The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-05

C. A. branches everywhere throughout the country and the organizations Eng fish membership must have been large, but it never really counted because there was no pep in it. About five years ago, however, the English Y M c. A. woke up It brought A. K. Yapp, who, as general secretary, is the directing genius l of it's war activities. from Derby, where i he had proved himself born hustler, to London, and imported from Australia J. | J. Virgo, who now has charge of the work outside England, and who has had experience in the United States as well as at the Antipodes, and told these two to go to 1t and shake things up.
 STARTED THINGS GOING They did. The big residential head quarters on American lines in Totten- nam court road was built, and a ''Whirl- Wind campaign" was organized to pay | Tor 1t, and succeeded. Since that time the |. M. C.. A. here has really been a gong concern but something big was | needed to enable it to get real gr1p and when the war cnme along It fur. nished this. When I asked A. K Yapp. the other day, in between his interviews with duchesses and such what was the inception of the Y M C. As part in the war, his answer was unexpectedly in- teresting
 Strangely enough, we were all ready Tor 1t, said he. "A bit less than two years ago deputation from our so- ciety waited on the heads of the army and asked to know what we could do in the event Of European war? Our over- l lures were warmly welcomed, the mili- tary authorities knowing us of old for you see, We have been represented at the territorial camps for the past 16 years. and our big smarkees' where concerts ana entertainments have been held, and iac'iities for letter writing provided have always been popular with the men Thus we found out at the fountain head now we could be of most. use, and. cur iously enough, had all our plans laid for tfekklng With the troops during the summer of 1914 and playing quite a sub
 stantial part at the annual army maneu- verS.
 So we had our sleeves all rolled up and within 10 days after the outbreak of war we had 250 centers established in various parts of the country It was fortunate that we had, too as the au- thorlues, 1n many places, had no can teens, no tents, nor no big markees Like everybody else, we looked for a snort war, and at the outset we ap- pealed only for $125,0OO. Since then we nave asked for, and got, and spent. over
 half million sterling, or s2,5OO O.0OO. not
 very big sum as you count money in
 the United States, but a tidy one here.
 The bulk of it has been secured by ad-
 vertlsements in the newspapers and by
 clrcuiarizatlon, and the sum I have men,
 toned does not include local subscrip-
 tions, which have been many
 The way in which many of the huts
 have been paid for is especially inter-
 esting. It is becoming more and more common fore hut to be erected by a
 father or mother as a memorial to a
 son who has fallen, and who could hard
 ly have a better one. All sorts of insti-
 tutions and societies have given huts,
 many banks, for instance, including the 1 Bank of England. The hut in Grosvenor
 Gardens, which Queen Alexandra opened this week, was presented by Bryant X May, the famous firm of watch manu- facturers. Queen Alexandra herself be- sides working for us like Trojan, has personally given hut, which is located
 at Aldershot One was provided too at cost of $15O0 by the Variety Artists federation, representing one of tht classes that Nave been hit hardest by the war.
 MANY OTHER GIFTS
 ''The mothers of England have given hut" Yapp went on, and so have the boys and girls and even the dogs and cats of England! The Dogs and Cats hut, which is located at Rouen, is the largest we have in France, and has been carried on, until recently, by Lady Rod- ney. The way it came to be built was this. One day woman, grippe, too called on me-she is Miss Maud Field ot Mortimer, West Berkshire-and sug. gested that she thought the dogs and cats of Great Britain ought to be ap- pealed to to provide a hut, and that she would make the appeal, if we liked. didn't look for much from the idea, but told her to go ahead. Inside of month hOyUoUar Sha Q in, yxyff1 representing hundreds of subscriptions the biggest of them being $25 and the smallest 1 penny, which she herself col lected from owners of dogs and cats In all she collected over $5OO0 from the dogs and cats and the hut at Rouen was built and equipped with the money That's why it's called-'The Dogs and Cats hut.'
 Several women, Yapp went on, "have sold out all their wsrldiy possessions in order to build Y. M. c. A. hut and then have devoted their whole time to running it. Subscriptions, both large and
 small, have come from unlikely sources A fish haEker gave six half crowns ($3.75 as thank offering. A lieutenant sent his first months pay after receiving his commission. and poor woman invested her all in a clock in memory of her hus-
 band, killed in ection and there have | been thousands of ether gifts just as unusual as these.
 '"i'he whole royal family, as we'll as dozens upon dozens of titled folk are helping us daily. The King is deeply interested, and Queen Mary has contripu- ted to our funds and permitted us to give her name to one of our large huts, that at Boulcgne. The Duke of Con-
 naught is one of our patrons and Princess
 Louise, Duchess of Argyll. Princess Christian and Princess Henry of Batten-
 berg are all assisting us. Each of them
 has performed opening ceremonies for us,
 Princess Louise having opened our new
 station hut" at Kings Cross so recently
 as last Saturday. Princess Victoria of
 SchleswigH Holstein devotes all her time
 to '. M. C. A. work She Is head of
 the committee that has interviewed prac-
 tically all the many titled women who
 are helping in our centres here and ill
 France. and, in cooperation with Miss
 Lena Ashwell, the actress, she has or
 ganized the concert parties which are
 constantly going from this country to
 France to sing to and entertain the sol
 diers, in camps, hospitals, bases,
 wherever the men are stationed. Princess
 Victoria has been to the front several
 times and she it was who declared the
 Dogs and Cats Hut open.
 MANY TITLED RECRUITS Lord Haddo. the Marquis Of Aber- deems heir, who is staff officer. is Che of our most indefatigable workers while Lord Kinnaird, who is president of our organizations, davotes nearly all his time to it. Eardly a day passes without bringing us some new tilted recruit, one of the latest Icing Lady Bridget Coke, youngest daughter of the Earl of Leices- CT, who has just gore to France to work in one of our refreshment booths "In France and e1Sewhere Yanp uani