about twenty-five miles from here, beyond Fontaine- bleau. There is a rumor that the French Grand Quar- tier General may be moved to Fontainebleau, but I don't believe it. Last week the report was that it was to be moved to Melun. Some people like to seem wiser than anybody else. I only be- lieve what I see and what a very few people tell me. The photographs of Paris published in Satur- day's Illustration made me smile. The people left in Paris are all a very earnest, serious lot. The city is much better off without scandal-talk- ing "glooms." It looks as if something was being at last prepared in Russia. Nobody knows where the Grand Duke Nicholas is. Joe has thought out a good scheme for our wounded — that's why he is going to Tours — to use canal boats on this wonderful French canal system to transport the men from the front to a big base hospital at Melun. He has it all worked KATHERINE BLAKE out in every detail and the French are ready to help him in every way. Now it's up to General I. to decide whether or not he will use one possible remedy to existing conditions. Fortoiseau, June 28, 1918. F. came down Wednesday and I had a good long talk with him. He has been through nerve- racking days and nights, but the only sign they have left are some gray hairs over his ears, which I never noticed before. The chateau where his General had his head- quarters was right near the German lines and the French guns were within a hundred yards of the house. Every night F. could see German shells bursting and the roar of their guns made it hard for him to sleep, as his room was on that side of the house, facing the German lines. Evidently the Allied air service for regulating the artillery is superior to the Germans, as, al- though the shells fell all over the place, the cha- teau itself was never struck. His chauffeur was badly wounded right in front of the house. The roar of the French guns was terrific. The house shook, doors and windows rattled, the plas- ter fell down — a deafening continuous noise from early morning around three o'clock. After a while F. got so used to it he could sleep. All day he was busy over despatches and going 65 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 on errands and trips with French officers, some- times at night he would go and sit with the officer on duty. The telephone would ring giving the message that certain German troops and convoys were moving along certain roads, the officer would consult the map and then telephone the artillery officer to aim for a certain sector by its number. Then the guns would roar and death and destruc- tion would be poured down on the Germans as they marched through the night. F.'s description of sitting in the office with one of the officers watching shells drop into the court, all around the cow which was never hit (although her milk was thin after bombarding), with the sun shining, and summer blooming in the garden, was quite beautiful. The French, evidently, were fond of him and made him feel it. It seems one day when a certain General was relieved to another section, he sent for F. In the salon were assem- bled the General and his staff. The General made a speech to F., they all drank his health and spoke so beautifully to him, that even as he told it, the tears were in his eyes. Then he told how, when the bad news of the Chemin des Dames came, there was gloom over every one, from the cooks up, but in the morning when the word came that General Mangin was to counter-attack, they all became hilarious and the good news made them crazy. 66 KATHERINE BLAKE The oflficers and the men are one in their loyalty to the cause and, weary and war-tired as they are, they will never quit. Such is the French army. F. told us of the air superiority of the Allies and how the German communiques lie. Once, in two days, he saw with his own eyes eight German planes brought down, and the Germans gave out that two planes had been brought down in two days. He says the French and American com- muniques tell the truth, that he knows this, for he was there on the spot, and the Germans lie continually. He says the Allied armies equal in numbers very closely the German armies, and he feels sure the coming attack will not have the results of those two bad ones. He is full of enthusiasm for our troops and evidently thinks they will win out in spite of some handicaps. Always you must remember that there are people who endeavor to apply Cuban and Philippine experience as the gospel of how to win this war. I think F., like many others of those in the war for patriotic and disinterested motives, is slighted by the old guard in a perfectly unnecessary way. West Point will never treat Plattsburg as its equal, won't ask reserve officers to come to the mess, lets them walk up and down in the street, waiting until the head man can receive them. It is apparently difficult for the French to under- stand the difference, and they seem to get on bet- 67 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 ter with one crowd than the other. The liaison work under H. has done a great deal of good. We talked war all the evening. F. told us how the German General who commanded against Can- tigny had been broken and his officers court-mar- tialed. F. did not expect a counter-offensive until enough American airplanes and heavy artillery are here to enable Foch not only to make an offensive, but to carry it through. This the Ger- mans have not done recently. The duration of their power in offensive is about six days. There are many rumors about their next move — some are frightening — but F. is firmly and calmly sure of the future, and he comes right from the front. Fortoiseau, Monday, July 1, 1918. The French Colonel whom I saw yesterday told me the French are all worried about the American arrangements for the care of their wounded. After a certain action they asked the Americans where they wished them to evacuate their wounded. To the nearest American base hospital, was the answer. That was over a hun- dred kilometers away. This situation is all along the line and is due to the stupidity of General B. who, against Joe's advice given a year ago in July and again in October, placed the base hospitals so far back in the country that the wounded can only be transported with difficulty and danger. KATHERINE BLAKE I know of one magnificently expensive installation which is on the top of a hill. ... I have been told they are building a railroad to it. The French cannot understand why the Ameri- can medical heads have not profited by the experi- ence of those who have been over here for some time and before America came into the war. The present situation means that we have de- pended on the French for the care of our wounded. I saw a French General recently. He gave a completely different version of what I had heard occurred at the Chemin des Dames. According to him General M. had very few men, tired men at that, very few guns, and the German "sur- prise" was pretty successful. No blame could be attached to either General or troops. They were overwhelmed and had to give way rapidly. This General seemed to think the next attack would be more likely to come near Luneville and Nancy, rather than against the British or against the Compiegne-Rheims line. In this latter place no surprises can now succeed, and only surprises will enable the Germans to gain ground again. On the other hand, a desperate dual onslaught against the Abbeville sector and the Paris one might give results worth their while, whereas if they got Luneville and Nancy it would mean nothing. I suggested that they would be more likely to attack the Americans either at Chateau-Thierry SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 to get Meaux, or in the Vosges with the idea that a victory against our troops would prove the German estimate of our army right. He did not see this possibihty. But I do. Why shouldn't Ludendorff try two attacks : one against Amiens and one at Chateau-Thierry, trusting that either one might get them near enough to Paris to shell it, which is what they evidently want to do? The weather here is just now a source of real worry, for if we don't have rain soon it will go hard with the potato crop. Guess what that might mean in the food situation, with all the present difficulties and restrictions. Some one from Paris said to me recently, no potatoes would mean peace at any price with the Parisians. Every now and then a remark like this jars me. This Kerensky visit and his being tolerated in any Allied country is beyond me. I am worried now as to what will be President Wilson's atti- tude. Certainly the disorganization of the Rus- sian army was due to Kerensky. He is a smooth and glib talker, dangerous because he evidently has both power and charm over his audiences. So has Mr. Caillaux and many other members of the criminal class. Another matter which is serious is the food question in the American hospitals. P. turned up in Paris looking terribly thin — he said the food 70 KATHERINE BLAKE where he was, was simply dreadful: "Bully-beef three times a day!" Our American army cooks leave much to be desired. On the other hand, at a certain very poorly run hospital, where the sur- gical care will mean stiff arms and legs, the food is as good as at the "Ritz" and costs just about as much to the management. At Tours the food is good. It seems to differ widely everywhere, and the cooking ranges from zero to a hundred per cent. Fortoiseau, July 5, 1918. Joe came down the other day full of enthusiasm about his hospital plans, and went with me to call on the General of this region to find out about the situation. Yesterday morning he went all around the country to look at possible loca- tions. He found three good sites between the river and the railroad so either could be used for transportation. He has to report to Colonel B. today and if all goes as it should, the barracks could be up and the hospital ready for a thousand wounded inside of six weeks. I hope Joe won't get disappointed again. . . . The General we saw, and the General who is head of the big office and school beyond Melun and all the local officers, held a review at Melun yesterday in honor of July the fourth. We had places reserved for us on the reviewing stand. The French and American flags waved, and the 71 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 bands played the "Star Spangled Banner," and speeches were made, and there was great cheering. ... As our boys marched by, I thought how each man was the son, or the brother, or the husband from some home over there where he was the center and hope of its fireside, and my heart began to hurt, and my tears began to fall and all the time they passed, I was crying. I couldn't bear to think of what was ahead of those boys and how many would never go back. Of course the really beautifully expressed ap- preciations and gratitude of France are thrilling, but the Kaiser-Devil has caused more