The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1916-12-08
Lily White Fringers Have Been
Raised From Tatting
NOW They GRIP COPPER
and Cooks Hearthe
Call of the ShrapneIl in
England
from Friday's Daily.
nnRGARET MA.


MARGARET MASON.
The hand that rocked the crauie
Now makes shells that rock the worio'
For female fingers fashion ,s.
Almost ev'ry bomb that's hurled'
And maidens wives ana IN mos sn'n
All stand working, sun 10 SUM-
With bits of glittering metal aoro
That will kill men when they're dohe'
Who knows, Oh Tommy Atkins,
AS YOU throw that hand grenaue
Perchance it's one of many
That YOUR wife or sweetheart made
London, November 1-[By Mail. i
The early Victorian females, must raise
their lily hands from their tatting and
crewel work in horror as they LOOK
back across the River Styx ana see
how the hands of their twentieth cen
tury female descendants are occuple9.
l am sure they don't consider it maid
emily or ladylke and yet these stancn
and willing women munition workers OF
today are doing cruel work too;
Down at the big arsenal at Woolwich,
just thirty minutes from London py
train, seventeen thousand women from
sixteen to fifty years old at big ma,
capable feminine fingers bits of glitter
ing copper, and aluminium and brass
which, assembled into shells, bombs.
handgrenades, cartridges and al those
warfare are dubbed munitions.
Not only are the wives, mothers
sweethearts and sisters of Tommy At
kins, the typical working women, en-
ployed at this new sort of fancy work
but delicately reared and cultured
gentlewomen as well are eagerly and
efficiently doing their bit.
There is work for every grade I,. ana
development. The pay for all is bet
ter too than the workers can get in any
other sort of position. 1t averages
from three to five pounds or SIS to $25
comfortable
lish households are plunged into chaos
and gloom through the loss of their
chambermaids, nursemaids and cooks
who hear the siren call of the shrapnel
and the shell. Mansions in Mayfair
and Park Lane novels in Whitechapel
and the Est End disgorge alike their
bits of feminity into the Unsuitable NAV
of the government arsenalS.
Never have so many furcoats, never
has so much jewelry been sold in Lon
don as at the present moment and the
little buyers. The first thing a poor
little erstwhile factory slavey does when
she draws her first princely lin pros
portion pay check at the arsenal is to
her little starved feminine heart has
craved her whole life long. She may
top off with warm coat of fur and
after this reckless spending orgy she
is content to settle down and save her
salary with the exception of what she
spends on real food. And my how she
does eati gu.f eurs.7 foGa 8.
There are canteens established at
may get the most nourishing food for
the cheapest rates. Four meals are
served a day. breakfast, lunch a very
high tea at a very low price, and din
ner. There also are lodgings estab-
lished near the arsenal for all those
women who wish to live close to their
work. These are called hostels, and
furnish comfortable and sanitary rooms
for a modest sum-
At Woolwich, under the wise and
human jurisdiction of Miss Lillian
Barker, the government lady super
visor, the women workers are like. one
huge family or a school for girls. All
sorts of things are provided for their
amusement and instruction in their
recreation hours. There are dancing
classes. amateur theatricals and edu-
cational courses
So, although the work is strenuous
and the hours long, the effect on the
nourishing food, clean lodging, fresh
ar and above all, blessed spirit if in
dependence they have attained, is
working miracles with English woman
Thanks to their munition work they
VIII be fit physically, mentally and A.
nanclally to take up the burdens of
thelr poor manned and broken menfolks
after the close of the war.
Strange and yet fittingly simple isn't
IT, that these same deadly bits of met
al shining beautifully golden in the sim
should be bringing death and destruc
tion and Disagreement to the one.
health. prosperity and life to the other.
Twenty-four hours, day after dav
night after night, the huge arsenals are
DusX turning out the munitions that
spell trouble for the enemy Since the
GAYS OF Eve and Adam woman has been
dubbed trouble maker. Now She ;s
glorylng and being glorified i'm the role
AS making munitions which is svnonv
nous nous with making trouble, and is Ger
talnnly making good.