The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1917-11-12
What Saw Y. M. c. A. Doing in France
BY MAUDE RADFoRD WARREN.
Novelist and Short Story Writer.

is to rather, ana the DorcaS society Is
to you. then you can have just a little
idea of what the Y NJ c. A. is to me
Do you remember e says, that time
got lost when / was little fellow
and ran home crying, and you were
coming down the road to meet me?
Well, the way felt that night when |
saw your face and the lights of the
cottage way up the road-that's the
way feel when l get my three days
out and bring up in front of Y. NJ.
hut That's what e says.
"Of course, Ma'am, that was all his
nonsense about his grandfather's
whisky; grandfather never got so to
say ugly drunk. And l don't know
why he thinks l set store by the Dor
cas- society. But when he said that
about the time when he got lost, it
made my cart go queer. Because
saw as l didn't see before 'ow lonely
the boys must get and 'ow much they
must like place to sit and smoke and
write 'ome from. So send my little
money up to headquarters every week.
It's not much but it helps cheer up
some soldier boy. That's something
Many times have seen English and
colonial boys pouring into Y. NJ. C. A
huts in different places in England
and France. They are sure of shelter,
good food and recreation. In the din
ing rooms of the English huts, English
women wait on them for the sake of
their own boys; give them help and
companionship, try to withhold them
from temptations of the street In
France there is equal zeal. Once l was
in a certain seaport. An English trans
mort had cafolv ha oh
escaped from submarines but not from
| rough weather. The soldiers were dis
embarking, young unseasoned troops
fresh from their training In England.
and now going to base camp in
France. Some of them were q little
pale from seasickness; all looked
tired. The glamour of foreign land
i had not begun to inspire them, and
some of them, / am afraid, were suf-
fering from touch of inconsistencies.
Then they say the Y. NJ C. A. hut
Some of them cheered and charged,
| and went in boldly; others went in
| timidly. Once inside they were all at
home On the walls, indeed, were
| French posters instead of English, but
the good old red triangle was the
| same. There were the tables for chess
and checkers; there were the English
magazines; there, above all, were the
paper and ink. In a moment, every
available desk and table space was
occupied by soldiers writing home. II
was very moving sight.
Now 1t is our own boys who are
| over there and who will need the kind
of comfort that only the Y. NJ C. A
organizations can give. Letters and
boxes from home are not enough, vital
as they are; the ordinary voluntary
canteens are not enough. There IS no
| single organization that gives such
variety of necessary help as the Y II
c. A. 1t not only gives shelter-and
to the boys who have known the
shelter the word hut will always have
a blessed connotation; 1t not only
gives food and recreation, but it gives
| what every woman will want her son,
| husband or sweetheart to have, and
what ever father will want his boy to
| have; certain intangible feel of
home.
They will be cold, those men you
| love; the Y. NJ. c. A will warm them
and feed them. They will perhaps be
depressed; the Y. NJ C. A. will cheer
them. Think of the Y. NJ c. A. as
serving for you, as giving these boys
Of yours all you would give them with
your own hands. 1t can not be done
| without money. And those who are
not making emotional sacrifices by
sending men to the front ought to give
the more because they are spared this
sad cost. Won't you give all You can
Everybody? And then, won't you
give more than you can Sheltered
woman with warm house to go to.
| won't you give up that new blouse
you think you need and turn the mon
ey it would cost into the Y. NJ. C. A.
fund Or that set of furs? Or won't
you give up giving Christmas pres
ents for the sake of the men who
must spend Christmas in the
trenches? Won't you, man who are
not in the draft, won't you give up
some of your cigars and wines, some
iiof your cherished comforts for the
sake Of the boys who will face hard
ships Of which you will hear nothing
till they come home. For they will
not complain, those boys of ours; they
will carry on uncomplainingly like the
British and the French. But you have
the privilege of making that carrying
on easier. Remember what they give:
at the worst their lives; at the best
months OF precious youth, the suspen-
sion of careers, the lowering of wages,
and they do 1t for your safety.
Think of our boys laboring up out
Of the trenches after three hard days
during which they could not have hot
food, dared not even smoke for fear
of drawing the enemy's fire, could
only sit still under bombardment. Do
You want them to be met at the end
OF the communication trench with
Y. III. c.. A field kitchen? They will.
II You will give enough. II you don I
they will march several miles to bill
lets, wet, dispirited, before they can
have anything hot. Won't you give
give even till it hurts? Give the money
that will carry little bit of homo to
the men who have taken upon their
! young shoulders the hardest part of
this war.-Adv.