suffering, agony and death to more people in the world than has any tyrant of any age. I never see young men marching these days without feeling what most of them are marching to. Perhaps you felt that too, when you watched troops march down Fifth Avenue in New York, and you know the kind of agonizing heart-beat I mean. Oh, to kill this power of evil, this brute- beast of Germany, to drive this thing forever off the earth and out of our children's future ! They telephoned me the other day that there were some American and English soldiers at the hospital at Melun and that they were lonely and sad as no one there could speak English. So I went over. The Americans had been brought there from Chateau-Thierry and the English from 72 KATHERINE BLAKE Rheims, and believe me, they gave me a warm reception. You see in these French military hos- pitals the customs and food are quite different from ours and the British. The French give their patients two meals a day, one at ten in the morn- ing and one at five in the afternoon. The first meal consists of soup, meat or fish, potatoes or beans, some bread and some red wine. The sec- ond meal consists of meat or eggs, potatoes or lentils, sometimes salad, bread and red wine. Their breakfast, which is given them very early, consists only of coffee and dry bread. So fruit and jam and tea went a long way to cheer these men up. In the Paris hospitals the Y. M. C. A. does so much in the way of extras and treats for our men that I feel they do not need my help. If Joe gets his plan through, I shall have no end of opportunities, as this hospital would be always crowded, always in need of all sorts of extras. I couldn't buy a single cigarette in Melun for these boys — none to be had. I have written asking General Philipps for some for the English. I took them over a lot of my New York papers and magazines and London papers and they were delighted. Fortoiseau, July 6, 1918. A French friend of mind came down here yes- terday. Evidently, from what she told me, the situation had been much more critical during the 73 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 German advances to the Aisne than I appre- ciate and not only from the military point of view. It seems one day Albert Thomas went to see Clemenceau to tell him that, as the Germans were advancing on Paris, he wanted authoriza- tion to arm the munition workers "to protect and fight for the city." Clemenceau, controlling him- self before a proposition which could only cloak a possibility of a bloody revolution, said he wanted twenty-four hours to think this over and would Thomas call the following day for his answer. Then Clemenceau got busy with his cabinet, pro- cured their consent to arrest certain men in the Usines he knew were ring-leaders, and to arrange the immediate evacuation of the Usines from Paris. When Thomas returned the following day for his answer, Clemenceau told him he had con- sidered his request and that the government had decided it was better to evacuate the munition Usines than to arm their workers. Of course Thomas was furious, but was check-mated. So ended an incident which might have brought France into an abyss. I have only seen Thomas once, when he sat at a table next to mine in the "Ritz" restaurant and gorged on all the most expensive dishes. He lit- erally "swilled" food. That type of Socialist al- ways appreciates the things money buys. He is 74 KATHERINE BLAKE the leading spirit of the party trying to overthrow Clemenceau. As my friend said, the trouble here is that the eight hundred Deputies know too much, and that their mistresses know all they know. Many co- cottes and women in houses of ill fame are Ger- man secret-service agents, Germany knows what- ever the Deputies know. It seems that during this last bad time the wives and mistresses of the Deputies moved everything they owned out of Paris and that the Deputies themselves were be- seeching Clemenceau to transfer the government to Orleans. Clemenceau told them to "go to the devil," that he would stay and face any situation, and that they were "canaille." So the government remained and won out in one of the most critical situations of the war. This woman was interesting about the Chemin des Dames. She said the General under General M. who failed to carry out orders was a political ap- pointment. The center in his line gave way and fled. The English held before Rheims and the French held on the extreme left, but when the center crumbled, the wings had to fall back. She was quite abusive of England and the English, saying they wouldn't fight, couldn't fight, were demoralized, etc. That made me angry, for I know differently, and after these four years dur- ing which England has stood up and done a hun- 75 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 dred times her share of the war, I hate Hstening to a French woman abusing the army and navy which have helped her country so much. At present she and her compatriots are crazy about the Americans, fulsome praise of the same kind I heard about the British when they first came over. I tell you the French army is fine and has mag- nificent officers and the French man and woman of the soil are normal, and good, but the politi- cians and the city people are human junk and make a wave of sickening mental nausea creep over your enthusiasm. Clemenceau and Foch are the symbols of the best in France and because they exist I know France will win out in spite of her terrible handicaps. . . . The Tammany tiger is transformed here into the semblance of a "Madam." A picture is in my mind of three figures playing the game of fate : a General, a farmer and a harlot; presently the first two win and the third falls, down, far down, where one sees the rotten things of dead civiliza- tions putrefying in the darkness of the past. Em- perors lie there, and kings, popes and saints, many peoples and customs, history has called good, human rubbish, which the minds and hearts of honest men and women have pushed down and away, knowing their real value. And so it shall be. So it always is. France, because there is so 76 KATHERINE BLAKE much that is noble and true in her spirit, must rise above her politics and her prostitution, stand- ing purified by this ordeal of fire and sword, on the summit of the mountain, with the stars of heaven shining on her head. I have one more thing to mention, though not to write about. Yesterday, something occurred which made me feel the United States are wise in their use of censorship. Sometimes by reading cables and letters information is obtained useful enough to enable the war to be won by efliciency in such parts of the service as have hitherto been mismanaged. Some day, I'll tell you of how Joe spent the hours of yesterday morning. . . . It seems the King of Spain was in Paris ten days ago, secretly. There are two stories for the reason he came: the first, that he had come to confer with Clemenceau about possible Austrian peace terms; the other to offer Spain's entry into the war providing Great Britain would give up Gibraltar. The first is possible, but the second story is nonsense. I shouldn't be a bit surprised if the next blow were in the Vosges with the idea of giving our troops a defeat, and a simultaneous blow in the direction of Abbeville, so as to make transporta- tion of reserves almost too difiicult to be accom- plished. Some people I have seen doubt another big blow anywhere. I do not. The military 77 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 party in Germany has to do something to keep its life and ruhng with the present situation in the Reichstag. Presently somebody in Germany with courage and a tongue, will realize that this war is not what they have believed, namely: a German war for Germany's sake, but that it is the fight of the Hohenzollern for the life of the Hohenzol- lern, the war for a dynasty. When enough people see this in Germany — then what.f^ Fortoiseau, July 8, 1918. We had a most delightful guest yesterday in General B. His daughter came with him and I got D. G. who has been ill in Paris with Spanish grippe and had been obliged to postpone his going to the front until tomorrow, to come down from town. Of course we talked war from the time the General got here until he left, and of course I had the time of my life. General B. is so simple, so honest, so completely different from the Paris atmosphere. His talk was like a fresh breeze from the ocean which drove the miasmic stench of corruption out of my memory. Apparently the anti-English talk only exists in certain political and social circles, for this man said that England had saved France at the begin- ning and had been saving her ever since with her 78 KATHERINE BLAKE navy, as well as with her army, that England had made American intervention possible and that never could we all be sufficiently grateful to Eng- land. He sees in the future a league of those na- tions who have fought Prussia and a trinity of France, England and America at the head of it. He was most interesting about politics, and the language he used to express his opinion of the Malvy-Caillaux gang was most picturesque. Their propaganda had caused much trouble last year. They had used the women of the street to await the arrival of trains of permissionaires at railroad stations, seducing the men to go and drink with them and talk their insidious peace talk, mutiny, etc. The General had himself a case in point. One evening, last year, he was telephoned to come at once to a certain station on the road to Chalons, beyond here, that there was serious trouble, rioting of permissionaires at the station. First the General telephoned for troops to meet him at the station, but to do nothing until his arrival. Then he started in his car, and got there to find that these men had had a five minute stop at this station and had used it to cut the coup- lings of the cars, to terrorize the engineers, to loot two wagons of cider, sidetracked in the station, to pull up the ballast of the tracks and to stone anyone who came near them, yelling: "We want 79 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 peace, no more fighting, no more officers, no more Generals !" By the time the General got there, the riot was in full swing, fourteen hundred men in it. He, entirely alone, without arms, only his cane. The station authorities begged him not to approach the men, nor to speak to them. But he did. And he gave them a great talk. "Nous voulons la paix," they yelled. "Eh bien, je la veux aussi moi et vous allez me la foutre," he answered. They wouldn't listen to reason, they were too drunk, so the General gave the signal for the troops he had telephoned for to go on. Then he turned to the rioters again: "Every man goes into those cars at the point of the bayonet, and any man who climbs out of a car is shot." A few threw some stones at him, but he stood there, with his cane, calmly. The engineer was afraid to go back into the