(pages 104-121)
DR. LEWIS had abundant war experience in Paotingfu, with the coming and going of Chinese militarists, as we shall see, but the storm of the World War, which reached Shantung in the conflict between Japanese and German troops for the possession of Tsingtau, did not disturb Paotingfu. It disturbed the medical work, however, taking Dr. Lewis off on two expeditions to Siberia, in connection with the American Red Cross. The first was an expedition in 1915 to investigate the treatment of the Austrian and German war` prisoners. The second expedition was in 1918 in assistance of the Czecho-slovak army which was trying to get to the Western Front by crossing Siberia and reaching Vladivostok and going on thence by sea.
These were not Dr. Lewis' first experiences in Siberia. In 1904 he had gone there with his sister and returned at once to China, and in 1907 he had travelled across Siberia on his way to America on his first regular furlough. In 1913, also, he had gone to Europe through Siberia, for some graduate medical work and had returned across Siberia to Harbin. He writes:
"The American Red Cross had complaints made to it of the manner in which the Austrian and German prisoners of war were treated by the Russians. The reports were very critical of Russia in the treatment of her prisoners. The American Red Cross requested the American Minister in Peking to send some one to Siberia to investigate the conditions. Dr. Reinsch, the Minister, asked Mr. Ogilvie and me to go up to Siberia to see how the conditions were. We left Peking about the first of January, 1915, and went to Harbin where we got into communication with Mr. Caldwell who was the American Consul at Vladivostok. We then got in touch with the Consul, Mr. Moser, of Harbin, and through him made requests of the Russian Government at Petrograd for the privilege of visiting the prison camps. We went from Harbin to Vladivostok with the object of visiting the prisoners. There were prisons outside of Haborovsk and we made the same requests through the Consul and waited there for a week or more for a reply but never got one. In the meantime we tried to see the prisoners but could not. At each place we had to give up in despair and go to another place to try. In Vladivostok we read many letters from German officers who were prisoners. The greatest complaints were that they had to sleep on concrete floors and had no books to read. They complained that they had no Victrolas or anything of that kind for amusements-things that prisoners would not get anywhere. Mr. Caldwell had given us these letters. We found that the Russians had no intention of treating the prisoners badly. It was only characteristic Russian mismanagement. On leaving Vladivostok, we went to call on the Governor-General of the Maritime provinces. The Russian who was the interpreter and all-round man for the Consulate at Vladivostok took us to call. The Governor-General was brought in and made a very deep bow, clapped his hands, and put his feet together but didn't utter a word, as if he could not speak. But the interpreter did all of the talking. We talked to him and said things we wanted to say to the Governor-General, none of which elicited a sound from him. So we bowed ourselves out of the room and put on our hats and coats. As I was leaving, I mentioned to the interpreter that the Governor-General was a man of few words. The interpreter replied, 'Yes, he vinks, he viggles his ears like an old owl, and dees ees all what is said.' I said, 'The Governor-General has rather long hair. He needs a haircut.' 'No,' he replied, 'he needs a head cut.'
"We took an express and started for Irkutsk hoping to have better success in seeing the prisoners there. On the way from Vladivostok to Harbin about six or eight hours before reaching Harbin we were taking our lunch in the dining car. When I had a piece of pineapple about half way to my mouth I lost the pineapple. The waiter was knocked down. Our train had hit a military train ahead of us. The man in charge of the switch station had forgotten to close the switch and our train ran in to the back of the military train on a siding. Behind boxes of heavy cannon on flat cars there were four or five wooden cars (Paluchkas) full of soldiers. These cars were all smashed to kindling wood. I gave first aid to twenty-seven passengers. Passengers vacated part of the second class car for an operating room. We had plenty of splint wood to fix these men up. There was one man who had a leg almost off. The nerve was the only thing which was holding it. This I clipped off with my knife. The blood vessels were frozen full of icy blood which stopped the hemorrhage. These I tied. We had only a few proper first aid materials. I took an ordinary piece of twine and tied the arteries that I could get hold of. We tore up tablecloths, etc., and in about two hours had the men all attended to. There was one aristocratic Russian General along. The only way I could communicate with the Russian women was to give them their orders in German. This high Russian came and told me 'Deutsch ist verboten.' Indeed there was a sign in the car to that effect. He said there was a fine of two hundred rubles for speaking German. I mentioned that I was giving first aid to his soldiers. The ladies said, 'Never mind, these men must be looked after.' So he said it was all right, and we got them fixed up. Two surgeons were sent on a special train from Harbin. They came in a very dignified and orderly way and gave me a vote of thanks for what I had done. A special committee met the train and thanked me. We took the wounded on to Harbin. The engine was somewhat damaged and we had to get a new engine to take us through, which had to come back from Harbin. Then we went on to Irkutsk. At this station we met a very interesting man, Witte, a nephew of the old Witte.
