An adventure story
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| We were met at the entrance to the palace by an officer, who greeted us. We left our hats, gloves, and canes just within the entrance and still by twos ascended the stairs. Being a temporary palace, the capital having been at Bucharest, the place is not worth describing at any great length. While it is a very large and handsome building, it was not built for a palace. At the top of the stairs, on the second floor, we turned to the right, then at our left was a double door which proved to be the entrance to the room in which we were received. At this door, we were met by a lady in ordinary dress, who conducted us into the reception room, which we found to be a very large room, probably sixty feet by twenty-five feet. We arranged ourselves in a semi-circle and surveyed the room while waiting. It was very interesting, because of the uncommon articles to be seen therein. There were boxes against the walls and bundles of cloth; two sewing machines, and in truth it looked like the room might be topsy turvy any time with the Ladies of the Court sewing for the soldiers and the poor, or making bandages.
After a very few minutes the Queen’s Lady in Waiting came into the room from the Queen’s office and greeted the Minister and Colonel Anderson. Very shortly thereafter the Queen entered. She was dressed in the plain white regulation Red Cross Nurse uniform, is forty-three years of age, very well preserved and handsome -- not beautiful, but of splendid figure and regal looking. She is the grand daughter of Queen Victoria of England and, of course, spoke beautiful English. She greeted the Minister who kissed her hand. The Queen expressed to the Colonel her gratitude and pleasure in seeing so many Americans who had come such a great distance to help her people. She spoke highly of the Roumanian soldier, and, to our surprise, mentioned the Russian situation. It seems that while the Roumanians held their portion of the line, they had to continually transfer troops to positions which were supposed to be held by the Russians, who would weaken and retreat. To a very large extent, the people here seem to feel that had Russia accomplished her share, Roumanian territory would not now be occupied by the enemy. The Colonel then presented each of the Commissioners, then the Staff, the Medical Unit and the Nurses Unit. With each of us the Queen shook hands. After this Her Majesty spoke to the nurses for a minute or so and then to all of us. Lastly to the Colonel and the Minister, then bade us Goodbye and left us, after which we made our exit. Her Majesty was very much interested in the object of our mission, of course, but particularly so on account of having, herself, been quite active in Red Cross work. She is truly beloved by her people and she loves and works for them incessantly. During the epidemic of Typhus, among her soldiers, the Queen was right among them, trying to cheer them, visiting all of the hospitals, and she insisted that those with Typhus and other dreadful diseases be allowed to kiss her hand, as it was their desire. She explained that she could not even think of refusing, that if they derived any pleasure or solace or comfort from doing so, that she was there for that purpose. Was she not their queen? In the afternoon all of the men in our party (except Schribman, who is a Roumanian and cannot be presented to the King by the American Minister as an American) were presented to the King, who shook hands very cordially with us all, just as though he really meant it. The King spoke in English, with a German accent. As a matter of fact, he is a Hohenzollern. It seems that in the past Turkey had control of Roumania, and gave the crown to the highest bidders among the eligible princes; so Roumania might have a French, English or any other kind of Prince. This particular King is fighting against some of his own people, but he is now a Roumanian King, and that is the one thing to be first considered. He gave us a very cordial and informal talk, and, bidding us Goodbye, took the American Minister into his office with him. The King’s palace is much handsomer than the Queen’s, as it was built as a palace for the ruling Prince. There is a real marble stairway. The room in which we were received is identically the same in arrangement as the Queen’s, except here everything was in good order and the fixtures and wall coverings and other articles seemed more expensive. It is not midnight, September 26th, and tomorrow I am to pay off everybody, which creates additional work. I awoke one morning and saw many soldiers passing my home and later discovered that this was a lot of soldiers (Transylvanians) who had been fighting for Austria against the Allies, against their wills, and who had been captured by the Russians. They explained to the Russians that they wanted to fight under their own flag of Roumania, so they were equipped with new Roumanian uniforms, complete, and it was in