“Paris, March 28th, 1917.

“DEAR MRS. ATHERTON: 

“I am very much touched by your gracious letter and very happy if I can serve you.

“Here are some notes about our work, and about what I have seen since August, 1914.  All our thoughts and all our strength are in the great task, that of all French women, to aid the wounded, the ill, those who remain invalids, the refugees of the invaded districts, all the sufferings actually due to these cruel days.

“Some weeks before the war, I was called to the ministry, where they asked me to have two hundred infirmaries ready for all possible happenings.  We had already established a great number, of which many had gone to Morocco and into the Colonies.  To-day there are fifteen or sixteen thousand volunteer nurses to whom are added about eleven thousand auxiliaries used in accessory service (kitchen, bandages, sterilization, etc.) and also assisting in the wards of the ill and the wounded.

“To the hospitals there have been added since the month of August, 1914, the infirmaries and station cantines where our soldiers receive the nourishment and hot drinks which are necessary for their long journeys.

“At Amiens, for instance, the cantine, an annex of the station infirmary began with the distribution of slices of bread and drinks made by our women as the trains arrived.  Then a big room used for baggage was given to us.  A dormitory was made of it for tired soldiers, also a reading-room.  At any hour French, English or Belgians may receive a good meal—­soup, one kind of meat and vegetables, coffee or tea.  Civil refugees are received there and constantly aided and fed.

“Our nurses attend to all wants, and above everything they believe in putting their hearts into their work administering to those who suffer with the tenderness of a mother.  In the hospital wards nothing touched me more than to see the thousand little kindnesses which they gave to the wounded, the distractions which they sought to procure for them each day.

“In our great work of organization at the Bureau on Rue Francois I’er, I have met the most beautiful devotion.  Our nurses do not hesitate at contagion, nor at bombardments, and I know some of your compatriots (that I can never admire enough), who expose themselves to the same dangers with hearts full of courage.

“I have visited the hospitals nearest the Front, Dunkerque, so cruelly shelled.  I have been to Alsace, to Lorraine, then to Verdun from where I brought back the most beautiful impression of calm courage.

“Here are some details which may interest your compatriots: 

“June 1916.  My first stop was at Chalons, where with Mme. Terneaux-Compans our devoted senior nurse, I visited the hospital Corbineau, former quarters for the cavalry, very well reconstructed by the Service de Sante, for sick soldiers; our nurses are doing service there; generous gifts have enabled us to procure a small motor which carries water to the three stories, and we have been able to install baths for the typhoid patients.