"Germans in China contributed money and we were able to transfer a considerable amount of money from the German Help Society of Tientsin to aid the prisoners who needed help most. This was done through a: Russian banker whom we met at the station. We also met Pastor Krantz who was the pastor of the German-Lutheran Church and a German-Russian from the Baltic States. Austrian and German prisoners attended this church and a number of the officers. They were allowed a great deal of liberty, went about the city, and came and took tea with us. The house was crowded with Germans and Austrians but we could not get to the camp. They were not mistreated except from neglect or carelessness, by the Russians. There was a great deal of typhus. They had a number of very good surgeons, including one man whom I had met in 1913 at Vienna at Iselberg's clinic. He was down at Nikosh, where they had a` hospital, and carried on a large practice among the prisoners. During the war they were not supposed to take doctors as prisoners, but this man was a prisoner and there were a number of excellent doctors as prisoners, working in Russian hospitals. I met also a man by the name of Von Bergman, a nephew of one of the greatest surgeons Germany has ever had. We saw lots of prisoners in hospitals, -Russian hospitals,-very dirty. One day I saw Dr. Wilner, an Austrian doctor, at the Peking Union Medical College, and said to him, 'I understand that you were for five years a prisoner of war in Russia. What do you think of the Russians?' He answered, 'I think that they belong to a class of zoology of their own.' From Irkutsk we came back to Harbin and to Peking and made our report. We had been away for a month.
"Second Expedition: At the beginning of the war the Czecho-slovaks being Slavs were not willing to enter the war and fight against their brother Slavs (Russians), but were compelled by the Austrians to go to war with them against the Russians. A great many of them, just as soon as they came to battle with the Russians, surrendered to them. One of our interpreters who was a graduate in both Law and Music from Vienna University told me that he was forced to be an officer in the army. He said that he did not know a thing about fighting, and did not even know how to give a command. He was sent out to the front soon after he had gone to camp. Very soon after being sent to the front, he had to go into an engagement, and he just gave the order to put up a white flag, and the first thing he knew they were surrounded by Russians and were taken away as prisoners of war. He had spent a great deal of his time in Tashkent in Turkestan.
"Toward the end of the war in the spring of 1918, the Russians had made their treaty of Litovsk, between Bolshevik Russia and Germany. After this treaty the Czechs organized themselves into an army of about 60,000 Czechoslovaks and their first attempt was to go to Vladivostok. They had collected arms, guns, cannons, and even aeroplanes.
They could not fight against Germany and Austria, as they would have liked to do, because of the German-Austrian element in Russia. So they made an effort to get to Vladivostok and to the Western Front through Vladivostok and by sea.
"At that time the American Red Cross took pity on the Czecho-slovaks who had no equipped medical corps for their army. The American Red Cross appointed a number of commissioners to go to Siberia to organize a medical corps to help the Czecho-slovaks, and Roger Greene of the Peking Branch of the American Red Cross, wrote and asked me to join this medical corps. Permission was given by the mission and I went to Harbin."
From Harbin he wrote to the Mission Board under date of August 23, 1918, and his letter was signed also by Dr. Tipton and Dr. Ludlow, Presbyterian medical missionaries from Korea, and Dr. O. T. Logan, a Presbyterian medical missionary in Hunan.
