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Blinded Soldiers Find New Hope

Creator: Winifred Holt (author)
Date: June 25, 1916
Publication: The New York Times
Source: Available at selected libraries

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Soon, thanks to your American committee, in the burned villages there arose shelters for the families that until that time were obliged to live in the woods. Furniture, linen, clothing, came to them. Laborers without work were going to be obliged to work for the enemy, but the Americans watched and sent the necessary funds for opening numerous workshops. The Spring arrived and the farmers saw, with sorrow, that owing to the lack of seed they would not be able to do any sowing; there again America made provision, and soon seed and fertilizer were distributed in profusion.

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I had the honor many times to talk with the American representatives of the Food Commission. These men, still young, calm, cool, but energetic, managed to surmount all the difficulties which had been made for them by the relentless horde which devastated Belgium. If, in conversation, they forcibly made their words neutral, their handshake did not know how to be, and with certainty I recognized them to be friends.

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Returned to France through the exchange of the seriously wounded, I am once more finding America helpful.

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Thanks to you, Miss Holt, and the admirable corps of instructors which you have drawn about you. I can say without exaggeration that I feel glowing within me beams of light, which have already thrown a very appreciable gleam into the closed room of my spirit, which, until now, I believed would always have had to live in darkness.

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I have no words eloquent enough to tell you how much I appreciate this devoted care, but by a very simple and very big "Thank you" coming from the bottom of my heart, and you will know how to read the sum of all my gratitude.

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Thank you, Miss Holt, thank you. Thank you for your moral support. Thank you for your practical aid.

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OSMIN LAGARDE.
Adjutant of the 120th Regiment of Infantry, Paris, the 20th of April, 1916.

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It is for men such as these that once again I want to appeal to the generosity of Americans. The Lighthouse is day by day reaching out to bring light and hope to more and more of those men blinded in the service of their country. The workers at the Lighthouse are in many cases laboring for love, but nevertheless the need of funds is urgent. All contributions are welcome, large or small, and should be sent to William Forbes Morgan, Jr., Treasurer Committee for Men Blinded in Battle, 17 East Thirty-eighth Street.

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