The Catholic bulletin., 1918-02-16
K. OF C. CHAPLAINS IN FRANCE

One need not be a Knight of Colum-
bus. Wearing a United States uni
form entities you to all privileges
1 obtained liberty for the boys who
wished to attend midnight Mass, the
authorities being perfectly kind and
obliging in this matter.
The flowers, flags and literature
have arrived and l am exceedingly
grateful to you for your kind and
prompt work. The grafonola is won
der and is going to be the. chief at
traction of our first days. | will be at
the hall daily-afternoon and even
1ng-and will do all / can to make
the work success. 1t may be that |
will have in operation the first hut
of the knights of Columbus en-
deavors.'
In a second letter, written Decem-
Der 2S, Father Van Gothen speaks of
the opening of his building and of the
enthusiasm of the soldiers. THE
games are on the tables" "-he writes,
together with reading and writing
matter. We are now preparing an
old-fashioned American smoker and
negro, minstrel show, to be given at
the hut Friday, January 4, which will
no doubt be a grand success. The
authorities kindly give us their best
support and assistance with auto
trucks for bringing the boys from the
farthest camps.
we are handicapped somewhat by
the raw weather, but | am daily at
my post in the knights of Columbus
hut afternoons and evenings What
will give you fair idea of the Knights
OF Columbus work in my case, and
that the boys are interested, is the
fact that at (deleted by censor) and at
(deleted by censor) | sat nine and q
half hours in the confessional on
Christmas eve and Christmas morn
ing. Our boys have edited both par
ishes."
Club House Rented.
\ report has also been received
concerning the work of the Rev. JOS
eph NJ. Blais, formerly of Bedford
n. Y. A representative of the knights
OF Columbus Committee on War Activ-
tiles writes from the Paris office: Il
went to see Father Blais bright and
early the day after Christmas :" I"
and We had a two hours talk, and
next morning we went to the house
which he has rented.
1T fronts on the river and the sun
pours in the front windows. There
are four bedrooms on the ground floor
of fairly good size four bedrooms on
the second floor, one of which is to
be occupied by the French Liason Of
fcer-Which is a most diplomatic
move on Father Blais' part, and a
great adyantage-and very good at
tic where the boys can have wrestling,
boxing and medicine ball during bad
weather. Back Of the house there is
a large stone terrace and a beautiful
garden where they can have all sorts
OF games during the summer
There is no such thing in (deleted
by censor) as the chance for either
officers or men to take bath. Out
at the camp even drinking water is
scarce, SO Father Blais has fine idea
of two shower baths in the corner of
the garden which is sheltered by
shrubs and trees.
There is work enough for ten
men. Of course, it is difficult for Fa-
thor Blais to divide up his time so
that he covers the religious grounds
he should and still keep the club open
evenings and on Saturdays and Sun
days. Christmas eve he heard confes-
sions for four hours and had three
Masses Christmas morning. Christ
mas afternoon he heard confessions
for five hours out on one of the trans
port ships which had not been I'M
loaded and went out there early the
next morning to celebrate Mass"
Thus it will be seen that the great
work abroad has begun. The Catho-
lies of this country have reason TO be
proud of the results, and, this work
will be continued on scale which
promises to eclipse that upon which
the welfare work in the American
camps has rested.