The Washington times., 1917-11-12
BY SAMUEL MERWIN.


These and other disturbing
questions rose among my own
thoughts as / watched those faces
the other day. Then, in the can
tonment, as / went from one to
another of the low-spreading
green "huts" of the Y. NJ. c. A,
all my brooding questions were
answered.
/ want to tell you if 1 can,
briefly, Of necessity, but as fore
IDLY as possible, how the Y. NJ.
C. A. is doing, today, in every
training camp in England,
France, Egypt-wherever our
boys in olive-drab are being sent
"a work so necessary, so vital, so
comprehensive that it reaches
straight back through every SOL
der boy to cheer the home he
came from, to strengthen the faith
of every watching sister, mother
or father in the boy, in the army
of which he Is a unit in the
country for which he fights.
In this cantonment there are
ten or eleven buildings, of which
eight or nine are the so-called
"huts."
A "hut" usually has a roomy en-
trance hall, with stove, desk and
counter for the local secretary, for
the dispensing Of writing paper
and envelopes, of postcards,
stamps, and other little neces-
saries. There is a big stove or
two. There is a telephone room
with perhaps a dozen instruments
divided off by boards to give at
least a little privacy. There are
long shelves of books-good but
never goody books-and maga-
zines. There is always a talking
machine with plenty Of records.
There are chairs and benches.
What Happens
Inside of the Y. NJ. c. A. Huts.
Push through the swinging doors
and you find yourself in the audi
torium, Were perhaps six or eight
hundred can crowd in. sitting on
the wood benches, standing at the
back around the stove or on the
endless bench and plank writing
table with inkwells) that line the
walls.
We will consider the uses Of
these auditoriums in a moment.
First, please let me tell briefly
what these "huts" broadly mean.
Here is the soldiers club. Here he
can come in any free moment be-
tween reveille and taps and find a
welcome. Here he always finds a
reminder of home and of his home
obligations. His own home really
touches him every day through the
nearest Y. NJ. C. A. "hut." If a
telegram comes to him and he
seems to be lost in the vast army
machine, the Y. NJ. C. A. will find
him. Though the Y. NJ. C. A. is
essentially a religious organiza-
tion, here he can smoke to his
hearts content, play checkers or
other games, find a good novel. He
can study simple conversational
French. He can box; or, in some
huts, play billiards. Spiritual coun-
sci is always ready at his elbow,
yet, SO far as / can gather, not a
boy in the forty thousand feels
If he did he wouldn't
come. And come he certainly does!
| went about, during the evening,
from hut to hut-five or six in all.
had come without warning, to see
the machinery Of the organization
at its usual daily work. 1t was In
no sense a special occasion-a FRI
day as 1t happened. But in those
five or six huts and in the larger
main auditorium where a Kill
les" band was giving a formal con-
cert, l estimated as carefully as l
,ould that between five and seven
thousand men were accounted for,
busy, comfortable and in good
Jpirits.
In the first hut, an observer
resh from the trenches In France
an easy, crisp, very offectionate
speaker. who knew or sensed his
audience and held them-was Civ
ng a sort Of lecture. The place
vas literally jammed. In the next