The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1917-08-27
AM, RED CROSS
CANTEENS AND
REST STATIONS

Washington, Aug. 25, 1917.-Can-
teens and rest stations for the French
and American troops will be estab-
lished at once in France by the Amer
lean Red Cross.
The war council has been trying to
find out just what the Red Cross could
do most effectively to hearten the
French army and to give to French
soldiers token of the fact that Am
erica is with her ally with all her pow
er. The French army officers have
told the Red Cross that canteens and
rest stations would do more for the
immediate welfare and contentment of
the soldiers than anything else that
could be done. Therefore, the prob
lem is going to be met thoroughly and
at once.
The poilus come out of the trenches,
to go home on leave, mud-stained, YER
min-covered, reeking with infection.
They are marched to the nearest rail-
road in that condition, where, perhaps,
they find little station with scanty
accommodations for a dozen passen-
gers.
The Red Cross is going to put show
Her baths there, and laundries and
|mending and disinfecting rooms,
which will remove the menace of dirt
and disease which these men carry to
their homes. Then there will be rest
rooms where they can read and write
and play games, to make the transit
ton to civilian life easier, and small
stores where they can buy timed deli
cacies, tobacco and odds and ends.
Similar canteens will be opened at
the railroad functions where the men
must wait en- route. At some of them
now these men, still trench-stained,
have to lie on station platforms all
night. There will be dormitories at
such places, and lunch-rooms at all of
them where hot meals can be bought
at price just above cost.
Nearly fifty thousand soldiers are
passing through eleven of these sta
tons every day. They will have g
convincing proof of American friendli-
ness when they find American women
the Women's bureau is now recruit
ing fifty of them for such service,
ready to help them.
Just behind the firing line the Red
Cross will put field eanteens. Extend
ing the work already begun by the
French Red Cross, we shall see that
every corps of the French army, and
ultimately our own, has one of these
stations, which will supply hot and
cold drinks to the men who are fight
ing. Many of them now have nothing
to relieve their thirst except their
days ration which they carry in con-
tanners which may be smashed at any
minute.
The canteen is placed in or near the
second line, and refreshing drinks are
carried right into the front trenches.
Each station can keep about 125 gall
Ions of hot drinks at the boiling point,
and has several thermos containers
holding six to twelve gallons apiece.
Four thousand portions-coffee, tea,
cocoa, bouillon, lemonade, mint-are
sometimes served from one canteen in
single day.
Here, too, American workers will be
found. The "convoyer" in charge of
the canteen will be a Red Cross man,
with French soldiers to help him.
Many of the poilus will get their first
glimpse of the American uniform in
this way. Just the cup of coffee, or
the cold drink, may make all the diff
ference between sagging morale and
spirited fighting.
To carry out these plans the war
council has appropriated about $780,
600, which will serve to establish the
.canteens and maintain them for about
three months. Much Of the original
equipment will be supplied by the
French army.