The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-24

pitality we offer. Just last week a colo
 Tel of a regiment of engineers-a Vir-
 sinian and a charming gentleman-witl
 his staff remained in the hut for several
 hours and had cakes and fruit and cof-
 fec with the 300 men under them. When
 they left he said, Well, you certainly
 have 300 new boosters for Birmingham.
 We sometimes serve 5000 men a day"
 Mrs. Smith said. How have we done lall this in the few months our canteen
 has been organized3 I think the credit
 is due our commandant, Mrs. Kirkpat-
 rick. Like a true soldier looks to his
 commanding officer, we look to her, and
 with her remarkable executive ability and
 rare judgment there never was feeble
 beginning of this canteen. service; it just started off a full grown institution from
 the beginning.
 How did she do it? Military discip-
 line and absolute impartiality" Mrs.
 Smith said q must confess in the be- ginning | felt very weak in the knees when I heard of the rigid measurements
 we were required to meet but if we had not had these strict rules and regula- tions we should never have been able to do the work required of us. The head of the gulf division thought so well of Mrs. Kirkpatrick rules for uniform that they were adopted by the entire division, and a number of her other rules and ideas have been taken up by other cities. She is g, born commander and has cer- tainly proven it by results. The hearty support which has been given her by her captains and. in fact, by the entire canteen. substantiate this statement. One would go long way to find a 1 better force of workers" Mrs. Smith con- | tinued. @"There are seven captains and each has 90 workers: Sunday, Mrs. J. A. l LeVert; Monday, Miss Augusta Clark; Tuesday Mrs J. P. Ross; Wednesday, Mrs Fies; Thursday, Mrs. David Rob- | erts; Friday, Mrs A. w. Nelson; Satur- 1 day, Mrs. J. c. Whitfield
 MT. Ernest Redd is chairman of Sec | tion l. You know, there are two sections | in the canteen service; Section l, which Hooks after the United States govern ment orders and supplies meals or any thing else the commanding officers of a l troop train orders,s and which Uncle sam pays for, and Section 2, which is under the Red Cross, and all expenses incurred are paid for by the Red Cross. MT. Redd ] is in charge of Section 1, with Mrs.
 Kidd and Mrs. Anderson on his staff, who inspect the meals and see that the 1 government is getting good, wholesome food for the soldiers. He co-operates l with us- in every way, in fact, the two | sections work together just like one l family and Section 1 has been most help l full and considerate always of Section 7. | "Mr. Hugh Latimer, chairman of the ltwar relief, under whom both sections rare working as well as the motor corps,
 deserves whole story9to himself; he is never too busy, and any of us who have 1 travelled recently know something about ] how busy the railroad administration is, land this is MT. Latimer's legitimate worK, but he is never too busy to help us with
 our smallest problems and always with patience and courtesy, and he is always
 equal to the largest problems and emer- gencies. "The merchants of Birmingham, too, Mrs Smith cited, called upon as they
 are for every patriotic, philanthropic and charitable venture. seem never to weary ] of doing things for the Red Cross. In fact, Mrs. Crawford and 1 in our buying | nave found the words Red Cross an I open sesame Always our orders are given preference to others. unfailins promptness and politeness, and with only