By ELMO SCOTT WATSON HEN Nature strikes flercely and with little or no warning to over- whelm puny mankind with some disaster; when a tornado whirls down on village and farm, leaving death and destruction in its wake: when floods and hurrl- canes, fires and earthquakes, ex- plosions and epidemics take their toll of human suffering and prop- erty damage, then it is that those messengers of mercy, Amer ican Red Cross officials and workers, mobilize swiftly and speed to the place where they are most needed, It was only a few weeks ago that word flashed down from the north that fire had swept Nome, laska, leaving that town, once famed as a gold camp but now a modern American city, a heap of ashes. Within a few hours after the receipt of this news a Red Cross relief director was stepping into an airplane at San Francisco and a few minutes later he was winging his way toward the stricken city, When the ill-fated “Morro Castle” burst into flames off the coast of New Jersey, Red Cross disaster units in coastal chapters of that state immediately rallied to the work of rescue, the care of survi ivors and the Yeuniting of separated €amilies, relatives and friends. More than a geore of nurses were summoned from their beds { 3 the chill dawn to take up long vigils on board rescue vessels, In hospitals, at piers and at morgues. There they m sinistered to sufferers from injuries, exposure, shock and grief. And yet these spectacular examples were only two of the 78 disaster jobs in the continental United States in which the Red Cross was active during the past year. Add to these, assistance given in 20 insular and foreign catastrophes and the aggregate Is 108—just about the average for an organization that has been shouldering this sort of task through more than half a century. No part of the United States escaped some sort of disaster, there being a total of 163 coun- ties In which the Red Cross assisted 110,000 vie- tims, Tornadoes and fires were the leading agencies of destruction with 25 cases of each necessitating Red Cross relief work. Besides these, 17 floods—one of which took the life of a Red Cross relief worker on duty— swept down out of the kills and forests to lift houses from their foundations, to destroy crops and live stock, and to send refugees scurrying to higher points. Tropical storms hung up a new record for frequency within a single year, and for the first time in a hundred years a hurri- cane starting in the West Indies whipped with undiminished force as far north as the Virginia const, There were also epidemics, cyclones, explo sions, hall storms, a typhoon, an earthquake, a cloudburst and other emergencies which acted to bring the Red Cross with shelter, food, med! «cal supplies, nurses, hospitalization and rehabili- tation programs, In the highest state of disaster-preparedness in history, the Red Cross Introduced something new when It conducted 28 disaster institutes at strategic points in particularly vulnerable zones, Veteran disaster workers schooled loeal chapter officers, community leaders, police, fire and health officials in the surveying of hazards and organizing of relief. In the case of a number of approaching storms, disaster experts from na- tional Red Cross headquarters rushed to the scene hours and even days In advance of the calamity, saving many lives by the precautions they invoked, Members of the Red Cross nursing reserve, public health nurses, home hygiene Instructors continued as one of the nation's first lines of health defense. More than 36,000 nurses are on the active list of the reserve, ready to respond to calls from army, navy or Red Cross disaster service, Several were dispatched to a North Carolina community stricken by pernicious tropical malaria. {Others were sent to cope wit' a ty- phold epldemie. Still others performed heroic work In connection with a forest fire In a Call. fornia canyon. To a first ald station In connec tion with a convention of Spanish-American war veterans was assigned another group. And these are only a few instances from a record of varied and numerous services given by this nursing army which Is always available for duty. Some 750 public health nurses were regularly employed by 424 Red Cross chapters, for the . most part in rural territory. They made more “than a million visits In line of duty—giving CENTRE 1. Taking the sky trails to fire.gutted Nome, Alaska, Bowen McCoy, sent as relief director, saying good-by to A, L. Schafer, manager of the Pacific office of the American Red Cross, before taking off from San Francisco. 2. Cokeoven dweller in a Pennsylvania in. dustrial center being given first aid by a Red Cross public health nurse, 3. The old folks are not forgotten by the friendly and helpful Red Cross. Here is a public health nurse and two of her patients, the couple not only receiving needed nursing attention but having previously been recipients of Red Cross flour and clothing. 