"Some of us doctors have been asked to join an officially organized American Red Cross Hospital Unit to work among the Czechs in Siberia and along the Chinese Eastern Railroad. Those of us who have responded to the call are here and are working upon organization now. The question of giving our services, or requiring salaries has come up.
"Some of the men from the American Church Mission are here, as is also Bishop Tucker of Japan, and they are asking their Board to continue their salaries as usual, so that their families can live, and they give their services free to the Red Cross.
"We are as truly doing missionary work here among a most deserving people, as we would be doing in our several stations, and would respectfully ask you to continue our salaries that we may give free service here. We hope to continue on in this work as long as we are needed, and as is consistent with the needs of our stations."
Dr. Lewis' narrative continues:
"From Harbin I went to Buketu, where there was a large encampment of Czecho-slovaks, which had no hospital. On account of my age, being older than the others, I was given the rank of Major. The other doctors were made Captains. The man at the head of the Red Cross work was Dr. Teusler of Tokyo. We went to Harbin about the fifteenth of August. I made a first or investigating trip with one of the American engineers, in his private car to Hailar. He was Major in the Engineer corps of sixty engineers who were sent by the American Government to keep the Chinese Eastern railroad in good operation. We went to Hailar to see what buildings were there that could be used as hospitals, and I found a number of Russian barracks, which with a little expense could be cleaned and put into good condition. There were buildings there to hold 2,000 beds, and at Buketu also room for about 5,000, with quarters for doctors and nurses. These were base hospitals where the men could be brought from the fighting front into these hospitals. There was a good deal of fighting at Irkutsk and around Lake Baikal. Captain Gaida was the man who brought a whole army around the lake. The German-Austrian prisoners of war joined with the Bolshevists and fought with the Czechoslovaks and White-Russians. I was sent with our unit to open the hospital at Buketu. This was about August 25th. We had five American nurses to organize a hospital, also Dr. Hiltner, of Shanghai. Most of the nurses were from mission hospitals. We selected some Czechoslovaks who could speak English to act as our interpreters. Then we got assistants. Czecho-slovaks were the most capable men I have ever run across. I had them as assistants and dressers. Their army outstripped any other army. They would do almost anything you asked them. Each Regiment had an orchestra. I don't know where they got their instruments. One man came to Dr. Hiltner and brought a painting of an American nurse, caring for a Czech soldier, done in oils. He presented it to Dr. Hiltner and the doctor gave him a new pair of shoes. The man I had as a secretary was a graduate of law and music. His father is a professor at Prague University.
"In our hospital in Buketu we had about 200 beds. We had plenty of surgical instruments from Japan. You could use the hemostats for at least a month before they would not close. The knives would hold an edge at least over night ! We had a quantity of supplies made up by American Red Cross Branches in Shanghai, Peking, and Tientsin. Foreigners in China assisted in every way possible in the making of bandages. Here we had a number of patients but not as many as expected, because as soon as Captain Gaida cleared the railroad line around Lake Baikal there was no more fighting. The Czecho-slovaks had gained complete control of the Siberian and Chinese Eastern Railroad. Therefore, this hospital was not used for a war hospital but was still kept and used as a convalescent hospital.
"On the first of October another unit was made up. I was to be the head. This unit was composed of ten American nurses, mostly from mission hospitals, and four doctors. Their train started from Vladivostok. I joined the train the first of October and we were exactly a month going from Buketu across Siberia to Cheliabinsk and north to Ekaterinberg, where the Czar and his family were murdered, and to Tumen. By this time Czecho-slovakia had joined with Kolchak's White-Russian Army and were fighting against the Bolshevists, so we were going to establish a hospital in west Siberia in order to look after them. Our doctors were Dr. J. H. Ingram, Dr. George Hayden, Dr. R. V. Taylor, a doctor from Korea, and myself. All of these doctors were from mission hospitals. Dr. Ingram's daughter was included in the list of nurses. It was very cold on the way out. We stopped at a number of places and could not find a suitable place for a good base hospital. We tried at Cheliabinsk and saw the chief of the staff of the Czechoslovak army. We went through a very good hospital there that was being run by Czecho-slovaks, and furnished them with a great deal of equipment. No supplies had gone into that particular hospital for two or three years and there were almost no surgical supplies there, while we had a train of-twenty-six cars loaded with supplies, and beds to set up a 350-bed hospital.