these uniforms with blanket roll and everything except guns, that they marched by this house. The column was headed, as they always are in Roumania, with one line of three buglers, then another line of three buglers. When the first three have played a while the second three take up the tune without the lapse of a note, and continue in this way, so they have music without cessation. Today the streets in the business section were roped off in an effort to enmesh spies and slackers in the net. It caused some excitement among some of our men, who could not understand why no one except officers were allowed to pass without examination. We were, of course, not molested. We are always treated with the greatest deference by all. Many investigations have been made, and Majors Kirkpatrick, Bryan, Peabody, Wells, Perkins and Glasgow and Flexner have been out of town on trips for additional information. We heard from our Secretary and Treasurer and expect him from Archangel now in about a week or two. I am extremely lucky in getting tea and toast at the Legation about 6:00 P.M. every day. Today I took lunch there. Had egg omelette, Toast and Tea. I am becoming a regular boarder. I like the old Minister very much, as all of us do, as well as his Secretary, an Honest to God Irishman, who is quite agreeable and interesting. This evening about six or eight of us were invited to present ourselves at the home of one of our members of the Medical Corps to help celebrate his thirty-fourth birthday, as well as the two months anniversary of his wedding. He was married just before we left America. We were all wondering what was going to happen when our host began unrolling his rather voluminous blanket roll. He had everything under the sun in that blanket roll. We had been calling him the walking store room heretofore -- if you wanted anything he was sure to have it. After leaving my watch at our last Russian watering hole I was able to get another from him. We don’t know yet whether to give him credit for all of this thoughtfulness or his two months’ bride. At any rate, he lived up to his reputation and produced candy, cigars, cigarettes, and drinkables, and we had a very agreeable, quiet little gathering, talking over things at home, what we had seen and what would probably happen in this neck of the world. To bed rather late. The Colonel told me this afternoon he would probably stay here during the winter months and asked if I would stay. I told him I would if it was necessary, that I left the matter in his hands. The two assistant secretaries will also be asked to remain. The balance of the Commission, except for the doctors and nurses, will, more than likely, leave here for home within two or certainly three weeks. September 27th - Up this morning about eight o’clock. Schribman did not show up. He visited a camp of Roumanian soldiers in the vicinity of Jassy, and when he started for home he was not allowed to leave and had to spend the night. He showed up this morning about 11:00 A.M. at the Legation. Today is pay day and I was kept pretty busy up to noon. I have secured Tom Doyle’s room, at the Legation, for my own work, as the other room given us is too noisy and there are too many people coming in and going out throughout the day. The Colonel will probably remain here during the entire winter, the balance of the Commission returning to America at an early date. He is staying in the hope that an arrangement can be made to feed the Roumanians by purchases from Russia, along the general scheme followed in the Belgium Relief work. Had lunch today at Staff Headquarters -- more cabbage. Back to the Legation and entered upon the ledger and cash book the payments to the Staff and Nurses Unit. Our funds are all in Letters of Credit (English Pounds Sterling). We purchase with the Pounds money of the Country in which we are traveling or in which we are making purchases. The accounts are kept in dollars, so you can easily imagine the complications. At about 5:30 Mills and I left the Legation and took a walk of about a mile to visit Captain Hamilton and Lieutenant Hird, and had a long chat with them also had candy -- a great treat. Captain Hamilton has brought a very large box from Moscow filled with good chocolates. This was my first afternoon off since arriving in Jassy and I enjoyed it immensely. We left Hird’s about 7:30 and walked to Staff Headquarters for dinner, after which I came home. Mr. Laptew called this evening and we had a most interesting time. He described very completely the retreat from Bucharest. Bucharest is about two hundred and forty to two hundred and sixty miles from Jassy, ordinarily by train about ten or twelve hours. It seems that the Roumanians, in the archives of their War Department, had no scheme or plan worked out for a retreat and they were completely disorganized in their evacuation of Bucharest, from which point they came to Jassy. No arrangements in advance for travel or food. Some went by train, most by foot, some by