engine, so the General got up into the engine cab beside him. Then most of the men saw sense, and he accordingly had their per- missions stamped and the train pulled out of the station. The General went to the telephone and called the officer in command at Chalons. He told him just what had happened, to meet the train, to let those men whose papers were stamped go on, and "to deal with the others as neces- sary." The General said he thought some thirty 80 KATHERINE BLAKE of them were shot. "Now," he said, "you ap- preciate those coquins who spread such poisonous talk." It is true, however, that this occurred last year, and as he said this situation no longer exists. Now, the morale of the army is magnificent, but the general staff must have "du cran" to have won out as it has, against the political traitors who were continually endeavoring to "knife" it in the back. He seems to think the coming German offensive is beginning, and in the region near Rheims. The objectives being to get Chalons and to bring their line down and beyond Chateau-Thierry. He does not think they will succeed and said he would not be surprised if Foch were waiting for this offensive to start, to get going and about the third day, give them "something" good and hard. From the way he spoke, I felt the worst hour was over. He used to be with Foch and is wildly enthusiastic about him and his great wisdom and true judgment. The General lost his only son at the beginning of the war. He can't speak of him without tears in his eyes. The boy was wounded in the head and took twenty-seven days to die. D. G. has to go as Officier de Liaison to General Gouraud in command of the Chalons sector, so he 81 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 will probably be right in the thick of the next fighting. D. G. said they were terribly short of Officiers de Liaison, just now. Fortoiseau, July 10, 1918. I enclose some articles to interest you: two on French politics by the man who started the Malvy- Caillaux row and investigation and one from the Matin on our medical organization here, which is what might be called in New York American a "creel." They say creeling is so very much the fashion these days but I can't very well believe it. Some "buts" might be spoken about the M. C, of the A. E. F. The object of this article, as well as the photographs in the New York Sunday papers of the sanitary trains and all that's being done for the wounded, is obvious. As a matter of fact, too much visiting and over-doses of ice cream and chocolate cake are going on in the Paris hospitals and such awful old "tanks" and "saucisses" in uniform I have never seen. The passport department in Washington must be an institution for the blind. Early this spring the lawyer who went to Ger- many to pilot Mrs. B. back to America came to Paris to see a certain secretary in the United States Embassy, who was a friend of his, to warn him that he and all the people he was interested in should leave Paris, as the Crown Prince had ad- 82 KATHERINE BLAKE vised Mrs. B. to save her friends in Paris while there was yet time, as he was going to take the city and enter it in triumph shortly after the offensive, to be started in March, should have reached its successful climax. This story went all over Paris, and when I was told that the United States secretary only shrugged his shoulders, other people did not, and they were badly fright- ened. But every one was very much surprised that such a personal friend of the Hohenzollern family as Mrs. B. apparently was, should be allowed to go back to America. General I. has declined Joe's plans which I have mentioned to you recently. I think they would rather have regular army officers in important positions, and as the French do not place the same valuation on Philippine experience that they do, the same thing will happen this year as happened last : talk and more talk, propositions and counter- propositions and finally the polite getting out of it by the French, because they do not care to deal with the class of surgeon who frankly admits that he has come to France to teach French surgeons how to care for their wounded. It discourages me dreadfully to see Joe go heart and soul into some plan which would help our men to get care quicker and better, to collect a whole lot of data and information, giving hours of his time and then to have the result of it all, a 83 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 pigeon-hole, with "many thanks." Later I sup- pose his plans and suggestions will be taken down from the shelf by some "regular," and carried through with a big hurrah and much credit. Oh, the amount of time wasted, the number of useless talks, the not getting down to doing things at once and ahead of time, make my heart ache, especially as our mistakes are creeled and we are not allowed to profit by them. There is some- thing else besides words. Fortoiseau, July 12, 1918. Your letter of June 13 came last evening. It seemed rather in a minor key about everything. One thing I want to get clear in your mind, as I see you are somewhat confused about it, and that is what is meant by "brigading" American troops with the French and English. Divisions are put in as divisions, not as regiments or battalions, so the unity is not broken. The Marines went in as a division and there is no idea of breaking them up. Our officers are under French advice and direction and in view of many things this would seem the best way to give our troops a chance to be well and carefully used. The officers who have been in this hell for four years are much more care- ful of lives and much more appreciative of what certain brilliant and not absolutely necessary ac- tions cost, than the officer fresh from the United States, with the vision of our hundred million 84 KATHERINE BLAKE population dulling his sense of the value of each individual life. I believe there are also quite a few differences in the way we use our artillery and other things, but fortunately we are in France and under a French boss and unity is absolutely necessary. It will be a long time before our men can be an army under its own General. It is bet- ter thus, the war will be sooner won. I am much more cheerful about the whole busi- ness than I was and I have hope that this next German attack will be handled as the last one on Compiegne was. Fortoiseau, July 13, 1918. Now that it's over and enough behind us for me to feel more secure, I can tell you that on one of those days Joe came here he told me the Com- manding General of the Paris region had sent for him to arrange about the evacuation of the nurses and women of his hospital and had told him that of course as commanding officer of the hospital he would remain on duty with those patients who could not be moved, when the Germans entered Paris. The possibilities of this situation were pretty bad. I nearly died of fright but I had to be brave and say nothing. Things looked very black. I lunched yesterday at General B.'s and there were other officers, both French and American there. Their conversation was far from pessimis- 85 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 tic and they seemed to feel that the situation at present is encouraging. They were sure that the tide had turned and that the next German offen- sive would be checked. The mastery of the air is now conceded to the Allies on most parts of the front. The Gothas are being used by the Ger- mans to defend their munition dumps and to cover the moving of their troops against the Allies' air attacks. What will be the balance in our favor when the United States airplanes are here? There is a big fourteenth of July celebration at the American aviation camp near here in honor of the French. The officers have invited us to go so we shall motor over. Fortoiseau, July 16, 1918. On Sunday night at eleven o'clock we were all awakened by the most terrific cannonade I have ever heard. The big guns roared and every win- dow and door in the house shook and rattled. The worst thunderstorm I have ever heard was nothing compared to the noise. And we are over sixty kilometres from the firing line . . . just imagine what it must have been at close range. The whole sky was red. It kept up until four o'clock. Then we knew that the expected Ger- man attack had begun, and on the front from Chateau-Thierry to Rheims, as the sound came that way. We can always tell where the fighting is, as the different parts of the line give entirely 86 KATHERINE BLAKE different qualities of sound. The wind being south, against the direction of the firing, we heard it with terrific distinctness. When the wind is with the sound: north, we hardly hear the guns at all. This south wind is against the Germans as they can't use their gasses, and we can. Many people thought they were delaying their attack hoping the wind would change, as each time they have had the wind they wanted. Today it is south, we have had heavy showers and last night a severe thunderstorm, so this time the weather is not helping the Germans. There was no news to be had yesterday morning. I was frantic. Joe is away. Chamont-Langres-Tours. Another lecture at the college at Langres and an appointment with General X. to try and get his hospital plan through. It is now blocked by the Medical Committee of the army. A French friend of mine came down to lunch and brought with her a man who is in munition and other factories and very close to the govern- ment people. He was far from cheerful. He said the government was very anxious about this at- tack, that it was the biggest and hardest one yet, that the German "armee de choc" was one mil- lion, five hundred thousand men, that the French one, on the contrary, had been largely cut into for help for the English, that losses and prisoners had much reduced our numbers, that this attack 87 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 would probably be on the Compiegne front and that they might gain some ground. This man also told me that the Japanese had landed at Vladivostok on Thursday. At noon the mail brought me a letter from David Gray written on the 12th. He is near Montaigne de Rheims with General Gouraud: "All the news I hear is good. We are ready for them everywhere and for everything that may happen, so there is no need to be nervous about anything. No one seems to know what is keep- ing the Hun quiet, except that they are not quite ready. But when they are ready, they are going to have a hot reception. So don't be nervous." At two o'clock I got the communique from the General's office at Melun by telephone. This one was very different from the one the first day of the other attack. Compare them yourself. Then I got a reassuring telephone message from Paris that the Germans were being held everywhere, that only on one point had they advanced some two hundred yards. I felt better by that time, but I had had palpitations all the morning. You would too, after the crashing of those