"Dr. Winkler, our interpreter, had been a prisoner at Tumen which was half way between Ekaterinberg and Omsk. He knew all about Tumen and of a private school in a fine large building in Tumen which he thought would be suitable for a hospital. So I ordered the train to go there.
"Omsk, Ekaterinberg, and Cheliabinsk are at points of an equilateral triangle. Tumen is half-way between Omsk and Ekaterinberg. We went by way of Ekaterinberg because Bishop Tucker, brother of Dr. Tucker, wanted to see the chief of the staff of the whole army and I thought that it might be the best place for a hospital. We reached Tumen November 1st. We went off to investigate the school building, of which Dr. Winkler knew, owned by a man named Kolekolnickof, which means 'a lot of little bells.' He had built it with his own money at a cost of 2,000,000 rubles, then nearly a million gold dollars. Most of his family had been killed by the Bolshevists. The school was one of the finest built buildings I have seen anywhere. We told him that we had come to take possession of his school for a hospital, and he said, 'Very well, if you like it, you take it.'
"We had about 250 beds. The music hall in that building was a beautifully furnished room with great chandeliers and galleries at both ends, and great stage. That hall held exactly 100 beds. I had charge of that surgical ward. It had a big piano. Every two or three nights we had the Regimental Band of about seventy pieces, in the gallery. This would fill the hall with music. The leader of the band had been the bandmaster to the Czar. Dick, my interpreter, had a great deal of dignity. He was about twenty-five years old. He had been a prisoner four or five years, had learned English very well, was a graduate of a high school. He danced all the Russian dances. His name was Richard Charles Schwerdlick. He said, 'Call me Dick for short.' He said that from the time he was a small boy he was always taught to look on and to think of Russia as a great bear from the north that would come down and wipe Germany off the map and help the Czechs.
"When we were getting the hospital ready we found that we had to have help to prepare it for occupation. Dr. Ingram was with me. We wanted to get German and Austrian prisoners to work for us. They were very good at helping. We met with the difficulty that we had no stamp for the institution We had to have an official stamp in Russia when we asked for the prisoners and it must be round and red. We did not have a stamp but the secretary said he could fix that. We got a round rubber heel of a shoe and used red ink and stamped a letter with it. It was taken to the guard, who looked at it wrong side up, and said, 'Horisha!' (all right) and our man passed in and got his prisoners.
"I was in Tumen from November until about the middle of February. I often had six or eight operations in the forenoon. A number of the men had been fighting in the mountains and had frozen feet. A number lost their toes. And there were gunshot and hernia operations. There were a number of Chinese who had been working in Russia and were at Perm and desiring to return to China. They had plenty of rubles but the Bolshevists would not allow them to leave the country. Neither could they buy suitable food or clothing. The White-Russians who with the Czecho-slovaks were fighting the Bolshevists, captured the Chinese who had been forced to fight with the Reds. The White-Russians had not as good boots as the Chinese so they pulled the boots off the Chinese and made them wade through wet snow which was up to their knees. Practically all had their feet frozen. I visited the camp to see these Chinese prisoners. I found 116 Chinese in one prison building by themselves. Out of that 116, one of the men had been at the Taylor Memorial Hospital, another was from Peitaiho, and a great many were from North China. I asked the prison-keepers whether if I furnished more wood, they would use it to keep their prisoners warm. They would not permit the gift of wood, as it would not be allowed by the European prisoners, who did not have any extra wood. They allowed me to give them blankets. I distributed about 100 blankets. There was not a single man who left the place with any toes; all had been frozen off, and in some cases part of the foot.
