The Ordway new era., 1918-08-23
Miss Strever Writes

Washington. d. c.. Aug. IL, 1918
Dear Friends:
/ receive the New Era each week
and read with pleasure the messages
from THE Boys Here and There"
and accounts of the splendid work
done for the Red Cross and thot you
might be interested in a few items
from headquarters, tho l assure you
there is nothing thrilling about our
work here.
AS you have perhaps heard, Wash
ington is crowded nearly to the limit
but new government employees ar
rive almost by the hundreds and at
times leave almost at the same rate.
This is a quiet. old-fashioned city,
(or was before the war; and the old
residents are rather resentful at the
thousands who have been thrust into
their peaceful lives. Many are seiz-
ing the opportunity to make the most
possible out of conditions and these
"grafters" are responsible for many
patriotic war workers staying here
at real sacrifice. They. are also
responsible to a great extent for the
hundreds who are returning home,
at times leaving the government work
greatly handicapped, short of help,
and time wasted continually breaking
in new workers.
In regard to the weather here l
haven't much to say. / have read
articles from outside on the terrible
conditions caused by the heat here
this summer, but aside from one hot
week in June the weather. until to-
wards the last of July, has been un-
usually cool for this part of the coun-
try; so cool, in fact, that the farmers
were afraid for their crops. | think
the last two weeks, however, have
made up for the rest of the time
and some days the mercury has been
flirting around 10 indoors. This
also is unusual, for the papers state
it is the hottest spell Washington
has had in Al years. You folks
breathe deep of Colorado air aud be
thankful.
There is always pleasant side to
everything, so 1t is here. For some
time Uncle Sam has had to keep his
workers wherever he could get avail
able space, but now nearly all are
as comfortably located as possible.
Several large Office buildings, each
accomm odating about 5000 or more,
Tiny rough estimate) have been erect
ed temporarily in the beautiful Capt.
tol park. They are well ventilated
and fitted with the best lighting and
safety devices in case of fire, wn:ie
dozens OF electric 1anS make IL as
pleasant as possible.
Efforts of the War Camp Com
munity Service can be seen here as
well as the Army camps. 1t has a
military camp for girls out in the
country at the district line where
girls can spend the summer, riding
in to work each day. Miss Suzanna
Cocroft is overseeing drills for the
girls and women of different branch
es of the war department. These
drills are held on the Ellipse twice q
week. and are conducted by army
officers who certainly make them
''toe the mark" Open air entertain
ments are given at Washington Mon
ument three evenings a week, and
consist of band concerts. community
singing and motion pictures. One of
the pictures / saw short time ago
was the snow plow at work on Pixies
Peak. 1t looked real cool.
Aside from the efforts being made
to make it pleasant for us there are
always points of interest and beauty
to see around here, and one can al
ways have good time-if you make
1t point to get there before the
crowd starts-and 1t is some crowd.
too. Beats the Crowley day crowd
all hollow.
/ have seen a few people / know
and have met several others from
Colorado, and of course we always
have to tell most people what they
have missed If they have never been
there.
FRANCES STREvER.