guns through the night. My nerves are still buzzy, and the responsibility of my small children so near the front is enough to make me nervous. This morning's communique is really good. I think we can all be of good heart. If we keep on 88 KATHERINE BLAKE as we have begun, it is the beginning of the end for the Germans, and as it is the first time they have attacked without carrying off a grand-stand success, I feel the effect is not going to be good on the morale of their troops. I was told that the attacking army is General Von Galwitz's army, the only one not yet used. It is a gigantic battle over eight kilometres long and it must be the supreme effort of the Germans. We have anxious days ahead, but we have started off well; for the first time, there has been no sur- prise. Fortoiseau, July 19, 1918. I spent the whole afternoon at the Melun hos- pital in the ward with our men. The hospital was rather swamped as they had been filled up at two A. M. with wounded. Seven Americans had been brought in with their own French. They waited until I got there to get their names and all the details of their injuries. Have you ever thought of what "shell shock" is? Well, it is the most unnerving thing to see. One of our men had it. Until I was able to make him understand me as I sat beside him, no one could get him to speak, or eat or drink. Wild eyes, mad, horrible. Another man, wounded in the head, probably mortally, cried like a baby when he heard my American voice speaking words he could under- stand. The others are less badly hurt, and how 89 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 they loved the papers, and the fruit and my visits. The hospital staff were all so busy that I was left entirely alone in the ward with these men the whole afternoon . . . and do you know, I was happy, for I was of service to my own and there was no one to interfere. You have no idea of how thrilling the account of those who could talk, was of the fighting at Chateau-Thierry in which they were. They had been sent to dig trenches last Sunday against the German attack which was expected to come on Monday. The Germans came on ahead of time. These men, who were engineers, had only one machine gun to defend them, and the man who had it ran up and down on the top of the trench firing all the time, so the Germans thought the Americans were well protected by several machine guns and stayed in the village, fearing to attack. Then the French came up to relieve our men. As usual, we were short of ambulances, and these men were picked up by a French ambulance and put on a French train for Melun. They told me the Germans were in for a thrash- ing. I never heard such confidence. They say the Germans are scared to death of the Americans and give themselves up, but that the German army has a great many big guns and machine guns, more than we have, and that's the reason they can hold at all. If what these men tell me 90 KATHERINE BLAKE is true, forty thousand Germans will be caught in their salient below the Marne today. Joe came down late last night. Very tired and blue. He brought me the correspondence about the big hospital down here which would prevent just the situation which brings our men to Melun. Colonel K. has thrown the whole thing down hard and there doesn't seem to be any use of trying to help them clear up their own mistakes. They like to think and act as if France were Cuba. Anyhow, Joe will try today to arrange for an ambulance to come down from Paris and bring these men from Melun into his own hospital. I left there late in the afternoon and their wounds had not yet been touched. The nurses told me the French were so much worse wounded than ours, that ours would have to wait their turn. And we have grand base hospitals with empty beds, far away south . . . doesn't it make you sad and angry? The news in the morning's paper is so good, that I can hardly believe it. We have so much bad news that today I just want to weep. I can't stand the relief. Joe telephoned me today. He was terribly excited over the news, saying word has just come that our first, second and third divisions had taken sixteen thousand prisoners yesterday, that they were pushing on, that it looked as if the 91 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 Germans were on the run. He said he had been told that the Americans took Soissons at four a. M. He was good to Hsten to. He had been ordered up to Compiegne this afternoon to help the evac- uation of the wounded from up there. Oh, if only we can end this war soon and end this hell. For hell it is for the soldiers, the people, all of us . . . even me. Fortoiseau, July 22, 1918. I went into Paris yesterday and spent all day at the hospital. I don't think it is possible for me to give you an idea of what that place is like. Everybody overworked, every ward overcrowded . . . most of my time was spent at the bedside of a young man who intermittently, through hours of the day, told me his story which I want to get to you. I think I shall write it to you in a way which may enable it to pass the censor. . . . "The other night I dozed off to sleep with the dull distant din of the cannon booming in my ears, far away, off in the direction of Chateau- Thierry . . . and then I woke up in a dream. "I seemed to be in a crowded camion, and we were all on the way to the front. The attack was to be at four a. m. What hours and hours we had waited for the camion, we had none of our own, they were to be provided by the French, there was some unexplained delay, and as I waited I felt if only we were handling our own transpor- 92 KATHERINE BLAKE tation there would have been none of those weary hours. . . . "The roads were rough and we rattled along all night. Then we stopped. Eight miles to *hike,' so as to be on time for the attack, not one minute for food or rest. Tramping on into the night. All the time I was thinking of how it would feel to face the music. We had only reached France July 1st and did not know much about the war. We had been quiet at Toul. We had the word to start barely in time to get ready, and something had gone wrong about our rations. I had nothing to eat since a day and a night. As I tramped along I thought about the way I'd get a real crack at the Dutchies, and damned their Kaiser for starting all this bloody mess and messing up the whole world. I had been a mechanic in New York state, but I went into the army because I felt I just had to get those Dutchies. God, I was hungry as I tramped along. I wondered why our food had gone astray and would we get anything when we got there, before we went into the fight. "Then suddenly we were there, and so was the food outfit, but it was useless, because there was no time to do any cooking, we had to go right on and into the fight and attack. They got us some coffee. I drank two cups and as I had some candies in my pocket, I sucked some of those and off I went *over the top' as the British say. SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 "The noise was terrific, our guns were smashing above us and the Germans were going back be- fore us. My heart was beating, we were winning, on we went bhndly into the noise and smoke. Into the hell of it. *Duck into that dugout, shell coming ! ' shouted my Sergeant and I ducked. A blinding terrible blow on my head. "I staggered out of the hole crying for help, blood was blinding me, I couldn't see anything. I guess I had been there a while before I stag- gered out, probably knocked silly by the blow. It hurt so I couldn't bear the pain and I couldn't see a damn thing and there didn't seem to be any one near, the noise was farther away. Then I yelled for help, over and over again. But there was no answer. Then I heard the noise of a motor in the dark, for I was still blinded by the wound in my head, and I shouted as loud as I could. They heard me and stopped. I tried to explain, but they were all French and couldn't understand. But they did go and find an Ameri- can officer and he was good to me. He led me along until we got to a first aid station. They gave me something to drink and to eat, and said I had better not get any operating on the wound until I reached a base hospital. They washed and bandaged my wound and it felt better. Then I was started on my way back, first in the ambu- lance, then in the train. We got to a hospital. 94 KATHERINE BLAKE But I guess it was sort of a makeshift place. There were no beds for us. We lay on stretchers on the ground. There must have been a lot of us. They were groaning all around and crying in pain — there were men dying. I heard them dying. It was hot as hell. I felt the sun burning me up. There were millions of flies. Somebody came and gave us water. We were all so thirsty it didn't seem as if we could ever drink enough. Presently I heard voices. Some officers were talking. One of them said there was a surgeon from Paris with them. That man had a kind voice. I heard him saying that the operating room was just a shed, that there was only a small basin of water for the surgeons to wash up in, no convenience for doing anything as it should be done. He seemed to feel very badly about what he was seeing. Then I heard the rumble of a cart, and somehow, blind as I was, I saw the wagon. It was full of dead men. There were legs and arms sticking out in every direction. They were going to bury them . . . how.f^ where .f^ . . . and the flies were crawl- ing over all of us, the living and the dead. But I could not see, I could only hear. It was a fearful mess. "Well, they moved me into the train. They said I was to go to a Paris hospital. "When I got there, that is here, it was all crowded. I lay with the others all night on my 95 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 stretcher on the ground floor. They were good to us. They bathed us and gave us cool water. In the morning they moved me to a bed. And I slept ! Oh, how I slept ! "The next morning somebody came and sat by me and fed me, just as if I were a baby. I felt she was sorry. She said she would write to my people for me. "Before she came I had been operated on. I heard the surgeons say they might have to graft some skin. After the operation they bandaged me up again. But I can't see . . . oh, when will I see? I kept asking the lady this, and she said maybe not for six weeks. And then the same voice I had heard up at that hospital where I had gone first, spoke to the lady, saying I was to be moved on in the morning, probably to Bordeaux to be sent home. "So I guess I am through with the Dutchies and it won't be long before I see the old Statue of Liberty again in New York harbor. "'Say, ma'am, I'll sure see by then.?' I said. *Perhaps,' she answered." And then, I heard the distant booming of the guns towards Chateau-Thierry, and I was I in my bed, and the perspiration was pouring down my forehead and horror was in my soul. And I had a vision of a self-satisfied, smug-faced man who sat at our table a year