The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-11-20

Cheered as Miss Liberty by Men
on stretchers.
| Following are extracts from a letter
written by Mrs. Clara Hovey Gilman
/ Of Brattleboro, who is in the Red Cross
hospital hut service in France, to her
mother, Mrs. Henry w Hovey of this
town:
Vichy, Oct %.
If there were any use in being dis
couraged al lack of time for letters, d
| be in the depths of woe. And it is
no use TO be ashamed either for I sim
iplv cannot help it. Being optimistic
am hoping that affairs will run better
now that we are really organized To
\ le sure, | have four hours out Of u
to myself. not counting bed time, but
| never seem to get it all and l find
absolutely have to walk every day to
! keep warm the rest of the time. But,
in that four hours | am asked to do a
hundred and one things in an emergcn-
cv And life is full of emergencies
over here.
am not allowed to tell YOU how
many trains we are taking care Of
doubt if you could really gasp the
number Of "blesses. - It takes a deal
Of time to do this particular work and
/ it can { be standardized for the reason
that trains arrive at all hours Of the
day and night-and,- never on time.
So, when on call for train service we
have to be prepared to jump at 10
minutes notice. and in some miracu-
lons fashion have everything needed
on hand Instantly never was so
busy in my life and though | have
been far happier I doubt If what | ac-
complished was So worth while.
! am one of the two housekeepers
and like il very much. Our "'house''
IS about the size of the town hall in
Brattlcboro. 50 it Is some work to over
see It, | have a cook and eight other
FRENCH servants to boss, and YOU would
enjoy seeing me struggle. not only
with the French language but the
French way of working They are in.
dustrious, but inefficient. to my think
ing; 50 very many old fashioned WAYS.
The stoves are queer too, very hard TO
manage rs they have poor drafts.
But.-we are getting on and making
more cocoa and coffee than YOU can
imagine. Sunday we probably served
nearly 1000 men. | think. That in
cludcs the men who came to the can.
teen and the "blcSses. We also
/ served lee cream at the canteen on
Sunday, which was made in our kitch.
en-.
While on duty I just chase over the
place from top to bottom seeing that
/ it is all clean and the fires kept M. in
/ addition IA oypreCpi,,r .t,, I:.lL...
| checking out the stores used. Last
/ Friday the directress. Mrs. Tiffany.
! gave n dance for the men Of the unit
! OF course only a few could come as
the work in the hospitals had to lee
/ done. Also there wassonlv room for
a limited number TO dance There are
! SIX of us to dance call the others there
/ don't dance and six came down from
| the cantecn at ST. Gcrmaine. then there
| were five civilian womcn-Sccrctaries
/ laboratory workers. ctc.,-who came.
/ We few danced with about $50 men.
Strenuous? Well, rather. never
stopped minute all the evening.
In order 70 get round at all. we had
10 cUt-in dances and the constant
change Of partners was not easy. But
! II was worth while for they had such
good time. And wish to state RIGHT
here that every last one Of them was
aS nice TO me rs thc men We known
under more usual social conditions. OF
eours" lots of them are college BOYS
and lots Of them arcn t. but all were
1 perfectly fine. 1t is Il marvellous army
You may not know HAT the nurses are
not allowed to dance with the enlisted
personnel, which causes many tribula-
tiors.
Mrs. T. is certainly popular with the
units. did think | should never
dance again, but when | said so Mrs
I. said il was part of my war work
and ! must So | did, and IN glad OF
It,
We have Just moved to q delightful
villa, six of us Mrs. T. prefers to have
as under one roof and | quite see the
advantage, especially when we have tc
|