The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1917-11-05
DARNING OLD UNIFORMS
France Finds Task of Repairs Take
5000 Observation-Disclosures Mus
Send Force.

With the French Armies Afel0,
Oct. Is, (By Mail. )-This is the stor :
of the Mother" of the French Army
the Mother" who darns the socks
washes the linen and mends the Gle
thing of the millions of ''poilus" OF
the French military family.
When America finally has a big
army on the western front, she viii
be obliged to establish a Mother
of her own to Perform precisely the
same duties as the French one. II,
with all the genius of the American
establishing more practical and 1;
more efficient Mother" than has
France, she will have performed a
Twentieth-Century miracle.
The French Mother" is located in
one of the big cities well back from
the front. Mother" is not a Single
woman, but she is a big group G.:
buildings in which nearly 5000 VIC
men are employed On a payroll tina.
averages 100000 a month. The
machinery and material on hand in
the storehouses of the "Mother''rep-
resent an investment of 100000
600 at the present time.
The task which Mother" per-
forms can hardly be grasped by the
imagination of the most devoted mo-
Their in America. The fact that the
French Mother" performs this tasl.
not for one boy alone, but for severai
millions, gives absolutely no idea O.
the task. Only faint idea can be
had of the reality, when it is known
that every French soldier has to be
fitted out completely from head to
foot On an average of every siA
weeks. Such is the wear and tear OF
clothing at the front.
When, at the end of every sly
weeks, every French soldier is com
pletely refitted with new undercloth
ing, socks, army coat, trousers anc
cap, not a single particle of the oil!
clothing which he discards is thrown
away.
1t is all collected and sent to INC,
Their" where the first step is to dis
infect and clean it before turning ii
over to the various departments t.
see how much can be mended, hoE
much can be saved, and what is the
minimum that must be thrown away
Thirty carloads of cast-off clothine
and shoes from the French Army ar
rive for Mother" every day. In thu
winter, when the 'poilus" have eXtra
articles of clothing, an average of :
cars come from the front.
Within one week after the arriYa
of each carload. absolutely every gar
ment that it is possible to mend an@
send back to the front practically
new has been taken care of. while
every ounce of material saved from,
garments and shoes that could no
be repaired has been utilized in max
ing up new garments and new shoes.
Here are a few of the things that
Mother" does. When a carload O.,
shoes that have been picked up o.,
the field of battle or cast aside b.!
the soldiers arrive, they are frs
sorted and then disinfected. If &
shoe is not worth repairing, the up
pers are cut off, wooden soles nailed
on and they become at once the mos
practical kind OF a trench shoe. o.
the few bits of sid leather that alone
remain from carload of shoes, but
tons are made for the clothing of war
prisoners.
All army coats and trousers GO
through this restoration. If it is not
possible to save the whole garment,
every piece of cloth that is still gooo
is cut out and saved. From these
millions of pieces of cloth new gar
ments are cut out and made up.
Naturally, when these garments
come back from the front their ORR