Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-07
Nothing Too Hazardous for
the Lassies in Their Efforts
to Serve Our Soldier Lad.
dies
Coffee, Cocoa, Doughnuts and
Pies Served at All Hours
Near Trenches of the Front
Line
Paris. May 5 (by maiD

Paris, May (by maiD.
CHELLED by day and by night. living
- in water-flled dugouts in the Ameri-
can first lines, eight American women
Salvation Army workers, went through
the German attack on the American
forces near Montdider on April 80.
Smeared from head to foot with mud
which clung in clods to their rubber
boots. the women finally staggered back
to little village behind the American
lines on May 1.
They were the same women who rode
$50 miles on army trucks and caissons
from the Toul front to the Montdldier
front. which the American troops TOOK
over at the height of the German at
tack upon Amiens. American army
officers speak with tears in their eyes OF
the work these Salvation Army women
have done and are doing.
When our boys came back through
the German barrage. which played night
and day upon the roads near Grivesnes'
said an American officer. they were
met by these fearless women. who served
them hot cocoa and coffee and handed
I out American-made doughnuts and pies
to the lads
AT 3 o'clock each morning in a week
when the rain poured down and soaked
both troops and women. these Saliva
ton Army workers stuck to their posts
near the front-line trenches. They met
every ammunition train going UP to the
trenches and every company of men
coming out. They met the bandaged
! walking wounded along the roads
| swept by shell fire and ministered to
| their needs.
"They built fires in dugouts In the
| battle zone and warmed the rain-soaked
troopers; they kept their cauldrons of
| cocoa constantly we'll filled and they
baked doughnuts and pies in reliefs
| day and night. No wonder the Bud
dies. the Sammees, the Yanks the Jacks
swear by the Salvation Army from one
/ end of France to the other"
An American army officer who went
through the Montdidier fighting rec
ommends that these eight women bt
mentioned. They are MissS Cora Van
Norden and Miss Geneva Ladd. of New
York city: the sisters Irene and Gladys
| Mcintyre. of Mount Vernon. n. Y.
| Myrtle Huntington, of South Manchester
Conn; Miss Gertrude Simonds and Oar
mar Williams, of Chicago, and the
famous Mother" (Mrs. Minnie) Bur.
dick, of Dallas, Tex. of apple-pie fame,
Load Of Doughnuts shelled
Recently Mother" Burdck wheedled
big batch of dough out of the army
cooks on the Toul front and baked sew
eral thousand doughnuts which were
put aboard one of the few Salvation
Army trucks. Fred Stillwell, seven
! teen years old, of Chicago. and Captain
Charles Marks, of Bay City. Mich. at
| tempted to drive the truck in daylight
UP to the trenches. A boche battery
Immediately got on the truck targe
when the latter, in avoiding a shell hole
went into the ditch. Stillwell and
Marks were obliged to take to the ditcf
| when sixty shells fell around the trucl
and steel fragments riddled it in a
hundred places From the ditch they
crawled to a communication trench
carrying several sa cks of doughnut
with them. Finally they reached tn,
! American trenches. That afternoon
of the American salvation Army work
in France, found that the truck and IT.
| drivers were missing. The Germans
/ let him reach the truck in his five
before they opened fire. Colonel Barke
/ narrowly escaped with his life when g
shower of shells broke around his little
machine and the badly shattered truck
That night, however, with a @. NJ
truck, he succeeded in pulling the S
| A. truck out of the ditch and got tn
doughnuts, now cold, but as good as
ever. up to the boys. The same night
another army truck. trying to avoi,
the same shell hole, went into the ditch
at the same spot. When daylight cam
the German battery blew it to splinters
| Praised by an Old Regular
II wish every American who ha
stood on street corners in America ant
sneered at the work of the Salvation
| Army could see what 1t is doing
for the boys in France," said an olt
regular army officer who returned t
Paris this week.
"As a body it is taking chances
which the members of no other or.
ganization are taking. One building
it occupied had it's roof blown off
by German shell. The Salvation
Army folks draped tent canvas ovel
While they were sleeping in the eel
lars several more shells struck the
building and smashed all their equip.
ment up beyond repair. Now they are
continuing their good work in the cellar
of the same house, not 200 yards from
our front-line trenches.
"One night / was sitting in the Sal.
walton Army cellar when a shell hit
a house next door and killed three OF
our boys as they slept. The Salvation
Army women continued dishing out
hot cocoa and coffee as II nothing had
happened They are game, those
women, God bless them. They are reg.
ular women, Of the same breed as Abra'
ham Lincoln's mother and the wives
of our western pioneers.
THE boys would lynch the first mar
who uttered a foul remark in theil
presence. There is none of the conde
scending Lady Bountiful about them