horse, all with such baggage and bundles as they could carry with them. It was November and severely cold and the people suffered terribly, there being many deaths en route. Those who went by horse had to lead the poor, hard-pushed animals in numerous places through about eight or ten inches of mud, at the bottom of which there were large and ragged rocks. For eight days the saddles were not removed. Several thousand Boy Scouts were started on their way without any arrangement for food. Many of them died on the way. Women with small children could be seen along the road in terrible shape from cold, hunger and exposure. The number of dead horses along the route was fearful. The animals had been pushed until they simply dropped and died of exhaustion. He spoke of one case on the train, where a woman with a baby, was in a compartment with others. The baby died as many others did. The poor woman kept the corpse and wept and moaned over it for days until finally the other occupants of the compartment had to ask her to throw the corpse out. She refused and later when she was asleep they threw the baby out of the train window. When she discovered her loss, she became quite insane. Laptew said conditions were simply awful along the entire route and it took eight days to make this distance which ordinarily took ten to twelve hours. Think of the suffering and deaths in eight days among possibly two hundred thousand people or more. Must go to bed. It is 12:40 and I am sleepy. Friday, September 28th -- As soundly as I usually sleep, I was awakened by the Russian soldiers who were raising merry Cain during the night. They had one grand carousal, singing and shouting at the top of their voices. It is very difficult for the Roumanian authorities to handle this kind of situation -- the Russians have more troops in Roumania than the Roumanians themselves, and the Russian soldier, nowadays, does pretty much to suit himself and the officers dare not cross them to any great extent. For a change we went to Staff Headquarters for breakfast this morning, where I had two cups of coffee with milk -- nothing else. For lunch today we had soft corn bread with cheese and milk, which was very good. This is the National dish of the Roumanian peasant -- called Marmalega. Instead of eating regular wheat bread, the peasants all eat this soft corn bread, but without the cheese and milk. I am going to the aviation field tomorrow and may get an opportunity to fly. None of our party have been up yet, but I am going to do my best to turn the trick. The member of our party, who was held in Petrograd, on account of being a Pole, showed up today. He is a Polish Count and, therefore, they claimed he was subject to Russian military service. After many days of conversation and delay he secured a permit of two weeks’ time to get to Roumania. To do the simplest thing in Russia it is always necessary to do a great deal of talking and then there is invariably a long delay. He stopped en route at Kiev and fortunately had been able to send word to his Father and Mother, who met him there and spent two days with him. He described conditions in Poland as frightful. He is very much of a pessimist as to the Russian situation. He feels that there Russians will refuse to fight this winter, that in fact, they have said when the winter season starts in they will take their guns and ammunition and return to their homes, and that there will then be murder everywhere and general chaos. He also told us that more than thirty Russian officers, some of whom were Generals, had been dragged through the roads near Petrograd and in this way put to death, and while this was generally known, no arrests had been made or any particular attention paid to it. He said his old home was a sorry sight, as described by his parents -- that everything in general was ruined, the land, the trees, the cattle driven off, etc. If Russia should make a separate peace or lay down on the job, it will be good-bye Roumania, as well as American Red Cross in Roumania. There is nowhere to retreat, except Russia, and if she makes a separate peace we could not, of course, retreat in that direction and still be of service as a Red Cross Unit. It looks blue, very blue -- but I still believe there are some men of force left in Russia who will prevent this catastrophe, which, in time, would be Russia’s ruination. None of our supplies have yet arrived at Archangel. They were supposed to have been shipped September 10th, then we received word that they left on the 29th, but even at that they should be at Archangel now, as that would give them a full month in which to cross the Atlantic and get into Archangel. If our supplies of food and medicines cannot be gotten to us there is very little good, if any, that we can do for the Roumanians. The food supply is only sufficient to last to December 15th and then -- nothing. This is the information I secured today from prominent Roumanians -- that they can not see beyond December 15th on the