23 February 1918. — %>3 pages : 30 x 39 cm.
note: transcription publicly contributed - please contact us with comments, errors or omisions
Halifax Disaster Record Office
Chronicle Building
Halifax, N. S.
Dustan family were alive and unhurt. She then went to 2 Creighton St. to look up a Mrs. Siggin's that her cook had asked her to find out about. While she was here she saw a "mad rush of humanity" on the street She went out to the street and asked people what it meant. They answered "Another explosion." Children and women were screaming. She found a group of soldiers and asked them what it meant. They said they "didn't know anything." She began to go south and walked until she came to the Citadel. She met Captain Dwyer and Margaret Grant. Then met Mr. Nash of the Bank of Montreal. He said "Yes, there is danger in the North End." She went down Sackville and Pleasant Streets to her own house. A man told her not to go in the house. Mr. Henry was at the corner. They went into the house to get things that they wanted to save. Before very long after that they were told that danger was over.
At one o'clock some-one telephoned her to come and take charge of the Y. M. C. A. kitchen, where they were cooking for refugees. She N went. She worked for 28 hours without rest--cooking, and feeding people. The Y. W. C. A. sent stew. The Green Lantern sent a barrel of soup. Every person was fed. Mrs. Fred Hart, Mrs. Thomas Stewart, and Miss Alison Stewart worked with her. They worked all night. They fed the refugees, people who came in looking for relatives and friends, men who were driving automobiles, soldiers patrolling the streets, everyone who needed food and hot drinks. At 12 o'clock Thursday night (December 6) mattresses were brought from the City Hall for the refugees. There were not enough, however, and many of them sat up in the room off the kitchen all night.
At 11 o'clock Friday morning she went home to rest. Stayed two "hours and was back at work again before 2 o'clock.
Reference: Archibald MacMechan Nova Scotia Archives MG 1 volume 2124 number 157
Nova Scotia Archives — https://archives.novascotia.ca/macmechan/archives/
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