The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-02-18
REFORNIER. MONDAY
cANTEEN WORK IN FRANCE.
Has Varied Aspects Demanding Quail
ties of Endurance and Understanding.

the SblUlcIS as near the ming INT dS
possible-evcn to the point where the
coffee pots have been punctured by the
bursting shells says the Troy Times. A
few American women have been sent
over TO France by the association tc
help in these canteens. Their work
is always hard-onP of them has writ
ten of carrying on for SO hours at
a time. The quarters in which they
work are often far from comfortable
Such trying task as breaking of his
mother s death to a soldier-bov is
turned over to them without question.
In the following story Miss W. E. HUI
burt, after q chat with one of these
women canteen workers, tells what she
considers woman s share Of wartime.
Good health, a social sense and
spiritual insight, the canteen worker
said, looking at me with blue eyes that
were the epitome of the three There
you have the qualifications of your can
teen woman She must not be too
young to possess discretion, nor too old
to have lost the sparkle Of spontaneity
and she must be enough of mother
at heart to grasp the individual needs
of the individual lad, to stimulate his
ideals. to give him in the sympathy and
comradeship that will send him back
to his home the same boy that he was
when he left it.
To send him back, after the guns
arc silenced, and the town villages in
| northern France are quiet once more,
when uniforms have disappeared, and
| the solemn council of nations has been
recorded--that is one part of the out
look of women in war work today.
! Women have their share in war
! time. Did the mother of the six stair
! step little tow-heads We saw among
/ the refugees at the Care du Nord the
other day have an easier Job than her
| husband in tho trencheso Or the tor
tured old woman in an asylum for the
| aged at Amiens, blinded by gas bombs
that were dropped by the enemy
throughout the city? When the music
and the decoration have marched from
the home town, when the newspapers
begin publishing the Rolls of Honor,
when prices rise and work is scarce TO
| ind and hard to do, when the three.
! year-old reaches his teens and his right
/ 10 good education-that is where a
woman begins 10 find her share of war
| time. Is the neverending drag of
hardships lighter to bear than a month,
a year, even five years in the front
lines?
And yet men say, You women
| don I know what war really means, be.
cause you are protected from its hor
rors,'
so some OF US are entering into
eanteen work with the determination
to experience as far as possible the
mud, the cold, the bombs, the thou
sand and one other emergencies an(
heartaches that make up the life OF
our men over here. When we have
shared with them whatever shall ar
rive we shall be better able to hel,
them plan the future.
THAT is why the American womcr
are ter~.- They have rtirert and -sr,r.
cial mission. They are to help keep on
men clean and true az they were 81,
months ago, to send them back TO thei
homes in America purified by fire an,
suffering.
sympathy, courtesy, comforts
these are the usual conditions at home
I All the more when our men are runnin,
hazards of all kinds and facing dealt
: IN all its most terrible forms. Shout,
We strive TO give them these comfort
when they most need them. The spiri
: OF the women eanteen workers in un
dertaking all this is indomitable.
Miss Reed, one of the " worker
at ----, was driven out of her HUI
10y rising water Her director was a
, the next camp four miles away; tn
rain was pouring down. Out she start
ed, caught up with mule team, AM
learned to drive a mule for the rest o
the distance. The director happened t.
be out, SO She had luncheon with an
other canteen worker there, and decid
ed the only thing to do was to 90 T.
farlS TO get proper equipment for he,
self while the hut was under recon
struction. Back she journeyed. thi
. time meeting Il soldier on a motorcvcl
which carried a sidecar, left her in
l. structions at the camp and took til
next train to Paris. A day or so late
= she went back, equipped with q ward
robe than contained rubber boot
breeches, a short skirt, heeced line
q shoes and a furlined Jacket aud cap.
: Well, If this rain keeps on niue
/ longer | shall hand in my resignation
!: she heard one of the secretaries at hi
:. camp say.
Wen, if this rain keeps OH niue
= longer, she retorted, the last thin
e | II do will be hand in my resignation
I The boys will need us all the more
/. Good health, q social sense an
: iiritual insight they are three niece
: stiles to the women who would do the
\ share in wartime.