The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-04-24

France she is just one of the women
ION the job.
THAT day we were visiting a
small camp several miles out OF
town. somewhere in the northeast OF
France" said Nh Gilman. 1T was
in November. day of ram and
numbing cold. As We approached.
We saw the boys in khaki tramping
about in the mud, in the bleak coun-
tryside.
The Young stems Christian Also
citation hut there was III an ADRIAN
barracks 1t was built OF INN
boards. and there were only Two
charcoal braziers to keep it warm,
which might as we'll have been burn
ing in the Grand Central Station. so
incapable were they OF heating the
biz place properly. There was no
light except for a few candles.
AT one end OF the hut we saw
woman in the " uniform. Over
this she had a sweater, and there
were heavy goloshes on her feet, but
il was plain that she was cold. Now
and then she would stamp her feet
to warm them, but she kept right on
at work as she did it.
"One of the men with me recog-
nized her as Mrs. Bessie Swift Fer
maid, of Chicago. We learned that
she walked a mile twice each day
through the mud in order to get
from the village to the canteen, and
back again. She was quartered IN a
bare room in a peasants hut, and
lacked the simplest comforts OF life,
such as a fire and hot water. But she
wasn't complaining about that. She
had been loaned by the Red Cross to
the Young Mems Christian Associa-
ton, and her only regrets about the
bare little village and the chilly can
teen were that she would have to
leave them so soon.
II wish you would ask them to
let me stay she said. l don't want
to leave the work here. l love it
"At home Mrs. Fernald lives in
the lap of luxury. Here she worked
as hard as if she had been accustom-
ed to hard labor all her life. And |
venture to say that nothing had ev-
er given her greater satisfaction
than the service she was doing in
that French canteen, hard and I'M
comfortable though her life was
there"
1t was Mrs. Thomas Ely, OF rs
West SSth Street, New York, who
won a reputation as one of the best
kalsominerS in France.
I'VE were invited to the opening
of new hut" said Mr.. Gilman. 1T
was a huge place, with one of the
in
freshly kalsomined, and hung with
chintZeS. There was an auditorium,
and a diningroom and writing
room for enlisted men.
"A nice hut" we said to one of
the soldiers.
"A week ago it was the dirtiest
place in the village he assured US.
1t used to be an old barn, you know.
The ~" bought it on Tuesday. Mrs.
Ely took off her coat and went right
to work, and as far as we could see
she did most of the work herself.
You can imagine how she must have
pitched in to have it all done by Sat
urday.' Later, Mrs. Ely, at her own
suggestion, kalsomined the hut
where DR.. James Freeman, of Pasa
dena, Cal, was stationed.
In Bordeaux, American women
made over an CID German wine shop
into a real home for the soldiers, for
the Y. NJ. C. A.
"One of the best women workers
We met in the canteens in France
was the mother of twelve children,
two of whom are now in Flanders
fighting. Waiting on 400 soldiers a
day was a real vacation she said.
The influence of the women in
the camps and canteens can not be
overrated The boys feel that it is
an honor to have a woman there and
respond to it. Very likely they hav-
emit seen an American woman since
they a ne to Fra &c ef L q the op-
portunity to hear one speak their
own tongue. They make excuses to
stand around, Just to listen to her.
They show her snapshots of their
sweethearts back home, and ask her
advice about presents for their mo-
theirs.
There are women who don't make
successes of it, of course. We saw
one of them, a girl who had come
from New York, in a canteen a little
way from Paris. She had probably
would be all thrills and glamour. She
found that it meant long days of
prosaic hard work, uncomfortable
quarters. no sentiment of the kind
that she had supposed, no thrills at
all, just endless, unselfish service.
She didn't last long at it, and no wo
man who goes over looking for CLAM
our can last at the work.
But the other type of American
woman who has gone to France to
do whatever she can in just the way
that it will be of most help, the
good, sensible American woman who
takes her own standards into the
camps with her, who has no thought
of herself, who wants nothing more
than to be of aid in any way that Of
fers-her service in France cannot
be overrated."
Proof of the ability of the U. S.
A. to cope with new conditions is
found in the fact that whereas few
months ago hardly any barley flour
was milled, now more than 10000
barrels are turned out daily. Mary
land is one of the twenty-four States
now manufacturing barley flour.