food question. While we are getting sufficient food ourselves, such as it is, this is due to the fact that we are eating at Military Headquarters. In the private homes, there is already considerable suffering due to insufficient nourishment. In fact, starvation [is] in many homes. There are also about thirty cases of Typhus here and the winter has not yet started. It is still warm, about September weather at home -- up to this time there seems no difference in the climate of Roumania and that of the United States around Washington, D.C. It is in the winter that the Typhus spreads as the people huddle together to keep warm. Tomorrow night Miss Palmer, the Chief Clerk at the American Legation, has invited the nurses and the officers of our Commission, to her home for a dance and to meet some French officers as well as some ladies. We will take advantage of the opportunity, the first of its kind to be presented since leaving the Empress of Russia. Majors Bryan, Peabody and Kirkpatrick are not back yet. Majors Wells and Perkins will probably not return from the front for four or five days. Majors Glasgow and Flexner, as well as Minister Vopicka, Major Yates and Tom Doyle go to the front tomorrow night. It is now quite generally thought that Captain Williams will be here in about two weeks and then provably empty-handed. This is particularly thought of our Polish Count. He is a dyed-in-the-wool pessimist, but a splendid fellow and as neat as a pin all the time. I am sitting in my room on a very comfortable Davenport and can hear the heavy boots of the passing Russian soldiers on the street. Major Glasgow stated today that the Commissioners expected to return to America via Norway and the Atlantic about October 20th. Tom Doyle is trying to arrange the matter. He will also return with them. All of the Secretarial force are undecided about remaining. They are tired of the uninteresting, voluminous detail work they have been doing and want to stay provided that they are assigned to work of an interesting and helpful character, but if it is to be clerical work, they don’t want to stay. So we are, in a way, up against it, but it is a matter which will adjust itself. Saturday, September 29th -- Nothing of particular importance today. I was supposed to be given the opportunity of flying, but when the time arrived we did not go to the aviation field because we were advised that they were not flying today. Sunday, September 30th - Stayed home with Hird, who came in about 9:30 and made me get out of bed. He helped me to check over the Cash Book. At lunch today, we had good steak and potatoes and surely did justice to them. I was introduced to the French Major in charge of aviation and he promised I should fly Monday (tomorrow) or Tuesday. After dinner this evening Rulison gave a little birthday party. There were about eight of us, all members of our party. We had tea and Cognac and later Apple Jack, cake, candy and cigarettes. We broke up just before midnight and I am now in my room writing up the events of Saturday and Sunday. One of the disagreeable sights in Jassy is the small half-circle urinals, located about the city in the middle of the streets. You can easily tell when they are occupied as the sides are open up to three feet above the ground. Of course, this is not only very unsanitary but the odor is anything but pleasant. A letter was received today by Rulison from one of the ladies on board the Empress of Russia. She describes the Empress as a very dismal place since the khaki clad boys left at Yokohama. She says that the girls mope around the decks and look Tokyo-ward, thinking possibly by concentrated effort, mental telepathy might be invoked to get into communication with us again. The letter is postmarked P.I. It had continued on with the ship from Hong Kong to the P.I. (Manilla) and then followed us along on the back trail to Petrograd and from thence to Jassy by Government mail pouch. We still continue to trot around Jassy, in its queer, twisted streets, meeting all kinds of people, and hearing all kinds of tongues spoken. We find the officers just as careful to salute us now as they were upon our arrival, in fact more so, if anything. Of course, this is also true of the private soldiers. We were at Miss Palmer’s house last night. Had a little trouble locating it although we had directions to follow. Finally after passing the house two or three times, I asked a Russian soldier to locate it for us. Fortunately numbers are the same the world over. We finally made known our desire, although neither of us spoke a word of Russian or Roumanian and he had a soldier take us direct to the door. We entered an open gate in a large gateway, leading to a driveway (cobble stones and earth) about twenty-five feet wide and back about sixty feet saw a front door. We entered and found her apartment on the second floor. There, in two rooms, we found about forty or fifty guests: French officers, our nurses and many of our own Red Cross