Evening journal., 1918-11-07

4, Wudt tnelr real lives are IN tlo war
! spent great deal OF time with them
In the trenches. at the camps. ! talked
TO them singly. talked to them In
groups, ate with them and slept with
them, with the officers and with the
enlisted men. devoting most OF my time
to the privates. corporals and ser
geants. ] wanted them to feel and
think they did feel, not that was
an Official. not that had any duty to
perform, but that was Just a friend
from home, wanting TO do adj / could
for their interests. brought back with
me a notebook a quarter OF an inch
thick, on each page OF which was a
message and In some Instances two,
which were TO be telephoned, written or
sent to a friend and In nearly every
case l telephoned TO these people per-
s0nally and am glad TO say the tele-
phone messages were all well worth the
trouble taken TO deliver them. Some
were TO mothers, some were TO sisters
and some were to the sweetest little
girl IN the world
ARRIVING at Bordeaux and driving
around that country In an automobile
and watching from railroad trains, one
is at once impressed with the magni-
tude OF our operations. We have 4O,-
900 men at and near Bordeaux. No one
can paint the whole picture, neither can
one describe the whole picture. IL must
be seen 20 be reallzed--iiko the Grand
Canyon Of the Colorado river in Arl-
z0na, it Is Too big 10 paint, too enormous
TO describe. They don't make the can
vas. big enough and the canyon was
undiscovered at the time language was
created and this may be the reason that
they have no words TO describe it. The
operations over there are in a measure
parallel. They are too big TO write
about, too big TO picture, and must be
seen TO be realized. At both Brest and
Bordeaux the Americans are building
miles and miles OF warehouses, rail-
road tracks and switches and even
within 80 miles OF the German border,
they have at one point over 200 miles
OF railroad and over s35, 100000 worth
OF stores. They have camps OF various
kinds dotted all over France-recrea-
tion. rest. cOnvalescent and training
camp schools in addition 10 the regu-
lar army camps. The hospitals. both
army and Red Cross, are everywhere
and are doing everythlas within Hii--'
man possibility TO help the injypSd and
sick soldiers.
while not wanting 10 bother you
with a lot OF flgurE' I think a few
figures and one 9Tlwc letters would
not be out OF (ITiace he-e. The Y. NJ.
.. A. has moEe than 1900 huts open In
France 1872 serving the A. r. f. The
largest Huts take care OF 5000 soldiers
witboTit taxing their capacity or with
oH taxing the capacity OF the energies
O. the secretaries who run them. Ihis
hut construction department now has
two OF the largest factories In France
working exclusively for Il and eight
big contractors giving their whole time
TO the Red Triangle. In August, TO
supply the huts and contact points, the
canteen department ordered i5,OOOOOO
bars OF chocolate. s.0O0,0O0 packages OF
biscuits, 2.50O,0OO packages Of gum, H.
100000 cans OF smoking tobacco and
100000 900 cigarets. They supply writ
ing paper free in tremendous quant-
ties. For the fve months-November.
December, January, February and
March, the requirements were t52OOO,-
600 sheets OF paper and iii,00O,0O0 en-
yelopes and the estimated expenditure
FOR writing paper for next year Is So 4,
lO00Qc.
"The canteens handle 2i different |
,rands Of soap and IN three months they /
handled 100000 ars. Thls goes TO
how how clean our soldiers are.
"The entertainment departm en- I,
Which. by the way, Is one OF the best
OF the ~ is very much ap-
,reciated by the soldiers and for which
he professional actors and actresses
ihould be given the greatest thanks.
They gave in July 1903 night perform
lnces.
in questioning over one hundred sol
Hers who have been In ana were COM
ng out OF the trenches, a. TO the first
hing they want, the following order
was established: First, they want /
writing paper; second. cigarets; third, |
"The moving picture department I'M |
ported from April 10 tho middle OF Sep |
tember. 2,3i0OOO feet OF film which has
been supplemented by many feet OF
French Aim. During the month OF Au-
gust, they averaged over nine hundred
shows a week, serving something Ike
eOO,OOO men.
I'm the athletic department in the
month OF July. there were 6,00O base
ball games, 1000 basketball games, TO-
600 yolley ball games. 800 track meets
and 400 boxing bouts. There were
$50 football games In spite OF the warm
weather. Up until August 4, this de
partment had distributed over 250OO
baseballs, 1900 vollcy balls. 500 basket
balls. 5000 footballs and 1900 sets OF
b0xingigloves. Baseballs and bats could
not oe exported in sufficient numbers
from the States and orders were placed
IN France. The supply Of bats bear
Ing Inc Red Triangle totals about To-
600. about the same number OF flelders
mHs and 25.0O0 catchers gloves have
been given out.
"A few more figures: During the
OF July, the soldiers sent to their
homes through the ~ something over
81 100000 and are now sending home
,bout s5OO.OO0 every week.
Through the educational department
here are 5000 Americans being taught
md the soldiers at Foyer de Souldat
ire taking advantage OF this opporiun-
ty 10 learn the American language
20 far this year. there have been about
, he DARKENED Her