4. Streets flooded at Harlingen, Texas, in the wake of one of those flerce coastal hurricanes which strike inland from the Gulf of Mexico. Note the Red Cross car in the foreground on a mission of rescue and relief, @ E baths to bedridden patients, massaging aged Joints and little crippled legs, assisting physi. cians at childbirth and in many instances finding it necessary to preside alone at such occasions, administering medicines and hypodermics under doctor's orders, bathing mothers and their new bables, advising on health problems in the home. They responded to the needs of miners and their families, of steel! workers, of the white collar group, of ranchers and small croppers. These gray uniformed nurses drove thelr small cars as far as they could up mountain trails, then walked the rest of the way to isolated cabins where the sick awaited. They forded creeks In summer, crossed on the ice In winter, to get to pneumonia cases and broken legs. Selected by the Red Cross not only because of technical qualifications but on the basis of cour age and stamina, they rang up another record of quiet heroism, ‘ Children are always of first concern to the Red Cross health services, and public health nurses last year inspected more than 620,000 children In the schools—~heading off cases of incipient disease, noting defects in teeth and eyes in time to correct them, suggesting ways of personal cleanliness, advising a® to hot school lunches and other means of preventing mal nutrition, Their work resulted not only In per manent health improvement but in better class room performance, The Interest and generosity of Will Rogers and of the Scottish Rite Masons brought about the support of 52 and 33 public health nursing services, respectively, To take care of widespread demands for in- struction In simple nursing In the home, the Red Cross added more than 1,400 specially pre- pared nurse-teachers to its army of health evan. gels mobilized under the banner of home hygiene and care of the sick. More than 62.000 students -not only housewives but men and young people wenrolled in classes; more than 49,000 of them completed courses and were awarded certificates, As regular yearround services proceeded, emergency calls plied and were met as they developed, Civilian home service involved the giving of ald to more than transient veterans were assisted and classes in home hygiene, food selection, first ald and life saving were organized, at the request of the Federal Rellef administration, Red Cross first aid service, slways in high gear, added to its responsibilities the training of 70.000 foremen, time clerks, and other key employees of the Civil Works administration did such an efficient job that it was asked to give the same sort of instruction to approxi. mately servation corps, a program still under way. Al together, the number of first ald certificates awarded within the twelve months totaled more than 130000: the number since establishment of the service 20 years ago, more than 763.000, The Red Cross life saving emblem was in evidence at an increasing number of beaches and pools and summer camps. More than 72,000 life saving certificates were Issued daring the fiscal year, bringing the number Issued during the two decades since the initiation of the service to more than 558,000, With the economic new regulations in effect, service moved to top speed on behalf of veterans and service men, 28400 famiiles : ment hospitals, or to their families, being taken of the completion of distribution of 85,000,000 bushels of government wheat sur pluses and 544.000 bales of government cotton surpluses, the preponderantly important work in disaster relief—included production of 4.734000 gar ments, 340,000 pages of hand-braflle and 314.000 pages of duplicated-braille for the blind, 3.678. 000 surgical dressings, 18400 layettes, 10.000 Christmas bags for lonely sallors and soldiers at distant points. Canteen workers fed 140,000 per sons; members of the motor corps made 64,000 calls; home service workers made 67.000 visits. Volunteers numbered more than 322.000, Because such a splendid record as all of these signify has been characteristic of the Red Cross for decades, the American public responded with an almost war-time fervor last year when the battle with the depression was still being waged and added 100000 senior members’ and more than a quarter of A million junior members to the Red Cross rolls during the annual roll call In 1038. And now the 1084 roll eall will soon be under way—from Armistice day until Thanksgiving day—offering Americans an op portunity to register their approval of the work of THEIR Red Cross by enrolling under its bancer of mercy, @ by Western Newspaper Usilen f AND QUILTING By GRANDMOTHER CLARK The “Double Wedding Ring” shown below is the most popular quilt Following the Civil war quilt mak. Grandma had in her colle ing for ba r Jane's fiance, in the battie of years in the hospital, bu tion a quilt she was sav grandehild’s who hi spent many finally returned home and the wed ding lanoped, “Grandma” Jane, “we 9 rings ever, i'l furnis my favori the Doub In the | HTL J found | artistic ting pa ag two Package No outs for cutting | Assorted guilt patches, approxin sufficient for Package No h 2 perforated pnt terns for quilting with powder - 35 these wonderful helps x11 be mailed to you upon receipt of your or der with cash enclosed Enclose stamped ad dressed envelope for re ply, = ADDRESS-—HOME t » -— Nineteenth CRAFT CO Dent OF i svenues—~8t, Louis, Mo, Find Remnants of Race That Antedated Indian Four skeletons, remnants of a race believed to have Inhabited Minne- gota before the Indians, were un- earthed In a gravel pit five miles southeast of Albert Lea, reports the Bt, Paul Ploneer Press, University of Minnesota scientists notified of the find, hurried to the place to take charge of the skele- tons, That the bones were not those of Indians or white men was indicated by the fact, the university men said, that the skulls had scarcely any forehead, The heads slanted straight back from the eye sockets and were decidedly oblong in shape. 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Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers