The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-03-05
Twenty-nine at Martha
Washington Wear Hat
Cords of Signal Corps
WILL WORK NEAR
THE BATTLE FRONT
First Contingent Assembled for Operat-
ing the Military Telephone Exchanges
Ability to Speak French One of
the Requirements.

NEW YORK, March o The head
telephone operator at the Hotel Martha
Washington placed her wad of gum
carefully on the under side of her chair
and leaned over to address the bellgirl
who stood waiting to carry up the
luggage of trim young woman in ma
w blue with a white brassard on her
left arm. Other trim girls in blue
with brassards were there, to the mum
Der of twenty-nine, and on them the
Martha Washington operator cast an
cnvious eye.
Don't this just show you, she NUT
tered in tense tones to the bellgirl,
"what a mistake it is to throw away
the opportunities of your youth! Those
are the girls, ain I they, that are on
i their way to be telephone operators for
( Cen Pershing 5 army right behind the
lines in France And 70 think that II
+ ! had studied French i'll school as my
mother begged and pleaded with me
to do (yes, madam, I'll tell the Office
Il a foot warmer You want? II have
them send one right up if they We got
zach thing)-to think, Bessie, that II
I'll only studied French | might he 90
inc to France this minute instead of
sitting here getting numbers and glass
as Of milk and stationery and things
for the guests of a New York hotel
where nothing ever happens and
there s no chance of an air raid OF
anything exciting"
i Then She retrieved her gum with 4
sad head shake, and she and the desk
clerks and the bcllgirls and the elderly
patrons sitting around the lobby fol
lowed with wistful eyes the little army
Of blue clad ones as they trooped t
the elevators, bringing with them int
that deeorous place n Whit of true TO
nance For they were enlisted soldier
in Uncle Sam = service, those girls Will
brassardS, even though it is the buz
of the telephone that calls them TO at
tention, and they deal with plugs ant
wires, not guns.
Twenty 1iinc strong the unit sails 70
France in few davs-twentv-n min
girls recruited from all parts of tn
United States and some from Canad
-twcutv-ninc girls who are bravin
submarines and Gothas because PerSl
| ing aud our boys lover there - nee
| trusty telephone operators who ca
| speak English and French TO TRANSMIT
| army orders and messages over TIA
/ wires.
/ And what girl wouldn't brave an
i amount of danger for the privilege c
II being right in the heart of the bigges
II and most dramatic. il the most terribl
II thing that has happened since the worl
II began? The Martha Washington tel,
II phone girl ism t the only one who is r.
II GREETING today that she didn't lear
II French when she had the chanc
II There 5 one crack telephone girl in
II well, never mind where, but she
h crashing her teeth with rage becau'
II She spent years mastering German {
J account of Goethe and Deutseh Kultl
- generally, and the other day she wi
:, offered the chance to 90 to France h
cause she's such good telephone gi
and she can Z because She doesn't kno
| French.
| However, most of sthc twenty nj
who are going in this unit attached
the United States signal corps didr
merely study French in school-sor
of them arc born of French parents a
chattcd in that language when tn
were babes Some of them have ira
cled abroad and have lived i'll Par
and a good sprinkling of them col
from parts of Canada where one he;
as much French as English.
There is Jean Cunningham of We
mount, Quebec-she's one of the sup
yisoIs 10 whom Pershing and his a
will request in stern tones to be refer
if ever hello girls fails in her du
And there is Supervisor Renee Mosse
of San Francisco: her father v
French, and She has spent part of
life in Paris, so if Gen. Petain or
president OF the French republic sho
- drop into an American army post q
. ask Renee for q number he will thi