Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-12-19
AMERICAN WOMEN
BIG AID TO YANKS
Cooked for Them, Danced
With Them; Did Servants
j.. Work, Says Mrs. Astor.
DETAILS WORK IN FRANCE

1 BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, December 19.-How
American women in France helped to
tighten cares of American soldiers
feeding them sweets, cooking for them,
dishes and scrubbing floors, was told to-
day by Mrs. Vincent Astor. After eigh-
teen months service in canteen and well
fare work while her husband was
serving with the overseas naval
forces, Mrs Aston has just returned
from Bordeaux, where she was in
charge of a division of Y. NJ. c. A.
women. One of her fellow workers
was Mrs Henry Russell. formerly
Ethel Borden Hartman, who was
married in France.
american women have filled such
an enormous place in the war that it
would be difficult to imagine now
what would have been done without
their help" she said. The thousands
of women who got to the other side
gave themselves up completely to
working for the soldiers, both the
sick and the we'll, and they never
spared themselves in any way. They
worked all the day and often danced
long hours in the evening, sometimes
with hundred partners.
Performed Servants Work.
IN the cdntOnment at bordeaux,
where l was stationed. there were
eight American women and we never
asked the French maids to do any
thing that we wouldn't do ourselves;
and not only did We do all this man.
ual work at first. but later when it
was necessary, we would take a hand
at broom or at frying eggs or
washing dishes. One time Mrs. Rus
sell and / unloaded and stored
truckload of sugar into the basement
h..rE .E.l,@ h.
most complete gratitude and courtesy
10 every American woman that made
1T intensely pleasant to be doing
things for them. Every few nights we
gave a dance. We would send out a
call for American women and all those
who volunteered were brought in by
Army machines. There were usually
about twenty and they would have to
divide their time between several hun
dred men. Once we had eight women
and 1000 sailors.
Partners Changed Often.
ITO even things up 1 borrowed a
'bos'n's' whistle and gave a signal
every two minutes to change part
ners. The result was that every couple
would have possibly twenty men fol-
lowing after them waiting for the
next dance. No distinction was made
between officers and men at such
dances, but at the ones given out at
the camps part of the evening was de-
voted to the officers and part to the
men.
In the cafeteria we began by serv-
ing about fifty men day and soon it
was thousands. They all wanted eggs
and doughnutS and ice cream. We had
one person frying eggs all the time
and one making ice cream.
We had a canteen, which means
strictly a tobacco and candy store
where the men bought at cost. and
three nights a week we gave pictures
and entertainmen There would
often be as many as five or six thou
sand men trying to get into the en-
tertainment hall.
Ministered to Wounded.
when the conveys of wounded
first commenced arriving at Bordeaux
the StretcherS bearing the wounded
men would be put out on the station
platform and we would go among
. rettes. Later this work was taken
over by the Red Cross.
Mrs. Henry Russell and I were
near St Mihiel when the Americans
made their drive last September. and
we appealed SO hard that they sent
us up to the front for emergency
work. We went past the captured
German lines up to within two miles
of the actual fighting and helped dis
tribute candy and cigarettes to the
9TH and 9Th Marines when they were
relieved. They came out of the bat
tie laughing and happy and with no
more looks of wear and tear than if
they had been in foot ball game"