ago last July 10th or 12th, 96 KATHERINE BLAKE and listened to what my husband said and later when he had left us, spoke to others of "the trouble those damned New York specialists have given me ever since they came over." Will that man's day of reckoning ever dawn? Of course everywhere the line is not like that. I spoke to many men in the hospital yesterday, and they were so brave, so patient, so sure we are winning the war, that I know we shall. But not just yet. We may push them back to the Aisne now, or we may do much more. This battle may be the decisive victory of the war. No one can tell yet. In another couple of days we shall be better able to judge. If the Germans only retire now, and aren't licked, it will mean that we shall have to give them another beating in the early fall and that beating will be the end of them and, I think, of the war. I firmly believe now, the end is in sight. Our men have done their share. The Germans have got the first taste of the kind of hell we are going to give them. They know they are beaten. Wait and see the results of this battle in Germany and in the coun- tries allied with her. They tell me the airplane situation is improv- ing daily, so we may be able to give them a dose of their own medicine before long, and in General Foch we have a Commander-in-Chief who is prov- ing himself the superior of Ludendorff. He is 97 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 out-manceuvering him and outwitting him. Ger- mans are heavy through and through. Always according to rule, and once their plan is deranged they are not quick enough to make changes to meet unexpected emergencies. Be of good hope. Our victory is in sight. Fortoiseau, July 24, 1918. I seem to leave so many things unwritten that I have in my heart. I suppose it would do no good to write them. The war must be won and some things are better left unwritten. But I earnestly hope it will be long before our army is dependent on nobody but themselves for airplanes to chase the Germans from over their heads, for great guns unlimited, to keep abreast with our infantry, for ambulances, field hospitals and supplies. If we had prepared, even while we were neutral, many lives would have been saved. We must remember, that for four years, France and England have been fighting our war for us. What Wilson says we are fighting for today, was being fought for in 1914. We are fighting to win peace and a possible world, as much for ourselves, as for France. The United States has done much for France, more than we seem to realize. Money, which can be abused and minimized by the right- eous who haven't got it, is nevertheless one of the main sinews of war. Our gifts, our loans, our KATHERINE BLAKE materials, have been great factors. We have done ten thousand times more for France than we have done for England and England has been as lavishly generous to France as we have, and she was in the fight. She was giving her men, as well as her tremendous gifts in pounds and shil- lings. The one thing to do is to forget what some countries of Europe left undone for us in 1898, to close our eyes to certain conditions now, and to use any and every influence to get our own stuff in every department over here, with as little delay as possible, so as to make our next offensive Ger- many's final defeat. We don't want words and congratulatory tele- grams. We want our guns, our supplies, our am- bulances, our everything, and without delay. We were asked for men and we sent them. They have fought, given their youth, their blood, their limbs, their lives. Those at home will soon know what war is, for many homes will be bereaved. We have only just begun. The sooner we can do for our own, completely, the sooner the war will be won. Remember that every minute, speak the word every time the op- portunity comes to reach those in positions to get things done. Some day I'll tell you all the things that are making my heart ache . . . some day after the 99 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 war when you and I are far away from all this, then I can speak all I leave unwritten now. I got a very enthusiastic letter from D. G. last night. As you know he was in that offensive on General Gouraud's staff. He says this defeat is Germany's Waterloo. It may well be, who can tell what the results will be for Germany. Fortoiseau, July 25, 1918. Honestly it makes me sick to see how scared all our friends are to make any comment ... on the weather or the barometer. Even Joe says to me please not to write anything about this man or that condition, as criticism from me would be considered as coming from him, and he could not afford to make any remarks. To answer your questions about the Red Cross. The American newspapers are, apparently, con- tinually telling you all about their various works over here. I assure you that they are always ready to cooperate with Joe, their men trying to help out in times of rush and besides giving the patients all kinds of extra "treats" — ice cream, cigarettes, etc. Yesterday one of their men was going all around through the wards giving men cigarettes and lighting them for them, as they lay on the stretchers, either waiting for operation or to be put in beds, as beds became available. They have sent the housekeeper ice cream 100 KATHERINE BLAKE freezers, and they are going to supply the mate- rials to make the ice cream in the hospital, so that it can be given regularly and we shall not be dependent on outside organizations like that club of Beeckman's, which means well but is rather in the way, when the whole place is overcrowded and everyone is rushed to death doing the things which have to be done. The men care more for ice cream and cigarettes than they do for any other "treat." And as one can not buy either, you can see that we are grateful to the Red Cross. Always, as far as financing the hospital is con- cerned, the organization has been splendid and the heads, evidently, appreciate the work that Joe is doing. I read the article in Scribner's you refer to, and it bored me. The author had evidently been away from the war, and in America, for some time, and his theories were very old-fashioned. Everything changes all the time in the war. Un- less one is right here, one cannot keep up with it. This last week has transformed the whole situation. Our men were an unknown quantity. They went in and fought like heroes. They are winning the war. In the hospital there were French and American soldiers in a certain ward; I had been talking to them for a while, and one of the Frenchmen said to me: "Madame, you should tell your compatriots 101 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 not to fight with such completely crazy courage. They let themselves be massacred. I have never seen such madmen as they are. We know better how to protect ourselves." " What's he saying to you.^" asked an American. I translated. "Hum," answered my compatriot, "you tell that Frenchy that's just why the war has lasted so long, they are too careful. We are in this to lick the Dutchies, and to lick them good and as quick as we can. If we do get hurt and killed, those Dutchies are well scared of us, and they run; if they didn't have so many more machine guns than us, they would run a damned sight faster." And that is the difference. The Allied armies have been in this terrible war so long their men cannot have the punch and vim of young and fresh men, such as ours. You have no idea how much good our successes have done to the morale of the French. The French haven't got that dogged tenacity of the British, which would keep England fighting to her last man (I think his name would be the Duke of M., who has kept in the safe job of king's messenger right along), and the Americans have acted on the whole French nation as a tonic and a brace and this counts as much as victory on the battlefield. These last few days have been full of many things. A mixture of events and conversations. It seems that Soissons has been lost and taken 102 KATHERINE BLAKE five times since this offensive started. Now it will not be taken again by the French until they can get, not only into it, but well beyond it. Strategically, it is a dangerous city for our troops, on account of the lay of the land, and must be widely held in order to be held with safety. The situation now is good. The Allies control the main road from Soissons to Chateau-Thierry, which is either within their lines or under their fire. So the Germans are fighting their rear-guard actions with their crack troops, thus giving time for the rest of the army to get back, saving what they can, destroying the rest. A Frenchman told me one of the German Gen- erals said: "The French may win, but we shall leave them nothing in France but their eyes to weep their losses." The fires of destruction light up the skies at night as the German leaves his mark. The mark of Cain it shall be for him and his children's chil- dren. I saw General B. in Paris yesterday after- noon for a minute. I said I would never forget the way our men endured discomfort, delay and suffering without complaint. He said the condi- tions have been very diflSicult as the French had said: "Send us men and we will feed them, transport them, take care of them, give them hospital beds, 103 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 only, send us men T' And the General said we had sent men, and then all the French promises were hard to fulfil and the Chemin des Dames losses of hospitals and hospital supplies did not make anything easy. "Well," I answered, "if we were to send our men in with the French, coupled with them in alternating divisions, why could we not get ahead with our preparations? We have known for a good many months that our men were to be used with the French — why not have worked our sur- geons and all our life-saving and pain-saving par- aphernalia in with them ahead of time ? Care for our own from the field of battle to the base hospi- tal." And later, I have no doubt our organiza- tion will be perfect in every detail, and when we make the final big offensive, it will be a steam- roller-palace-car, all American affair, and the troubles and the worries of these days will be for- gotten. Believe me, to our soldiers we owe all the appreciation, all the honor we can give, for they have made good, and as heroes. Why, those men I saw in the hospital yesterday had each a story to tell, a life with the best of a soul. One man was blinded by gas. He had been in a gas attack. His mask was on right, but his pal's wasn't. So he took off the eye part of his mask (I believe the masks are difficult to see through) to help the other man and he got gassed. 