The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1918-02-28
TO AID THEIR men
British Women Disregard Former
High Social Positions.
Place Doing Such Work as Will
Help the Cause.

SPY Jove, 1 never felt more like an
ass in my life, old chap" 1t was an
old British colonel speaking. He had
Just returned from a government mis-
sion to the colonies, and seated before
a great open fire of his London club,
he was relating to a crony some Of
his experiences while away. at was
while l was in Sidney. Knew a chap
out there and thought I'd drop in on
him. Walked up to the house and
rang the bell. Deucedly pretty maid
answered, and, by Jove, so strong was
the force of habit, don't you know, l
I'D and kissed her before 1 realized
she was my own niece"
And don't think for a minute that
the old colonel's experience was
unique, except in a few minor details.
Others may not have developed. such
osculatory habits, but many an officer
has come back from the front and
found his women folk working as do
mestics in London. The pretty young
woman one sees polishing the wood
work of the hospital waiting room or
busily busting the furniture of the
club parlor may be a duchess or coun-
tess or the daughter of millionaire
vine merchant. There's no telling
these days, and the English public is
so accustomed to being waited upon
by its gentlewomen that it has come
to accept it as matter of course.
Not so with the Sammy. though,
says an exchange. He'd be the first to
resent the charge of being undemocrat-
ic, but still the thought of being
served by one of the 400" is almost
too much for him. He was a pretty
fresh young man when he first hit
England. He had a reputation for
breeziness to uphold, and by the spike
of Heinies hat, he was going to live
up to 1t. But when he learned that
the young woman servant was the
daughter of one of the peers of the
realm he wilted.
For one may find the English gen.
tlewoman any place and doing any
kind of mental labor. She isn't the
petted and pampered dollhouse product
popular novelists would have you be-
lieve her once to have been. Instead,
she's mighty sensible, Industrious,
patriotic person. Her brothers and
sweethearts are "out there" doing
their bit and she is carrying on" back
home. It's no longer a novel sight to
see her manipulating the intricate ma
chinery of the munitions plant or
skillfully guiding a taxi through the
fog shrouded streets of London. In a
white uniform she wears the red cross
In the hospitals of France and her ma
tive island. And now she is plying
the dust cloth and the mop, washing
dishes, answering doors and doing the
thousand and one other things that
have to be done.
Nothing is too mental for her to at
tempt if it adds to the comfort of the
men who have given their all for Bri-
tannia. There's Lady Evelyn King,
eldest daughter of the earl and count
ess of Lovelace, who is a housemaid
at a Weymouth hospital. She was a
debutante just a few years ago and
at the time she was presented TO King
George she was expected TO become {
one of the leaders of London society. '
She is tall, with dark brown hair and '
eyes of the same hue and is consid- 6
cred one of the most beautiful women g
n London. When war was declared '
she was rapidly fulfilling the predic-
ions made for her popularity at TIE
ime of her coming out. But now she t
S a servant in one of the many hos c
litals in England. t