The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1918-11-08
THE BLUE TRIANGLE
ON BABEL'S T0WEs

Lucia pulled hei s52Wi 1artner
across her face and shrank down on
the station platform bench as the solid
blue figure suddenly bent down e
her. Excitedly she shook her head In
answ to the question that she COULD
not understand. She searched through
nor red plaid waist for the paper that
Tony had folded into q little square
and given to her. The writing on it.
In the English that Tony knew and she
did not. told the house where she lived.
Tony had explained II all to her that
morning. He had told 1t to her again
AZ the station. Then, waving his hat
he had disappeared into the train VIII
the rest of the men. and Lucia q
been left standing oueside the gate
There were crowds of women pushing
all about her. They were weeping.
So Lucia wept, too.
Lucia had been betrothed to Tony
i'm the old country. Five years before,
with q long ticket for New York
pinned into his inside pocket, her lover
had left her. He wrote in every let
ter that he had made her q home In
the new country. Her dowry money
had finally provided her transp0r-
fation. and for two months Tony and
she had beer married. Then he had
drawn q ticket with a number on II,
and this morning he had gone OFF to
war.
To the policeman Lucia told ell these
things In rapid Italian. But the po-
liceman only talked back TO her as
rapidly In a language that was not
italian. She followed him dumbly to
Headquarters. An hour later a WOm-
an wearing American clothes gently
began talking to her in beautiful ltal'
ian.
Italian Lucia was only of thou
sands of fOreign-bOrn women. Syrians,
Italians, Armenians, Russians. L1thu-
anians. Polish, who, when the draft
called their men folk TO the American
colOrs. asked in helpless confusion
what it was all about. When would
their men be back? What did people
mean when they told them they would
receive money through the mail!
Where could they find work that they
knew how to do? Was there no one
who could explain 1t all to them In
their own language?
The Y. w. c.. A. was ready to offer
assistance, but 1t would be of no value
TO offer it in English. Consequently
a. b,5 70 cuDplv a cOrDS Of women who
could talk to the f~oreign-born woman
at her own door in the language that
she was used to hearing I'm the home
land. To teach her English was az
essential a factor in her AmerfcaniZa
ton as to find her a job. Therefore
the war council of the Y. w. =. A. Sc
out to find her. English.
A year before the war began In Eu
rope. the leaders of the Young WON
ans Christian association fOresaw JUS
such q situation, and made ready Il
meet it. They studied the needs o
the immigrant. They trained skillet
American social workers TO become ia
miliar with the home habits and Z
speak the language of the Lett and tn
Hungarian and the Greek and the oth
er foreign mothers who brought ba
bies and bundles Over from Ellis islam,
to Battery park.
The organization into which this eH
pertinent has developed was name
by the Y. W. c. A. national board, 9Th
international Institute for Youn
, Women" In terms which these won
en- ear understand, 1t Is teaching tn
f~oreign-born how to sew and cook an
care for the baby.
To girls like italian Lucia, who COZ
fusedly fingered on the station pla
forms when the draft trains pulled on
n the w. Y. G.. A. Is giving direct q
V sistance. Educated European wome'
e. appointed to the regular staff of worI
ers Mt the camp Y. w. @. A. Hoste'
= Houses are able to talk to the draftt
men in their own language, assist the
in writing letters home. and In a
ranging furloughs and little visits
, the camp.
:, 1.-THE Home Information Service Z
Foreign Families of Enlisted Men
q doing practical relief work for Il
n wives and mothers. The purpose
the board is to help the women 70
r left behind TO understand where the
A. boys are and how they are being tres
~ ed: how they need home support al
cheer. how to send them comforts, a
TO keep pace themselves by learni
Ii English and other things, so that wh
de- the BOYS come home they will not ID
a. their women still very un-Amerlc
ID and out of sympathy with them.
~ Food conservation bulletins ma
q. been translated into IS or ~ languag
IL At the factories and munition plaI
IA interpreters are available for the ~
~, English speaking women by whom
real war industries of the country
All being largely carried on. In 20
e portant cities international Insult
Bureaus are training American q
foreign women for full time SOC
service work with foreigners. Iwen
four trained women are employed
the national and district field stan
the Y. w. c. A. On June ID there W
1O5 trained women working at Am
c%aniZation.
When more than 10000 Chicago n
filled out their blue cards for the ;
TENDER u draft, Gang Luo Wong
ffn VI