New-York tribune., 1918-11-29

thankful mortals in New York this
morning. Most of their patients, con-
! valescent heroes of Chateau Thierry,
St. Mihel and Verdun had been bor
rowed or kidnapped yesterday by
swarm of automobile owning patriots,
whose gratitude to the sufferers ex
pressed itself in d form of dinner
/ table taXdermy.
But the seedlings were only the peri
DDS at the end of perfect day. One
hundred of the wounded, for example,
had been entertained at the Elks Club
house in West Forty third Street.
Their uniforms were in the hospital
sterilizer parting from the last biting,
crawling reminder Of the trenches. So
some of the men went garbed in the
gray, fuzzy, unheroic looking pajamas
and bathrobes.
The arrangement committee at the
Elks-Exalted Ruler Frederick E. Gold
smith, Martin E. Corey, A. F. Groll,
Sam Lewis, Edward j. Shalvey, John E.
Dearden and Thomas F. Brognn-had
permission from the lodge to "go the
limit" on expense, and the burdens of
four long tables surrounding number
of small ones in the main dining room
of the club testified to the literal fash
ion in which the committee had accept
ed this grant.
From soup to nuts it was a meal
to talk about and it must have done
much to blo. out the memories Of
sleepless uights in mud holes over
yonder. Kegs of cider were gurging
constantly and smiling Elks kept
cramming .i4e pockets of "the boys"
with cigarettes and cigars.
Then came cabaret and vaudeville
show and Hugh Darcy, member of
the lodge, recited his famous poem,
"The Face on the Barroom Floor" Mr..
Darcy easily was the hit of the per-
! formance.
But Il man didn't have to be wounded
to have a grand and glorious time
yesterday. Any uniform, soldier or
sailor, American or Ally, was ticket
dances or automobile rides.
More than two hundred marines and
fifty French sailors pinched them
selves from time to time during the
day in the College Hall of the Hotel
Astor. They found themselves there
as the guests of the Lafayette Battal
ion, which, these fighters had assumed,
was some fussy organization of old
militiamen. The battalion is the war
service organization of seventy-tive of
the best-looking young women in New
York.
1t was much the same story at the
SdhI OPSl W IuC MdyOA oOlu-
mittee Of Women on National Defence.
Every man in uniform who entered the
cantcens at City Hall Park, the Public
Library, Columbus Circle, and the can
| teen for colored soldiers, at 4 West
+ 131st Street was compelled to wrap
himself around meal that may have
given him bad dreams, but certainly
/ filled him with pleasant recol,ections.
! Pretty girls served $500 meals in
these four canteens yesterday.
There was "tea party" at all the
canteens during the afternoon and an
other big dinner was served in the
evening and then the1e was a dance at
i Canteen No. 2, in 1S45 Broadway, in
which all the members of the canteen
division of the Mayors Committee of
Women participated.
Through the good Offices of the War
Camp Community Service and fifty or
more affiliated organizations many
thousands Of soldiers and sailors were
taken into New York homes. Some Of
these homes were in million dollar
mansions in Fifth Avenue, facing Cen
tral Park, but most of them were in
apartments.
AT the headquarters of the War
Camp Community Service it was esti-
mated last night that tens of thou
sands OF soldiers had been entertained
in this fashion through the aid of that
organization, and as many more men,
perhaps, had been cared for by indi-
, viduals who kidnapped them from the
streets.