104 KATHERINE BLAKE They may save his sight. That's what his act of helpfulness cost him. And they are all like that, loyal to the man next, even at a terrible price. Another side, and a curious one, is that, as they told me, they are grand souvenir hunters. Every time they get a chance to get German me- mentoes they do. One man had collected Ger- man cigarettes. . . . General Pershing visited the hospital two days ago. Joe said he was very nice with the men, spoke to nearly each one and told them how proud we all are of them. General Fevrier, who came over to go through the hospital with General Pershing, announced to Joe that the Germans had come to Paris, and then continued with a smile that there were German corpses floating down the Seine, which had come all the way from the Marne and had been fished out in Paris. Grue- some, this, a picture for a Dore. Today I went over to the Melun hospital. They are terribly crowded too, but no Americans this time. All French. They have no extras as our boys have and they were so grateful for the grapes and fruit I took them. One boy, a mere child, who had been operated on yesterday and was pretty sick, burst out crying when I handed him a bunch of grapes: "They are so good," he said, "we used to have them growing at home." And these boys need 105 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 extras even more than our men . . . wounds and suffering are everywhere just now, it seems as if none of us could ever do enough. Fortoiseau, July 27, 1918. Paris was put in the war zone after the Chemin des Dames advance, for several reasons: should a further advance have occurred necessitating evac- uation of civilians so as to let the soldiers defend the city street by street, as they were prepared to do, the General's staff would not be hindered by the civil administration. The situation at that time was very black, furthermore, there were undercurrents which made the possibility of riots emanating from the political opponents of Cle- menceau, a danger only to be met by the firm military arm. Those days are behind us. For the present, Clemenceau is on the crest of the wave, where we hope for all our sakes, he will remain. But the Germans are not so very far from Paris yet, and I am sure it is better to keep the city under mili- tary control for some time to come. When the Germans shall be quite a bit farther away, and Malvy and his crowd either in exile or in king- dom come, I think Paris will go back to civil control. Joe telephoned me this morning that the medi- cal men he had seen were not so worried about 106 KATHERINE BLAKE some things as he was himself. I said: "Politics or heartlessness ? " That's the thing that makes me boil. Self first and all the time and to hell with the man who wants to help right what's far from right ! Joe takes his "cases" hard. You would think each one of those boys was his own. Of one thing the relations of the men who go to his hospital can be sure, they get more care than anywhere else. Joe goes over every case, even those he does not operate himself; decides on their operation, mak- ing long rounds every day. He carries every case in his head and in his heart, too. That's why he gets so tired. If he were a wooden surgeon, like some I could mention, it would be easier for him. Some nights he has been here, he can't sleep. He gets the horrors over the wounds and the opera- tions, worrying as to whether each man is getting exactly the right care and treatment. Many an American mother and wife can be forever grate- ful to him. Fortoiseau, July 28, 1918. Recent clippings from the New York papers brought me cheerful snapshots of old friends and accounts of balls and parties which I found shock- ing. When I think of our men fighting, suffering, dying on the battlefield, or as I have seen them in our hospital, I cannot bear to know that there are people in America who can want balls and par- 107 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 ties. It seems heartless beyond belief. The war has not come home to those people yet . . . well, the ships are bearing a burden of pain and courage across the sea, which will bring the war home to all. And we shall have to pay much more in suffer- ing and men before the German is beaten. There has been a check, yes, but it will have to be more than that before the only terms we can ofiFer, are accepted. There are months of bloody fighting ahead. This is not the time for balls and parties; over here we cannot think of such things, they jar terribly. Fortoiseau, July 29, 1918. I cannot yet make up my mind as to how big a thing this German retirement is. We are still too close to it. I almost wonder if there haven't been two camps in the German high command; Hindenburg with the plan to smash through the British, dividing them from the French, and driv- ing to Calais; and the Ludendorff-Crown Prince plan to get Paris at any cost. The Kaiser between the two. If Hindenburg' s plan had been carried through and all the German forces used to push, the Crown Prince shut up, the situation today would have been very different. Now, one thing is certain: our army is here, our men are real soldiers and the very fact that they have not been in the war 108 KATHERINE BLAKE through four years is one of the main factors of their success. When our army shall be equipped in every department and altogether an army, you will see the absolute annihilation of the German forces. Even if this present retreat does not become the rout, which it still may at any time, the tide has turned, America is winning the war and is winning it with handicaps. Every day I live and hear all I do, I am prouder of our soldiers' courage and endurance. I only wish I could write you more fully. There are things which might be so much better if only we had a bigger corps of liaison officers, covering especially the Medical Department's relations with the French. More use could be made of their good will. I wish the powers that be in Washington would appoint a first-class business man, not a doctor, nor a dentist, as liaison officer for the American Medical Corps with the French Service de Sante to look after our interests. The care of our wounded is a great big part of this war and on certain things done now depend the after-war conditions of our wounded and how they will affect the future life of our country. The better immediate care of our men means fewer cripples in the future to weigh us down in many ways. I get wrought up about everything because I want our services to be first class. All day yesterday the refugees passed our gates 109 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 again, but going the other way, back to their homes. They didn't stop this time, they were going as fast as they could. And these days I am glad to see their beasts and their loaded wagons going down the road. But what shall they find left of their old homes? ... Fortoiseau, August 1, 1918. From what Colonel Z. told me yesterday we have quite a number of divisions in France ready to go in, and our men have fought better and bet- ter as time has passed. It seems they found an order on a German officer telling his men that he had two green American divisions in front of them, the First and Second, that they were to hammer them with guns day and night, to attack them every night, and by this they would unnerve them and easily beat them. It just happened to happen the other way. This particular division covered itself with glory. This friend of mine was terribly upset in his recent trip by the fact that the odor of decaying bodies was terrific. They can not bury them deep enough in the short time the men are given for this job. It would be better if we followed the German plan of having a special burial corps attached to each army instead of detailing part of our troops back to do it. Neither he, nor any one else I have seen, thinks 110 KATHERINE BLAKE the Germans will do anything big this fall and before they are ready to strike again, it will be too late. In fact, a certain French General rather gave me the feeling that we might be doing some- thing ourselves before winter. Mind you, he didn't say so in so many words but as I listened to him talk I had the feeling there is something under way. Evidently the Germans had indeed planned a real big thing. To take Chalons, get to Melun, compelling the French to evacuate Ver- dun and all that front by their advance, and to take Paris. They had accumulated the most re- markable amount of material and four hundred thousand men in the salient above Chateau- Thierry to carry it through. Foch out-generaled them and with very much smaller numbers has really given them a check of a kind which will be almost equal to a big defeat. Had he had more men we could have pinched the two Horns : before Soissons and Rheims and then there would have been a real rout, a disaster to end the war then and there. In any case, because of the present situation, we need not fear that the war will drag on during weary years of fighting, and blood and death. Fortoiseau, August 3, 1918. The war news is grand today and I am wonder- ing if the worst is not to happen to the Germans before many months. Today's news certainly 111 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 does not look like a long war and that means we will all be together before we are old. Fortoiseau, August 8, 1918. I hear that the French have brought up their big guns to the edge of the Vesle and that they are pounding the Germans between the Vesle and the Aisne, to pieces. It's just a question as to how long the Germans can stand it, before they get back on the Aisne. There is a feeling that something else is on in the near future, that now General Foch is a Marshal he will use his baton on the Germans good and hard. Fortoiseau, August 12, 1918. To answer your question as to the efficiency of our "top" officers. I hear our first army is now organized, that Pershing and his officers are in full command. They will undoubtedly be in ac- tion before long, and you will soon know just what their measure of excellence is, by the way they win their laurels and the way they save their men in winning them. I should not be a bit sur- prised if this army went into action on the Vesle and were given the chance of pushing the Ger- mans back on the Aisne and beyond, as their first job. To my mind a great deal more praise might be given to our men than they have received. At 112 KATHERINE BLAKE Chateau-Thierry the Marines barred the road to Paris, and if they had not fought there as they did, with heroic courage, against frightful odds and under conditions which enhanced their valor a hundred-fold, the Germans would have gone on to Meaux. Where would they have stopped? The other day General Petain told an American lawyer I know, that Paris had indeed been in dire peril. ... "A little quarter of an hour more," he said. It's not only by their fighting that our men have saved France, it is by their influence and morale. The French have been through two bad defeats, of which the worst was the one at the Chemin des Dames, it seemed as if the Germans were invincible to the war weary troops; the poli- ticians were all scared out of their