"In the prison there were two rows of long shelves as bunks for sleeping. All prisoners had climbed up on the top ones because the pus from the feet, none of which had any dressings, of those in the top bunks would drop down on those underneath. If the Chinese in hospital were not acting just as they should, we would threaten to send them back to prison. This always met with the desired effect- as they did not want under any circumstances to return to the prison. When we came back to Peking, we told the proper Chinese authorities and also reported to the Irkutsk authorities and to Harbin. There were lots of gunshot and hernia operations."
It will be well to insert here a letter to the Board written at the time from Tumen, dated December 3, 1918:
"We are helping to run a hospital in this place for the Czechs. We have a hospital of 250 beds, and have 150 more beds coming, so we hope to have 400 beds soon in case they may be needed.
"The building we are occupying is a fine new school building- built in modern style, with central hot water and steam radiation heating, electricity and running water. There is a large music hall. which is a fine ward to accommodate ninety patients-in splendid spring beds, good cotton mattresses, sheets and blankets. All of this in the wilds of Siberia, but none too good for these Czechs who deserve the best the world can afford. I think we probably have the best building for the purpose in Siberia, and we certainly were fortunate in getting it. We have been here just about a month and have taken in about 300 wounded.
"We have five doctors and ten American nurses and three Russian nurses. Besides a lot of sanitary men, and a large number of war prisoners to do the cleaning, etc., about the Hospital. Dr. Tipton of our mission from Korea is with us. We naturally feel that as peace seems to be an accomplished fact we should be getting ready to return soon. Of course these wounded men must be healed up and gotten ready to send home as soon as the road is open and that will take months in some cases.
"I have been reading a little book by J. Lovell Murray on 'The Call of a World Task,' which has made me think again of the field which has long had a large place in my heart If the world really wakes up to her great opportunities and sacred obligations after this war, and gives the lands in darkness their deserts, I wonder if they will not open up Chinese Turkestan. I wonder if our Board has ever had such a thought. I have thought if you ever had such an idea, I could be of some service to you in going down south from Omsk to Kashgar, and stay there for a month or so, open up a little medical work, and see what could be done among those people. I have talked to Chinese officials who have been located there and have been told some very interesting things of that country and people. I hope the time may soon come when something can be done to give that part of the world the Gospel. I have thought many times sitting in our well ordered congregation in Paotingfu, how selfish we were to sit at ease there with a whole congregation of worshippers, when on beyond there were so many millions who do not know and probably in our day will not know anything about what it should be their privilege to know if we did all we might. I would be quite willing to go back that way and learn all I can about those people. I presume we will not be able to get away from here before next spring.
"I have heard by cable that I have been given a Major's commission. I do not know what the conditions will be for acceptance, and will not know until the commission comes out, but if it should bind me longer than the period of the war, will not think of accepting it. If it is to keep me here after the necessary work is completed of course I will not accept it. According to our agreement we will not be under obligation to remain longer than the end of January. I think our work has been worthwhile. We have worked for one of the most deserving people I have ever known. I do hope some real live modern Christians will get into Czecho-slovakia and revive the old life and teachings of John Hus. These men have a religious nature and have the real martyr spirit of Hus, but they have been ground under the heel for over 300 years and now know little of true Christianity except set forms, which they hate because they were imposed upon them. They nearly all will tell you they are going to be Protestants, and Hus will of course be their model. But they need some modern Christian leaders very much. If they had some such who spoke Czechish."
To resume Dr. Lewis' narrative
"In 1918 the war was over and the Czecho-slovaks ceased fighting. There were a few English soldiers who belonged to an artillery group who were assisting the Kolchak army with a couple of ten-inch guns, and who came to us as patients. After the Czechs ceased fighting and we had no more Czech wounded, then we took in the Russian wounded, for the Reds and Whites continued to fight. Russian patients were the most obstreperous, the hardest to manage and the dirtiest patients I have ever had to do with. The Chinese were far easier. A great many of them had only a finger shot off and were malingering to avoid continuing in the war. The Russians were the worst complainers.
