American Red Cross work among the French people (1921) (14781929105)

Identifier: americanredcross00ames (find matches)
Title: American Red Cross work among the French people
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Ames, Fisher
Subjects: American National Red Cross World War, 1914-1918
Publisher: New York, The Macmillan Company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress



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ound, two and a half years before.He had a morbid dread of being seen by them in his ter-rible condition; of his whole face one might have saidthere was nothing left but one eye. Twenty operationshad failed to make him look like a human being again. At the Red Cross studio a facial mask with a mustachewas made for him that covered the fearful wounds. Thesoldier was almost overcome by his emotion when herealized that he was no longer repulsive to look at. Hisdespondency left him and the desire to return immediatelyto his family became irresistible. The term mask does not do justice to the delicate,scientific and artistic appliances with which the Red Crossstudio supplied many of the badly disfigured mutiles. Asomewhat similar work which had been started in Londonfor English soldiers furnished the model for the skilledRed Cross corps — some of them famous in the world ofsculpture — whose atelier was established in the LatinQuarter. Trench warfare, in which a mans head was, generally
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THE MUTILES 53 speaking, the most exposed part of his anatomy, had lefta sad crop of several thousand facially wounded soldiersin France. Some of these were beyond surgical repair,their jaws and noses completely shot away or the bonesof the face hopelessly shattered. The loss of an arm ora leg did not prevent the victim from mingling with theworld. With a crutch, a cane, or a peg-leg he could getabout and frequently he was able to work. He was apathetic but not a hideous object, but the other, the manwith the face so wrecked that he did not look like a manat all, knew that though people would pity him they wouldalso prefer not to be with him. It was this knowledgethat, as already has been said, drove the poor wretchesinto solitary retreats where they preferred to undergo slowstarvation rather than exhibit their horrid disfigurements.It was to assist in the much needed rescue of these mutiles,for whom no special provision had been made, that the RedCross decided to establish the little