senses, so were the civilians, and our men came into the fight and made good at the psychological moment. It was a dark hour. No one over in America appre- ciated its black danger, and now that it is behind us I feel we can never give enough credit to those men. Today we have the great British victory to read about; a victory which does my heart good, for the English are our brothers and our race. They had tasted the bitterness of defeat in March and they have been able to prove of what stuff they are made. It's one thing to go in and win, when 113 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 an army is new and full of vigor and without the knowledge of defeat and retreat, and quite an- other thing to go in and make good as the English now have, with an army tempered in the fire as they have been, weary, tired and in some cases inadequately officered. However, the papers have been good reading, and their offensive has turned into what now looks like the biggest victory since Foch took hold. Unity of command has turned out Gough and put in Rawlinson, and with the war wisdom of the French high command, I think the British soldiers' fighting worth will be a big factor in the Allies' victory. We have men with the British, as well as the French, the French are with the British too. It is one army now. As to your estimation of Wilson and Hughes I can venture no opinion. I have met and talked with both men on occasions which were rather self- revealing incidents. I rather feel that Wilson understands the American public quite as well as the writer of the editorials in the Evening Journal does, and plays it, or shall I say uses it? Wilson is a remarkable and clever man, a scholar, writer, a gifted speaker and knows the game of politics from A to Z. Do you know, I think he has grown, just because the French and British have been so enthusiastic about him. There is a species that does that. It flies all the higher and the sunlight transforms its wings into 114 KATHERINE BLAKE sunbeam scraps. We may, as a nation, find our way over the rainbow under his leadership. Rider Haggard would be just the writer to give a popu- lar picture of his reign. "He" instead of "She." If only I were a Thackeray baked into a Dickens, what a real justice I might do to Wilson. Why aren't babies allowed to do the conception cooking of their beings, to choose the latent qualities in the spermatozoa which is to handicap their life? I would have mixed a little Dickens, a bit of Thackeray, a scrap of Socrates, and just a dash of Venus. Then I might have been a genius and reached the stars and stayed among them, or perhaps, have only kept them in my heart, always. Instead of which my fairy godmother only gave me the knowledge that there is a magic kingdom on earth, without teaching me how to find my way there. The only real genius is finding expression. That's the divine spark, the Star of Bethlehem, the thing that makes creators. Just that was the quality the old Jew had who wrote the first chap- ter of Genesis. Why even today his words stand, although all knowledge proves he was a grand old liar. But he felt creation and he was able to write what he felt, or more probably, to speak it, and so — "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away," to quote another Jew. 115 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 Watch next Wednesday's news, see if there is not another attack in the center and later another, perhaps in the Vosges. Of course, what the Ger- mans would like would be for the Allies to be sat- isfied that they have got the Germans back on their old lines, and doing nothing until next spring, when the Americans would bear the brunt of a big German attack, while the Germans would have all the winter months in which to prepare and get together, by hook or crook, a fresh army from somewhere. Now I don't believe this will be General Foch's way of winning the war. I think he will keep on with the present style of moderately large offen- sive, hitting first the Crown Prince and then Ru- precht until he has finished them. With their armies so weakened that they can be discounted, why should he not give another blow in the Vosges? The English have fought well, their General Rawlinson works in with General Foch, the creating of Foch a Marshal has made the "supreme command" easy for Haig, proving that sometimes such acts are not only tokens of well- deserved appreciation to a great soldier, but the way to smooth out questions of rank. If this is the course pursued, I maintain, all wise military experts to the contrary, that the end is several months closer to us than next year. If General Foch uses the initiative which he now 116 KATHERINE BLAKE has and keeps on, as his armies have been doing these last few weeks, the Germans can't stand it, and they will be beaten before the snow falls. So, watch out on the front around Compiegne and between the Vesle and the Aisne. Don't expect that the Germans are going to have any rest. They are not. Foch can now carry through his method and I am sure, win our victory. Fortoiseau, August 15, 1918. Do you realize the results of Foch's tactics? Amiens free and in use as a railway center; the Paris-Nancy line via Chateau-Thierry opened yesterday .f^ These are feats of engineering. A French General told me yesterday that he would not be a bit surprised if a decision was reached before the winter. "They are perhaps not yet beaten, but they are pretty 'malade,'" he said. Fortoiseau, August 18, 1918. Last night I heard the thunder of the guns. I am wondering what the news will be in this eve- ning's paper. I wonder if the attack was not below Rheims towards Toule and if the American army is in action. Many troop trains passed through Melun yesterday. I know that a certain French attacking army has been transferred in a southern direction. I had heard of the plans for last week, which didn't come off, and I am won- 117 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 dering what is under way now; something, cer- tainly. It is in the air. I have got a war sense now which is as sensitive as a film. I am so tired that I cannot write. I feel the guns . . . and the battle is before me, although I know we are attacking and that it is the only way to win, yet the battlefields are before me, a great expanse of horror. I know what the days of the coming week will be for us in the hospital if those guns in the night really meant an attack. There have been Gotha "alertes" for three nights at Melun but the Germans didn't get to Paris. After that last heavy fighting from the end of June to the beginning of July, two thousand wounded passed through Joe's hospital and it has a capacity of four hundred and fifty beds ! Fortoiseau, August 21, 1918. I saw several people in Paris yesterday and I gathered that the German losses are very serious for them, as they have lost most of their shock troops, the troops they keep behind the lines in rest camps, when they are not fighting, and who are given extra and better food, than the rest of the army. It is, therefore, a real defeat for the Germans and they cannot launch another big attack before the spring. The reason they are able to put up such a resistance to the Allies is, that they had accumulated a tremendous amount 118 KATHERINE BLAKE of supplies of all kinds for their advance opera- tions and have a great number of guns, especially machine guns. Furthermore, their remaining A 1 troops are opposite the Americans in the Toule section as the Germans are expecting an attack there. Incidentally, the attack I expected to come off last Wednesday, was pulled off yesterday very successfully. The news is very cheering, but if the United States insists on going to Vienna or Berlin, it will be a long walk. I hear rumors that the Germans and Austrians are going to make a big attack on Italy this fall so as to get some sort of a victory before the win- ter, and I was told, if they do they are going to get a beating. General Wood wrote to a friend of mine — "I have been sent to California because I spoke the truth too much about the conditions of our men in France when I returned, but I hope to get back to France and to do more talking." Will it do any good? It seems that where the Americans are with the British, from officer to private, they are treated like brothers, that the feeling is good and that our men are getting away from that old time prejudice against the British. I am afraid you will be thinking me an anglo-maniac, but only those of us who have been over here right along, can do justice to the noble courage of the British, and at present they need all the good-will we can 119 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 give them, as the French are still sore about the defeat of the fifth army. In these days one must grow. Life is a great and terrible opportunity. No one can ignore it, for it knocks at every door. Fortoiseau, August 23, 1918, I had a very interesting afternoon with a Colonel, Joe brought down. He is a good talker. He told us of an incident which occurred last week: one of the German prisoners was an Ameri- can citizen, born in Wisconsin of German parents but with his wife and children in America. He was taken to a hospital and put in a ward with some Americans. At first all was quiet. Then he said: "I don't want to hurt you boys' feelings, but Germany is going to win this war!" . . . "The hell she is !" came a chorus. "I tell you she is, and if you had seen what I have seen in Ger- many you would all know it and" . . . well, every soldier in the ward that could move from his bed, moved, and they fell on him. The Colonel said there never was such a mess, and the German-American was moved to the Val-de- Grace. Then he told us how, at the station in Paris when they were unloading a train, and loading the ambulances, there was one ambulance in which there was only one wounded, a Marine, so 120 KATHERINE BLAKE they said, "We'll put these German wounded in there." "If you do," says the Marme, "you'll only put them in, you'll never take them out again." He told us how the German machine-gunners are left behind in nests which they cannot escape from, that they fire to their last round, and then come out with their arms up, dropping to the ground and kissing the feet of the Americans and begging for their lives. But the Americans don't believe in taking prisoners. They have had their experience. Those men in the nests are generally knifed. On the other hand, when they do take prisoners in a fair fight, they treat them decently. But they do make them work, much more than the British or French do. The Colonel said the worst thing in this retreat was that the Germans fled without ever burying their dead. "You've got to use a gas mask up there, " he said. I asked the Colonel how long he thought it would last and he said next year would see the end of it. He gave me quite a few facts and figures concern- ing the planes and guns, which