Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1918-08-02
GLIMPSES OF "Y"
HEADQUARTERS
Letter From Miss Coolidge
MIDI II
Breezy Notes Of Interesting Work Proof
Reading for Association Press

A letter considerably out Of the ordi-
nary in description IN New YORK was
written last week for the Ludlow lrib-
Iune by Miss Christe NJ. Coolidge
| Midi N, who was IN college here IN
1907 and 1905 and who Is remembered
by a number OF friends IN town, Miss
Coolidge has a position as proof reidtT
at the "Y' headquarters and nnds IN
this as will be seen from her letter,
mine Of interest She writes as follows
/ am very glad indeed to write some
thing for The Tribune about my work
for the national war work council Of the
| Young Mems Christian Association
The achievements OF this organization
in connection with our army, both over
seas and az home, are 50 tremendously
vital and so interesting that II IS a plea
sure to talk or write about the work TO
anybody who wants to listen or reads
To begin with, 3i7 Madison IS the
headquarters OF all the American y NJ,
| {. A, work at present And in speaking
OF american Y NJ, c, a. work ! do
not limit II to "our army, for the "N"
is also doing a large amount OF work Tor
soldiers other than our own, notably the
French and Italian forces, by special
request Of the rulers OF those countries,
Nor should | limit American y NJ, {,
A, work to war work, for the regular
activities Of the "Y" continue to so on,
along with the war work.
On Madison Avenue Corner Of 18th
is the new twenty-story Equitable in
surance building, not wholly completed,
The "Y' has some twelve or more floors,
the total number Of employees being ov'
er a thousand, On the day OF Mayor
Mtchels funeral | happened TO be up
on the roof, and whom should ! see but
"Teddie Roosevelt walking along 10Th
street accompanied by an enthusiastic
crowd. | did not know then that he
was headed for our very building, but |
learned later that he has his office
Kansas City Star on our 18th floor.
1t was about last April that the "N'
having outgrown its quarters on 18th
street, moved up here. As many OF
your readers already know, the "N" is
in close cooperation with the Govern
mcnt in this war work; in fact, for my
position here, | had to fill out Govern
meut blanks, furnish photograph and
letters OF loyalty, etc, 1t IS a tremend-
Gus work which the "Y" is doing nova.
days, sending abroad not only religious
workers but physical directors, chauf-
ieurs, mechanics, women canteen work
ers, business women Of all sorts, movie
operators al sorts of men and women
that are needed And not only men and
women, but material supplies OF almost
unlimited variety
My own work at present is proof
reading, and ! really believe that have
the most interesting job Of that sort in
the country The bulk of my work CON
sists Of the news service that is The
various cablegrams and other Stories"
Of work at the front and on this side. In
| this way get line on what is coming
out in the papers several days, some
times, before the regular readers The
"Y has some corking good writers over
| there" Many a bit OF interesting in
/ formation comes my way in the course
of my daily work F'rinst, L learned the
other day how the nickname "poilu'
came about 1t seems that the word
means hairy" and has been given to
the French soldiers because they DO not
shave as much as our men do, And
come to think of it, Frenchmcn are apt
/ to have mouStaChes and boards, are
they not; Then there was the occasion
of the arrival of shipment of Amer-
can chewing gum: Some of our Allied
soldiers,I have forgotten whether they
were French or Italians got hold of
the gum and ate it down The soldiers
of other countries are certainly going to
pick up lot of new ways from the
Americans. I'm sure our instructions
will prove to be "all to the merry" +,
II. Sothern has cabled over to the "Y"
urgently ordering the immediate send
ing over of jazz band with full out
RACES of CowbellS, rattles, steamboat
whistles, cocoanut Shells and squawks."
OF course these are intended primarily
to put Jazz into the thousands of Amer
lean soldiers, but, as our news service
comments, "the English cannot escape"
There's a classy story about "Buddy's
buying blOuses for best girls" which |
particularly like, but it's dated for
release August ID, so | mustn't tell you
about it yet awhile.
SO much for my own work. | am
hoping that it will lead out into some
thing of a more active nature in con-
nection with the war work of the "Y'
and yet | would really hate to leave
this position, as | am finding it so very
interesting
| must tell you of hearing Jeff Davis,
king of the hoboes, and founder of the
Hotel de Gink." He spoke at the open
ing of our new cafeteria, on Thrift
Stamp day. His recipe for smiling |
want to pass along. He said he spent
two days thinking out what the word
smile really meant Finally he decided
that it was SMILE: Stop Making 1t
Look Empty thought that was de-
cidedly apropos, whether it was your
Thrift Stamp book you wanted to make
smile, or your own or somebody else's
facial expression 7 have had the good
luck to hear several unusually fine
speakers and entertainers lately: Gypsy
Smith, Secretary Daniels, the Polish
Countess Something or other quite-un
pronounceable, in whose home Won Hin
denburg's forces were quartered; Mr..
and Mrs. Francis Rogers, who have
been over at the front entertaining for
the "Y" THE Rosary was written for
him the French band of fifty or more
men, all of whom have been in the
trenches the R1ue Devils I wish all of