The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-10-30
YOU PROMISED MOTHER A LET
TER"-WRITE 1T NOW,

Other entertainers come to enliven
The hut was full. Now it overflows.
Some soldiers can neither force an en-
trance nor find room to see the heads
that I'LL the window. They have to go
away-and there's the pity. for there's
another night picture in the vicinity
Of the American camps. 1t is Rem
brandt picture, too.
1t is back there in the tiny sleepy
village. A curving street leads TO a
hotel that is tightly shattered and
closed against air ana sound Down
badly smelling hail one stun hles
upon door that opens upon mar
row room that is filled with a blare
of lamplisht and the mixed fumes of
oil and undisested drink, and from
dirt.
The room is full, not of regular peas
ant customers long ago gone to bed,
| but with hoys-American boys-boys
| for whom there was no room at the
| nut. They sit at tables dragged from
all over the village to accommodate the
| influx of unexpected custom. Here ann
| there among them is a girl. Not the
| sort of girl the boys knew back home.
! but the offscouring of little towns
| thrown upon the highway and creep
ing by night into the only spot in
France that would give them shelter
! That is the inn -taproom as it is in
half dozen villages about the Ameri-
can camp, and no exercise Of militar,
authority has Yet prevented it from SO
| dong. The officers are doing their
| best, but they say the Y. NJ. G.. A. must
| help. The French authorities second
their declaration. Trained observers
OF social conditions say that the eff
forts of the American officers are ad-
mirahie, hut the one cha~ce of social
salvation for the weaker and more
lonely American soldier in France lies
in the hands of the Y. NJ G. A.
| Tw" enlisted men were sitting in q
| \. NJ c. y. hut. pinch me, will you -
cried one. Il wanta know whether En-
dreamin' or not. If ! amt, jest Z,
away an let me sit here. SOS ! ear
look over those guys heads to the can.
! teen. ! don't want no chocolate or
don't want no scegars. | jest wanta lool
at 4 decent woman again. | Jest want:
watch that little dame smile while she
passes out the stuff to them hlokes II,
there-did you pike that? She talk,
English, toe-real American, I'm go.
in up an buy s"mepn'. Nlcbbe shell
smile at me, too"
| well" said a ad-eyed soldier from
the middle west. Il like it well enough
here, ana of course I'm going to do m,
duty. only | wish we either hadn't $,
much Tune to spare, or else there Wer
more Y. NJ. {. AS 10 keep us all busy
The sundays are the worst Militar,
works light then. and in spite of al
the US do, the days a long one"
The y. NJ. G. A. workers who ar
already accomplishing great deal
though only a small part of what Their
Is I" hc done, give their time an,
strength unbegrudGingly, and man,
OF them We're not trained for sue,
cNacting work.
Among the workers in the field i
William Sharp, son of the ambassado
to France. and among those in Paris
is Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., VIII
has been conducting nightly classes i
! French for American soldiers. Nearl
all are overworking themselves. wit
facilities and supplies that are made
auate, and in quarters that are insult
ficient to accommodate the numbers q
soldiers who would frequent them
, they could.