Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-11-30
THE GIRL WHO DID
ALL SHE COULD
IJELEN isn't at all the kind of girl you
BY MA SUNDAY

L would associate with great ideals or
heroic missions. She Is a quiet. diffident,
brown-haired, brown-eyed little thing, who
! talks always In soft, frightened kind OF
! voice, as though she Is just about to run
away from you.
She is employed as a stenographer In
)g downtown office, and they tell me she
IS a very capable one. Whenever the boss
wants some particularly accurate or rapid
piece of work done he always calls for
Helen. She gldes into his office, like the
little brown creature she really is, without
a murfnur or even an expression on her
chidike face, and takes the chair offered
her, with her shorthand book open in hes
lap But the boss knows that when he Is
through with his jerky, inc.sve dictation
he needn't worry about the result of the
transcription. 1t viii be letter perfect,
neatly done and without grammatical
mistake.
That is why Helen, in spite Of her modest,
ditiident ways, is popular at the office. She
delivers the goods, as they say
But it is not Helen, the efficient stenog-
rapher, with whom l am dealing now.
II is Helen the heroine. who has seen ana
risen to the patrio\ opportunities OF a
nation in her same quiet. uno1trusive way
and in SO doing has shdmed hundreds,
perhaps thousands Of other girls and
women. who parade their patriot SIN with
out showing by deed that they are prepared
20 come through" in the great emergency
II was quite by accident that found what
Helen was doing in her quiet way Tor the
flag. for she herself, Of her own accord,
would never have told me. That is Helen.
She does thiugs-not talks about what she
would like 70 do if the right opportunity
came to her
For months now, Helen the demuro little
stenograpker, has been going Without E'r
lunch three davs each week IN H0'r 10
take a course in Rod Cross nursing ana
prepare herself, if she should be needed
in sudden emergency call by her country
She is allowed an hour for lunchetl ON
Mondays, Wednest<ys and Fridays of each
week she brings prepared ldnNl Win
her to work. done up in a small" neat
bundle. She is able TO eat IT In ten mn
u1es Of her precious noon hour. The re-
mainder of the time allows her to attehu
the class In nursing and finish Just III
time to he back at her desk When the
clock strikes /.
It is sacrifice, Of course very real
sacrifice, for it means that the girl adds
another hour TO her days hard work.
But she is ready to do il without a mur-
mur. and what Is mere, without paradIng
her sacrifice and insisting always ana every
where in talking about il, and what a Won
dcrful thing She is doing To my mind
Helen IS the ideal American girl IN such
a crisis as that which Is upon Us. she
will be on the firing line if she Is ever
needed and she will do Just as capable
work in caring for the wounded soldiers
as she Is doing now in the dashes ana
hook. Of her shorthand book in the busy
| Office.
She is thar kind of girl who has trained
! herself to deliver the goods and who be-
| l!eves in doing rather than telling what
| she is ready to do. 1t is the Hclens OF this
| world who are going 70 win this war Tor
democracy and humanity 1t is the Helens
| Of France who are filling the shoes Of Joan