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MG 1 volume 2124 number 193a

Halifax Disaster Record Office
Chronicle Building
Halifax, N.S.


About half past three that afternoon received a telegram from her father to the affect that none of the family were injured. About same time she head that a train load of injured were being sent to Truro, and would arrive about five o'clock. Went down to town and to the court-house with Sue Chase, her room-mate and fellow-student, Were told that they could help. Went to boarding-house. At five o'clock went again to Court House. Injured were there. They were in horrible condition. Faces and clothing blackened. Some had been hastily bandaged, some not at all. They were told to come back at night. Just then met Mrs. DeWolfe, wife of Professor Loran DeWolfe of the Normal College, and asked her what she supposed they could do. She said they might work with her. She went back with them to their boarding-house (Mrs. Macgillivray's). They had tea, and then went back to the Court House. The first thing they did was to letter the doors of the rooms, so that the building might be divided into wards. Afterward they attended to the patients, washing faces and hands, cleansing as well as possible the hair and combing it. After looking after each patient, they washed (themselves)* [handwritten] in a solution of carbolic. Later, they cut the clothes off patients, took off bandages in preparation for operation or dressing, and held flashlights for the doctors to operate by. The lights were so dim that the operating could not be done without flashlights. After this they cleaned out wards, burning old bandages and clothes. They gathered the bandages and clothes into large baskets before taking them to furnaces. "The smell was horrible."

*no disinfect [?no disinfectant/ ?to disinfect]









M G 1 vol 2124
number 193a