The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-20
Business secretary

Business secretary Y. w. c. A. h
 Life in a quarantined army camp is different from life anywhere else. It is one of the unique experiences of the present day. To the surprise of almost all of us, the order came one afternoon that the entire camp was under quar- antine. We are quite accustomed to hav- ing one or another part of it quaran- tined, but with the epidemic of influenza the order came that all soldiers, through out the entire camp, were quarantined and that they should not assemble at the Y. M c. A., the Liberty theater, the Knights of Columbus hall, the hos tess house or any place of meeting. Of course the part that affected us was the exclusion of soldiers from the hostess house, and in few hours after the first rumors of the quarantine reached us. we received the official memorandum from camp headquarters, and had to an- nounce to those in the house that it was closed to soldiers. The few visitors who were still here remained for the evening train, and with their departure the whole house became deserted and quiet. It was the most striking of contrasts, after the many days and evenings when every chair was filled, every seat at the writ
 
 with telephone calls, cafeteria service, information calls, and assistance of every sort.
 With deserted house we have turned our attention to getting into better order in anticipation of the time when the men and their visitors can come again, and have cleaned and planned and re- arranged small matters that needed ad- justment, have washed the shades of the electric lights and the wings of the elec- tric ceiling fans, and when the boys come in again they will find fresh- ened house, with the writing desks sup piled with freshly filled ink bottles and supplied with the new paper, of which our first shipment has come-the hos tess house paper bearing the recently adopted blue triangle-the insignia grant ed the American Young Woman's Chris tian association. through the courtesy | of the American Y. M c. A., and the British Y. w. c. A
 | Saturday evening. just after the 9 o'clock bugle call for lights out. shouts began to go up, one after another, and | in volume. The first thought was that lthe quarantine had been lifted, then two riders were seen coming up South lavenue, the main street in camp, run l ming in front of our house, and some one was saying "unconditional sur render" then it was given out as "a peace offer from the German chancel- llor, speaking for the German people. The shouts were continuing. and it was sometime before the usual dead silence of camp evenings was restored Taps. blown at Il, though, ended the last of the demonstrations, and no doubt everyone in calmp went to sleep wonder ing just what the real news was. It was after s next morning when the freight agent from the Missouri Pacific came over With copy of the Little Rock morning papersand we read the news there.
 Another evening we were called to go to the porch and listen to the music. MT. Hart, camp director of dramatics, had been equal to the emergency when no formal entertainment at the Y. M. lC. As or other places was possible, and had assembled some of the men who play stringed instruments and sing, and had secured three trucks for them to go around camp in. and entertain the men. The trucks were marked