ter in khaki),--we had taken with us Miss Allard, a lady
reporter of first rate intelligence and fine manners,--and we started to
walk round. The military doctor wanted naturally enough to show me the
hospital, which I should imagine to be the largest and most perfectly
equipped in the world. This solid building extends for over half a mile,
and is several storeys high; but I wanted to see the patients, and I
loathe long passages and operating paraphernalia. With difficulty I was
finally permitted to see the wounded.

It is difficult to make conversation with tired men acclimatized to pain
and bed, but I was glad to meet and talk to them.

I have a feeling, which may be wrong, that they are not getting the
attention they deserve in this country of money and movies, but the
hospital was magnificent, and there at any rate, they are treated with
efficiency and understanding.

Perhaps I am not competent to judge, but from what I have observed, the
men who fought in the war--many of whom have been either permanently
disabled or financially handicapped--are in danger of being forgotten,
not by the Government either in the States or any other part of the
world, but by the private individual.

The bonus over here, even if it passes, can never be an excuse for the
rich and leisured not to go among the wounded either at their homes or
in the hospitals. Gassed, crippled and shell-shocked, their outlook at
the best can but be forlorn, and I am haunted by a fear that in the
hustle of life and what is erroneously called the "return to
normality," the crippled and wounded are neglected. It is understandable
that men in business should want to make money, but business principles
should not be mainly the reflection of personal interests and you may
pay too high a price for making your fortune.

Excepting for myself I saw no stranger in the crowded wards of this
immense hospital, and from answers to my questions, I do not think it is
the practice among women over here to visit them.

VII: PITTSBURGH AND ROCHESTER

PITTSBURGH AND ROCHESTER

MEETS AN INTERESTING REPORTER--COMPLIMENTS FROM DR.
HOLLAND--PULLMAN CAR INCONVENIENCES--MARGOT SEES HER FIRST FLAPPER

After travelling all night in a train that would not be tolerated for a
day in England, we jolted into Pittsburgh at 6.30 a.m. on the morning of
the 23rd. Reporters and photographers waited in the sitting room to see
me after breakfast and, giddy from the j