"White-Russians. They had a regimental day once a year in Tumen. This day was the celebration of this particular regiment that was enlisted at Tumen. They were called the Seventh Siberian Cavalry and they celebrated regularly, about the 11th of December. As I was head of the American Red Cross Hospital, I was invited to attend the banquet. They had a program printed. The first thing on the program was to attend church. This service began at noon. The interpreter and I went. We saw the sexton and asked if there was to be a service. He said he believed there was supposed to be one, but no one had come. It was then after twelve o'clock, the time the service should have started. We went to the Military Club. Here they were all gathered. The church service had simply been on the program. The priests were also at the club. There were old generals, coroners, the mayor, medical men; each business was represented. By one o'clock there was a large collection. There were British, Rumanians, the Czecho-slovak Colonel, and various other countries were represented. About one o'clock they started to eat and drink, practically every one drinking. Being a teetotaler I was determined not to drink, but nothing could go on until I put the glass to my mouth. I wouldn't allow Dick to drink either. I wanted him sober so he could talk for me. I drank soda afterwards. We had very nice food, though many people were starving in the town. There was what was called a 'National Hymn,' or wild fowl with skin taken off and opening made in the top of the skin. The bird was stuffed. The meat had been cut off and put inside of the skin.
"Eating and drinking, mostly drinking, continued until about four o'clock; then they began toasts. They asked the Colonel of the regiment to make a speech. Then they made a toast to him. Then they made toasts to various officers and to the King of England. Then every nation represented was called upon, and some one had to make a speech for that nation. After each there was a toast. I was called upon to speak-then they drank a toast. They also drank toasts to the dead. There must have been twenty-five or thirty toasts. After this they began to toss people up into the air. The Colonel had his glass goblet in his hand, it had some liquor in it, and four of these men were throwing him up in the air. They were not very steady-handed and made him spill the liquor and down came the Colonel and nearly had his shoulder broken. Each one who made a speech was to be tossed like this. When it came to my turn, I took hold of the lapel of one man's coat and only went up my arm's length.
"Then we went from the dining hall to the ball-room, where there were small tables set with bottles of champagne. They drank only champagne in this room. Some of them were so drunk that 'they didn't know whether they were laughing or crying,' as Dick said to me. There was a priest who was very drunk. He wanted to say something to the Colonel and did not wait to go around the table but went across it. The table went over and everything on it was broken, including three bottles of champagne which were worth about $20.00 gold each, according to the price then. We left the hall about 7:30 P. M. and they were still drinking champagne. I saw the Czech Colonel a few days after and asked him what time he got home and he said that it was about eight o'clock the next morning. I also asked, 'What time do you suppose the priest got sober ?' and he said it was probably the next noontime. I asked what they did all the time they were there. He said there were dancing girls and they had to give toasts to them. They did a great deal of drinking and that was what they called a good time. That represented the upper classes of Russia. With such spiritual leaders, there could be little hope for a country.
"Dr. Krall was a Czecho-slovak doctor, and went with me as interpreter. He invited me to go on a hunting party. The Ex-Mayor of Tumen was along, and the Czech Colonel also went in a separate party to the same place. We went to a village in the country about twenty miles from Tumen, driving in sleighs, the snow being about a foot and a half deep. These Russians never allowed a horse to walk, they always made it run. Our horse was left without even a blanket to stand in the cold. The temperature was probably ten below zero. I went out before bedtime and said to the doctor, 'They haven't put your horse up.' He said, 'We never put our horses in the stable, if we did they would get soft and hot and would die.' They left the horse standing there all night and in the morning it looked like a snowdrift, covered with snow and frost.