officers. Tea, pastries, and small meat sandwiches (canned meat) were passed around. One of the nurses, Miss Torrance, played the piano and we all had several dances. The party was very informal and gay. I danced twice with one of the nurses and twice with Miss Palmer. I did not try any of the French ladies, but will next Saturday evening, if I am still in Jassy, as I was invited to drop in on Wednesday afternoons for cards, which I declined, and Saturday evenings for the informal parties. Miss Palmer is going today (Sunday) to the Russian border on a marketing expedition, as practically nothing can be purchased in Jassy. In fact, I have been unable to buy a thing here except some postal cards. I ran across a copy of the issue of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce at the Legation. Upon the front page was a picture of V.M.I. cadets at the reception of Balfour at the Elba Station. I was at the station myself to see this distinguished English Son. It looked good to me. Many of the fellows have received letters from home, but so far I am unlucky. However, all of the mail received so far came in ordinary mail -- none as yet through the Red Cross at Washington. My time will surely come this week, at any rate I hope so. I have written home once from the Steamship Penza, many postal cards from Japan and a letter after arrival here. It is after one o’clock so I must go to bed at once. The lights might go out any minute. The water is turned off every day here at certain hours in the middle of the day until right late in the afternoon, and in most of the homes the lights go out at 11 and 12 o’clock, but here I am luckier (unlucky?). Monday, October 1st -- Today, the Secretary of the Legation called me into his office and said he was receiving many invitations to tea and knew that he was receiving them not for himself but in the hope that the ladies would meet some of us. He says we Americans are now quite the rage in Jassy among the society ladies, all of which is news to me. He says it is a very jolly crowd, and I was told to select one other of our party, so we will make our bow to Roumanian society Thursday afternoon for tea, about six o’clock. It is rather chilly today and I am fearful that I will not get the opportunity to fly, but lunch will tell the tale. Later, it was arranged that I should go up about five o’clock. Lieutenant Lascar (Roumanian) arranged it with the French Major in charge of Aviation by telephone. He then secured one of the Army autos and we drove about five miles to the camp. It was rather windy. I donned the fur lined aviator suit and cap. It buttons very closely about the wrists and ankles. The engine started its throbbing and we were off, bumping along the ground. This did not last long. I felt the machine rise slightly and as soon as we cleared the ground, the pilot suddenly pointed the plane to the sky. I felt myself suddenly -- very suddenly -- lifted skyward. I was sitting immediately in front of the pilot, facing the wind, strapped in and holding on to the circular frame work upon which the gun moves around. Strange to say, I did not feel the slightest dizziness, although I looked down at the passing fields and streams which grew rapidly smaller and smaller. I was probably too interested to feel any bad effects. We were clipping it off very rapidly and everything was running lovely. In the meantime I was drinking in the wonders of a real sky view of the surrounding country. It was quite remarkable and I was very busy trying to take it all in. Finally, we reached the city and flew, at a great height, over the entire city. I could only see that there were many buildings, seemingly all together. Only the widest streets could be seen at all and they were like drawn on a map. The river was just like a silver colored ribbon twisting here and there. The wind was blowing to beat the band. The real sensation came when the pilot banked the machine for our first turn. Up to this point my flight was thrilling to me, but not at all scary, but when this banking process started, instead of my feet pointing to terra firma my shoulders were pointing in that direction. It was unexpected and I had a most uncomfortable feeling that we were going to spill. We made about half a dozen of these turns, each seemingly a little deeper than the other and, after the first turn, I enjoyed the sensation of dipping around with my feet everywhere but where they should be, so far as direction was concerned. The machine was a Farman Biplane and the pilot seemed to have perfect control. After hovering over the city for a while and dipping around it, we made a bee line for the Aviation field. Again we were off at a good clip, the wind and motor together making a terrific noise. When we reached the vicinity of the field, we again started in long curves to descend and then made a slow, pretty dive for the field and landed in great shape. Download 399.67 Kb. Share with your friends:
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