The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1917-08-31
CANTEEN AND REST STATIONS.

Washington, Aug. 25.-Canteens
and rest stations for the French and
American troops will be established
at once in France by the American
Red Cross.
The war council has been trying to
find out just what the Red Cross could
do most effectively to hearten the
French army and to give to French
soldiers a token of the fact that
America is with her ally with all her
power. The French army officers
have told the Red Cross that canteens
and rest stations would do more for
the immediate welfare and content
ment of the soldiers than anything
else that could be done. Therefore,
the problem is going to be met thor
oughly and at once.
The poilus come out of the trenches,
to go home on lease, mud-stained, YER
min-covered, reeking with infection.
They are marched to the nearest rail
head in that condition, where, perhaps,
they find little station with scanty
accommodations for a doben passen-
gers.
The Red Cross is going to put show
er-baths there, and laundries and
mending and disinfecting rooms,
which will remove the menace of dirt
and disease which these men carry to
their homes. Then there will be rest
rooms where they can read and write
and play games, to make the transit
tion to civilian life easier, and small
stores where they can buy timed deli
cacies, tobacco and odds and ends. II
Similar canteens will be opened at
the railroad functions where the men
must wait en- route. At some of them
now these men, still trench-stained,
have to lie on station platforms all
night. There will be dormitories at
such places, and lunch-rooms at all of
them where hot meals can be bought
at price just above cost.
Nearly $4,000 soldiers are passing
through II of these stations every
day. They will have a convincing
proof of American friendliness when
they find American women-the Wo-
mems Bureau is now recruiting SO of
them for such service-ready to help
them.
| Just behind the firing line the Red
Cross will put field canteens. Ex-
tending the work already begun by
the French Red Cross, we shall see
that every corps of the French army.
and ultimately our own, has one of
these stations, which will supply hot
and cold drinks to the men who are
fighting. Many of them now have
nothing to relieve their thirst except
their days ration which they carry in
containers which may be smashed at
any minute.
The canteen is placed in or near
the second line, and refreshing drinks
are carried right into the front
trenches. Each station can keep about
125 gallons of hot drinks at the boil
ing point, and has several thermos
containers holding six to IL gallons
apiece. Four thousand portions--cof-
fee, tea, cocoa, bouillon, lemonade,
mint-are sometimes served from one
canteen in a single day.
Here, too. American workers will
be found. The 'convoyer' in charge of
the canteen will be Red Cross man,
with French soldiers to help him.
Many of the poilus will get their first
glimpse of the America nuniform in
this way. Just the cup of coffee, or
the cold drink, may make all the diff
ference between sagging morale and
spirited fighting.
TO carry out these plans the war
council has appropriated about $780,
600. which will serve to establish the
canteens and maintain them for about
three months. Much of the original
equipment will be supplied by the
French army.