"While we were there a man in the village came and wanted to see a doctor. He asked if there was a doctor in the crowd. The Ex-Mayor said, 'Why, yes, we have three doctors, an American, a Russian, and a Czecho-slovakian doctor. You may have your choice.' The man said he would have the American doctor, and when he was asked why, he answered, 'Because the Americans won the war.' Therefore, he thought American doctors should be good. So I felt the old man's pulse. It was just like a whipcord. I had never found one like it before. I said, 'You must have drunk some vodka.' Yes, he had. 'Do you drink enough to make you drunk?' Oh, yes, he got drunk. 'How long do you stay drunk ?' 'About a month at a time.' 'How often do you go on one of these sprees?' He said he got drunk about every two or three months. I asked him how much he drank a day when he was on one of these sprees. The answer was that sometimes he drank a bottleful. I said, 'You mean a small bottle, don't you ?' No, he meant a large one, I asked if he thought I was foolish and could believe that he could drink five pints of this vodka, which contained sixty-five per cent alcohol. 'Why, Doctor,' Dr. Krall said, 'you don't know these Russians. They are all like that. All of the peasant people are drunk half the time. I have been with them five years, and I know them.' If they were kept from getting alcohol they made their own. While I was in Siberia I don't think I saw a Russian much over sixty years old. They kill themselves by drink.
"At Tumen, Dr. Ingram and I were out on Christmas day, taking a walk. There had been a big snow and only a few tracks were made. We met a group who were so drunk that one would fall down into the snow, then the other three or four would try to get that one up. By that time another would probably go down. After a while they managed. It would not be Christmas for them if they did not get drunk.
"It was time to be getting back to Paotingfu. We had an American box car for a dining car, and had a good second-class sleeper. It took us about a month to get back. The spirit of our unit was good. One of the main things which I think contributed to this was that we were all missionaries, and we all kept up our regular Christian duties as we would at home. Every morning I had prayers with the English staff and Dr. Ingram had prayers with the Chinese servants whom we had taken with us from Manchuria.
"We lost one nurse with typhus. The Czecho-slovaks gave a play in the town and invited the staff, giving them free tickets. There was so much typhus around that it was rather a dangerous thing for us to go. Our nurse probably got the infection from that place, as vermin were plentiful in public places.
"There was a good deal of 'flu.' I-made one observation. We had a man with a very weak heart. He had 'flu' and I
thought, and it was remarked, that if he developed pneumonia, he would die. A strong man developed pneumonia with his 'flu' and it was thought he would recover. The man with the weak heart got well and the other man died.
"In April, May and June the Americans began to repatriate these men. The American army was there and did a lot of work for the men. We were only emergency men. As soon as they got men from home we were to go back. Dr. Teusler asked that I take the Czechs to Prague but I asked him to appoint Dr. Ingram in my stead, as I had a hospital and should be back. They were taken by the Southern Pacific Railroad to Washington and met President Wilson. They took ship again at Norfolk, Virginia, and went to Havre in France, then across France to Prague. The expense for repatriating the men was paid by the American government."
(pages 167, 175-179)
SOME extracts from Dr. Lewis' Annual Reports to the Mission and the Board will illustrate the development of the man and the work and supplement the account given in his reminiscences:
1915
"January and February were spent in company with Mr. Ogilvie in investigating the conditions of German and Austrian prisoners of war in East Siberia and Trans Baikal for the American Red Cross Society, and also in an attempt at relieving any suffering coming under our notice.
"The former purpose was much more fully realized than the latter on account of the unwillingness of the Russian Government to permit us to give assistance. However, one very good bi-product of the expedition was an enforced rest, which fitted me for an unusually hard season of work which followed.
"Some new features of the work which` we have tried to develop during the last year deserve special mention:
"An itinerating evangelist to follow up the work of the hospital has finally materialized. This man has spent part of each month in the hospital wards and speaking with outpatients, so as to make the acquaintance of them, and that they might know him when he called upon them in their homes. And then having collected the names from the records of all the patients hailing from a certain region, he visited that district and called upon each one, and wherever he found those who had a genuine interest in the Gospel, he got them together and renewed in them an interest. In this way he has been able to get a number to study further, and I have reason to believe that the carrying out of this scheme will do much to conserve the interest of those who are impressed with the truth through their visits to the hospital.
