The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1918-08-09
TEXAS S. A. WOMEN
DEFY HUN SHELLS
SERVE COFFEE AND FOOD TIC
YANKEE BOYS DURING
GREAT BATTLE l
RISK LIVES WITH SOLDIERS
STICK TO Work Until Ordered to Re
tire Account Of Terrific Gas and
Shell Bombardment
BY Robert S. Doman
international News Service staff
Correspondent.

ilultIudliOHdI NGWS kOEi NlNC AOAhA
Correspondent.
Paris, June 5 (By MaiD .-Shelled
by day and by night, living in water
filled dugouts in the American first
lines, eight American women, Saliva
tion Army workers, went through the
German attack on the American for.
ces near Montdidier April go Smear.
ed from head to foot with mud
which clung in clods to their rubber
boots. the women finally staggered
back to a little village behind the
American lines on May 1.
They were the same women VINO
rode 250 miles on army trucks and
caissons from the Toul front to the
Montdidier front, which the Ameri
can troops took over at the height
of the German attack upon Amiens,
American army officers speak with
tears in their eyes of the work these
Salvation Army women have done
and are doing.
when our boys came back through
the German barrage, which played
night and day upon the roads near
Grivesnes,' said an American Off
GER they we're met by these fear
less women who served them hot
cocoa and coffee and handed out
American-made doughnuts and pies
to the lads.
"At 3 a. m. each morning in
week when the rain poured down
and soaked both troops and women,
these Salvation Army workers stuck
to their posts near the front line
trenches. They met every aIumuni-
tion train going up to the trenches
and every company Of men coming
out. They met the bandaged walk
ing wounded along the roads swept
by she'll fire and ministered to their
needs.
"They built fires i'll dugouts in the
battle zone and warmed the rain
soaked troopers; they kept their
cauldrons of cocoa constantly we'll
filed and they baked doughnuts and
pies in reliefs, day and night. No
wonder the Buddies, the Sammies,
the Yanks, the Jacks swear by the
Salvation Army from one end OF
France to the other"
For five days preceding the attack
the eight Salvation Army women
were not able to come up out of their
dugout except at brief intervals dur
ing the day. During most of the
day they slept or worked in relays.
In the early morning hours all came
up to do their work before the dawn
made them and the American troops
and truck trains visible to the enc.
my.
An American Army officer who
went through the Montdidier fight
ing recommends that these eight
women be mentioned. They are
Miss Cora Van Norden and Miss
Geneva Ladd Of New York City, the
sisters Irene and Gladys Mcintyre of
Mount Vernon, N. Y; Myrtle Turk
ington of South Manchester, Conn;
Miss Gertrude Simonds and Darmar
Williams of Chicago. and the famous
Mother (Mrs. Minnie) Bnrdick OF
Dallas. Texas, of apple pie fame.
Recently Mother" Burdick wheed-
led big batch of dough out Of the
army cooks on the Toul front and
baked several thousand doughnuts,
which we're put aboard one of the
few Salvation Army trucks. Fred
Stillwell, II years old, Of Chicago,
and Capt. Charles Marks of Bay
City, Mich, attempted to drive the
truck in daylight up to the trenches.
A boche battery Immediately got on
the truck target when the latter, in
avoiding a shell hole, went into the
ditch. Stillwell and Marks we're
obliged to take to the ditch when
sixty shells fell around the truck and
steel fragments riddled it in a hun.
dred places. From the ditch they
crawled to a communication trench,
several sacks of doughnuts
with them. Finally, they reached
the American trenches. That aft
crnoon, Col. William S. Barker. in
charge of the American Salvation
Army work in France. found that
the truck and its drivers were miss.
ing. The Germans let him reach
the truck in his fiivyer before they
opened fire. Colonel Barker narrow
iy escaped with his life when show.
er OF shells broke around his little
and the badly shattered
truck
That night. however. with quar-.
termaster truck. he succeeded in pun
ing the Salvation Army truck out
OF the ditch and got the doushnutg
now cold but as good as ever. up ia
the boys. The same night another
army truck, trying to avoid the same
shell hole, went into The ditch a.