if true, proves we are doing more than is known. We took a great deal more booty in Gothas and other supplies than was published. The airdrome we took was full of machines, with all their supplies and men. Our advance was so rapid that the Germans could not even get into the planes to fly them. He said 121 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 a Frenchman told him that the whole spirit of the French army was transformed by our men, that the Germans and French had got to the stage of sitting opposite to each other in the trenches, just making faces at each other, then the Americans came along, and disturbed the "Entente Cordiale." I wish I could write all he told me. Much of it was of a nature not to be written now, only it was all good. Believe me, this Colonel is one of the few regular army medical men whom we have met who really knows his job, is crazy to make good and does not think he knows more than any one else. Many of them are discouraging to one's patriotism, jarring on one's heart as to attitude, disturbing to one's brain as to limitations, and distressing to one's ears as to English and voice. The Roosevelts came down last evening. He has that same quality his father has of making the things he talks about "alive." I asked him my usual question: "How long?" and he said he had recently had a "hunch" that the war isn't going to last much longer, but that he had no logical reason for his feeling. We com- pared notes and we both had the same war in- stinct, or rather, war-sensitiveness. He said the German line seemed to be mushy, and that the German machine was certainly going less smoothly. It was beginning to crack, but it wasn't cracked 122 KATHERINE BLAKE yet, and no one could tell how long it would take to get the Germans to the point of accepting the only possible terms, and the settling of the Rus- sian question with the others. I said all ques- tions would have to be settled on this front, that only here could the war be won, and he agreed with me. Fortoiseau, August 30, 1918. Yesterday in Paris I saw a mutual friend of ours. He was much less pessimistic and actually said he thought the war would be over by next summer. But he thinks the Germans are retreat- ing because they are moving their best remaining troops before Metz, as they fear an American attack. The way the whole plan of this supposed attack is being discussed, is disgraceful, besides being very dangerous. I do not know how much is true and how much is untrue, but nothing should be known about any attack and if we are to make a success of our first big thing, orders ought to be issued to compel discretion. I am sure these green officers go playing around with the ladies and telling all they know, and then some. I fear any attack near the region where gossip has it coming, would cost us one hundred thousand men at least. All our men cannot keep up on the wonderful heights reached by the Marines and certain other divisions. An attack is a terrible test to untried soldiers. I'd rather 123 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 see the other Allies doing most of this fighting with the Americans as helpers. Let us strike our big blow in March. Fortoiseau, September 4, 1918. Joe brought down President Schurman of Cor- nell to spend last night. He was most interesting, as he had been in London and had seen many of the important men there. Among others, Hal- dane, whom he had known for years. He spoke of the real man, of his intelligence, of his dreamer- like ways and how he would read Hegel at spare moments when he was on his committees. He told of how Lloyd George went to see him "quietly" to talk over things with him. He gave me another point of view about Haldane and made me feel that he was being made a scape- goat, and that we must not judge people by what we read in the press. President Schurman told us of General Smuts, and Balfour, and in fact, of all the big men. He seemed to think that the wave of optimism was running too high, and that the war could not be over before the beginning of 1919 at the earliest. He had been interested to notice the power of the labor party in England and how it seemed for all the leaders, Lloyd George, Clemenceau, and even Foch to appeal to labor not to strike. Surely, it must be a dan- gerous force if it has to be "appealed" to by the heads of the army, and the state. 124 XATHERINE BLAKE It seems that an order has gone out that no New York papers or foreign papers, with reference to the Hughes airplane report, are to be allowed into England or France, and that any letter refer- ring to this report is to be censored. This ex- plains the three postal cards which go by this mail. If you cannot get the clippings I want to me, keep them in duplicate, as I must have them some day. Some day later, when nobody cares any more. The news this morning is grand. It shows what the British soldier can do when he has first class officers, as he now seems to have. Recent changes have brought up new men, as you can see by the newspapers. If we carry through our attack with the same success as the British, the end is in sight. From creaking, the German machine will crack apart. I look for the news tonight and the morning as crucial. Especially Mangin's army's approach to Pinon. If only they go five miles further, the whole Vesle line retires. I can see Foch sitting at his desk at headquar- ters, watching the reports, counting the numbers and divisions the Germans have in, and when the moment comes, and he feels it is the hour, launch- ing another offensive further south, and then Foch will give the first American army the chance to win the final battle of the war. 125 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 The next ten days may see great things. We are all on edge watching and waiting. Labor Day was rumored as the day of the attack. Major H. told me yesterday that they were cock-sure at Chaumont. He referred to one man in particular to whom he had remarked that he thought it better to postpone his visit to a certain hospital because "if this attack starts it will of course be evacuated on account of the shelling and raids, so there is little chance of my seeing anything in the surgical line." "The only chance is," the officer answered, "that, that hospital will have been left so far behind the lines, before you get there, that it will be too far for patients to be sent to it." At Chau- mont they seem to think that taking Metz is just a snap and then on to Berlin. Well, I am sorry to say, there is still quite something left of the German army, and there are such things as defenses on the Rhine, and it is not going to be a tango party getting across that river and into Germany. Of course, I know there are men who think the French are holding the road to Paris, the British the road to Calais and that the Americans are on the road to Berlin . . . but "It's a long, long way to Tipperary" and we have only just begun. The fight may be short, but it is Germany's fight for existence, at any rate for a dynasty, and it 126 KATHERINE BLAKE will be a desperate, bloody battle and it will take all our valor and all the intelligence of our offi- cers, high or low, to win the victory. We will have to be more careful and talk less and not be so cocky if we want to bring this grim war to its end quickly and without terrible losses in men. Fortoiseau, September 8, 1918. H. G. is here over Sunday. He told me of an extraordinary experience he had had since I last saw him. He was down in the Toul sector on his Y. M. C. A. business, and came across a man who was driving a camion to a certain place in the line — he had supplies, etc., to go to the men in the trenches. This man was a real estate agent from some little place in the south. He had had no experience of any kind, had just arrived in France, had been driving the camion for a few days only, knew nothing of the roads, nor the way to his destination, had never had his gas mask on . . . well, G. felt it was not a fair deal, that he knew the road, etc., so he volunteered to ride with the man and to help him. They started. It was a wild ride. The Boche was shelling the road, they were just not hit over and over again. They met ambulances full of men who had been gassed. With great difficulty they found their way and got the supplies to the men in the trenches. Any one who thinks it is a "cinch" to be a Y. M. C. A. 127 SOME LETTERS: 1917-1918 man makes a mistake. They all take dreadful chances. G. told me that they are very careful about religious propaganda in their organization. They leave that sort of work to the Knights of Columbus. By the way, they are doing a lot of proselytizing. Some of the army have spoken about it. I think they had better watch that organization. They say here that Germany is going to launch a fierce peace offensive, and that the Pope is to help. Believe me, the Knights of Columbus might help the Kaiser quite some if they had a mind to, as they have many oppor- tunities and I wouldn't trust the Irish element in that organization around the corner. They hate the English and wouldn't stop at anything. Joe told me that General I. told him the hospi- tals at the front were splendid, excellent, "too good." So as long as the chief is satisfied, every- thing must be the best possible. . . . We have a lot of self-satisfied junk in France and not only in the Medical Corps either. Now as to the Red Cross. I was appealed to by some refugees who asked how they could get help from this organization. As H. is at present one of the Paris bosses, I sent him the request. Enclosed is his reply. What do you think of that ? Now I have written him asking him to tell me what formalities it is necessary for these unfortunate people to go through before they can get help. 128 KATHERINE BLAKE This is not my idea of charity, but then I don't think the American Red Cross ought to help refugees in the first place. I think they ought to spend the American dollars for our soldiers over here and for the families of the soldiers in need at home. However, as long as the Red Cross is doing this refugee work, I would like to know whether this "red tape" is due to the salaried workers, and if so, I wonder if that's the way con- tributors at home want their money given . . . do you remember the money-changers in the temple ? The war news is wonderful. Day by day they are pushing the Germans back, and it looks as if the line would be on the Meuse by November. No one can tell anything until the American blow is struck. For that we are all waiting. Fortoiseau, September 10, 1918. Colonel Z. came down on Sunday. One of our really clever men in the medical corps. He said that enough important people had spoken the truth about conditions of hospitalization and transportation of wounded for us to see a radical improvement before long. One of the things he was very hot about was, that until recently our divisions had no labor corps for the burial of their d