"Another feature has been the monthly meeting for prayer first, and then the free discussion of any practices of any of the hospital staff, or rules governing staff or patients. This has proven a very valuable meeting, bringing us more into a family group than formerly; and has made things run smoother all round. One, whether he really has anything to say or not, always feels much better if he i$ given the opportunity to air his grievances. At this meeting any one was heard in a very frank discussion; having prayed the one for the other put us in a good frame of mind to hear and sympathize with one another in his work. The result has been that we all have come to regard the work as a whole, the success of which depends upon each one doing his own part well. The attendance at the dispensary has been about the same as last year, but the operations have increased in number and severity. We have had more abdominal surgery than formerly. We had one cyst weighing ninety-six pounds, another weighing sixty-five pounds, and a solid tumor weighing fifty pounds-an aggregate of over 200 pounds for three tumors."
1918,
"From our experiences during the last year I am soundly convinced that the extra expenditure and effort have all been richly rewarded, in seeing the patients so happy in their clean beds, in clean clothes, in a condition in which they can think favorably of this Gospel, which has been the cause of their cleanliness. If cleanliness is next to godliness then they needed to be brought near to the step which would approach that quality and so we have tried to help them in this. There has been more evangelistic effort among the patients than formerly, as it has been a much more attractive place to work. We have been able to do a more advanced type of surgery than formerly as we have suitable facilities for doing safe aseptic operating. In one disease alone kala-azar -a condition which we have turned away as hopeless-has been dealt with and with combined medical and surgical work we have had seven cases who have left the hospital in very good condition and as far as we could see cured.
"I feel sure that we have done much more for our patients, and in a shorter time during the last year than during any previous year, and I am also sure that the patients who have left the hospital during the last year have gone with a better opinion of the Gospel of Jesus, and a better knowledge of Him than during former years.
"We have taken another section of the railroad to care for medically and our monthly stipend will be raised to $300.00 per month. This will help very much in the finances of the hospital. And as I think over the number of those interested in the Gospel I think a larger proportion of those from the railroad work have been interested than from any other walk in life. This may have been because they were cases longer in the hospital. Both Dr. Wylie and myself spent nearly three months in plague prevention work for the railroad for which services the hospital was paid over $3,000.00.
"Most of my time for three months was taken up in the early part of the year in plague prevention work. Some time was spent in flood relief committee work. I have during the spring months spent the forenoons operating at the Men's Hospital and generally three afternoons of the week operating at the Woman's Hospital."
1918- 1919
"The first half of the last year was spent in Red Cross work in Siberia.
"From the middle of March my time was spent in the hospital.
"The hospital has been kept full most of the year, and the cases have been of the ordinary interesting kind which come to us yearly. There was an epidemic of the Grippe or 'Flu' last autumn which filled the hospital for a time. We had also four cases of epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis, which had come from Honan where they had an epidemic of some proportions, but it did not spread in our section. Besides these there were no epidemics. There have been even more than the usual number of tuberculosis cases applying for admittance to the hospital, and we feel that there should be a special pavilion in the hospital for this class. We feel that there should be a Hospital Inn near the hospital, that we could keep in a sanitary condition and have our own evangelist there who could make known the Gospel to the friends of the patients, as well as to the patients, who could leave the hospital after a few days in very many cases, and attend the clinic for daily dressings, and in this way we could minister to a very much larger number of needy people.
"RECEIPTS ON THE FIELD | |
Donations | $1,288.48 Mex. |
Fees & Sale of Drugs | 13,551.87 |
Appropriation from C. M. Board | 4,546.41 |
$19,386.76 | |
"DISBURSEMENTS | |
January 1, balance owing | $1,269.13 |
Buildings & Furnishings Acct | 3,963.54 |
Medical & Surgical Supplies | 3,031.53 |
Hospital Staff | 4,148.34 |
Expenses | 6,452.45 |
Balance on hand . | 521.77 |
$19,386.76 | |
"PATIENTS | |
In-patients | 877 |
Individuals Treated | 9,112 |
Total Calls of Out-patients | 23,601 |
Operations: | |
General Anæsthetic | 587 |
Local Anæsthetic | 105 |
Number of Hospital Days | 14,975 |
Average number of days in Hospital. | 17 -6/7 |
"STAFF-CHINESE | |
Physicians | 2 |
Evangelists | 2 |
Nurses | 22 |
Servants, etc. | 20 |
"Number of Beds | 60" |
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