The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-02-13
FRENCH WOMEN
IN 1000 TASKS
Girls Help in Mending OF $4,000
Pairs of Soldiers Boots
a Week.
90 ALL KINDS OF LABOR
Old and Young Rendering Good serv.
ice In the Mar Enthusiastically
80 Per Cent Of Waste Is
Ever Salvaeed.

q
Parls.-French women. old and
young, are nobly performing their
tasks In war Industries, thousands
working In all kinds of industries
within the sound of German guns.
They are praised for their intelli-
gence and industry, from the little
girl from the lycee to the old woman
who has come back to work because
she WANTS to see the Boche punished
for what he did TO France in 1870.
The French workers formerly had
been la~cemaksxsS aud q few of them
fisher girls. gfAAesfortner there were
a few who were the Children or grand
children of English people from the
great English lace centers at Noting
ham. who had settled In France many
years before and been absorbed into
the life of the French people.
In the salvage centers OF an ord
nance base I saw them working In the
biggest boot repair shop in the world,
where 10000 pairs of boots are re-
paired q week and here l saw old up
pers cut into disks, which in their turn
were made into boot laces. These sal
vaged boots, swept up from the debris
at the front, emerge finally In three
classes: /, those that can be used again
by men at the front. and are often
preferred to new, as they are softer In
wear. 2, those for men on the lines of
communication; and, 2, for prisoners
and colored laborers.
Only 80 Per Cent Salvaued.
While | was going round these re
pairing shops / noticed an American
officer being taken round also. and
heard his clcerone giving him infor-
nation on the importance of salvage
all Of which he was carefully noting.
There were Frenchwomen cleaning
old web and leather equipment by re-
volving brushes; French girls sorting
salvaged ammunition, the "emptles'
being sold to the French government
there were girls washing discarded
haversacks, cleaning rifles, picking
through masses of h~orseshoes TO sec
IL there was any yea left in them
there were girls sorting out old he'll
NETS and picking the few good ones
TO be washed, sandpapered and "camou
tagged All OF these things had beer
swept up from the debris OF the re
cent fighting. Yet only 30 per cent o.
waste Is ever salvaged from the fight
ing lines.
They were repairing and rivetinI
spurs; they were making woodel
sticks for Watson's signaling fans
they were sharpening blades of horse
clippers: they were repairing wheel
and cleaning the bolts and hubs Q
the wheels, and doing a thousand othe
curious routine things. Most of ther
sang at their work ribald little Frenc
songs, which occasionally changed
the defiant "Marseillalse" when the
saw a stranger near them. Industr
means happiness In France, where a
who eat must work, even the dogs.
In the textile factory there wer
girls handling over five tons a day {
old tents others were repairing thel
upstairs at the rate of hundreds
week. They cut out disks for sigma
ing. and the tabs for soldiers grea
coats; they were making up the pa
cells that go In Tommy's greatco;
pocket, buttons, thread, ETC., each on
N a great table having her share
the process.
Help In Clerical Work.
There are French girls also helplr
In the clerical section of ordnanc
working side by side with w. A.
C.'s, filing papers, though they kno
no English, by numbers. and becomiI
rySkilled and quick at a monotono'
job.
The pay is that prevailing in Il
town in which they work and arrange
With the French authorities. One
the great advantages Of employs
French women is, In addition to the
quickness and skill, the fact that thu
live close at hand, thus saving the me-
for importing English people for u
skilled work.
The French woman's labor has o.
Characteristic that is recognized
the military employer. 1t Is a liti
erratic,. Six francs. q day Is the usu
pay. and IL a w6man does not choo
to work a consecutive number of da
she stays away. and no. one says an
thing. They are also a mobile lab'
and If a group decide to move eli
where owing to air raids and 9th
causes, they depart with all th'
goods and chattels. Always they plea
themselves in purely personal matte
while remaining on the best Of teri
with their eIapleyers. OF their str
honesty I heard constant praise.
K.icar rhonrAe He Nanne.