ies have increased value." And for nearly ten years
the stock market booms followed in the wake of that war boom, while
construction and upbuilding went steadily forward despite agitation and
restricting laws.

It would astonish Mr. Wilson and Mr. Bryan to know how many patriotic
Americans are helping France and what they are doing in Red Cross and
other work. I was surprised to meet a former member of the New York
Stock Exchange in a khaki uniform. I said, "Are you still an American
citizen?" He responded promptly, "Certainly I am, but would not the
boys on the floor of the Exchange be astonished to see me in this
uniform?"

I said, "Were there not men enough here to do this work?"

He responded, "Possibly, but quick organization was wanted, and I
volunteered and have held the job." And he was off in his high-powered
automobile for a run down behind the firing line to one of the Channel
ports.

As the casualties of the French have been ten times those of the
English, American and English sympathizers have turned to France to see
if they might "do something." An English lady with small feet and
delicate hands responded to the spirit of the hour, left her English
home and her servants, and went to the hospital front in France. She
wrote home: "I am helping not only to dress the wounds, but to wash
dishes. My soft hands are parboiled but hardening; my feet are sore;
and my legs are swollen. I lie down thoroughly exhausted every night,
but I am doing something and am happy."

Mrs. W. L. Wyllie, wife of the famous marine etcher on the south
English coast, looked out upon the Channel war-scenes, and took ship
for France. She found the center and south of the country one vast
hospital. At Limoges alone she found more than 12,000 wounded, and
32,000 wounded had passed through that city. She found the hospital in
need of special bandages and cross-bandages for multiple wounds, and
back she flew to England for bales of bandages. For weeks she was
crossing and recrossing the English Channel. Soldiers have recovered
from as many as twenty and thirty bullet-wounds in the flesh.

An American lady assisting in the English Red Cross work told me that
she saw 2000 wounded every day for eleven days arriving at Boulogne.
About the middle of December I learned that orders had been given to
clear the Boulogne hospital base and prepare for a large number of
wounded. Relief days for the troops at the front were shortene