Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-01-30
How'd you like the Job?

worker at the American camp?
Cast your eyes over the duties Of the
average hut secretary and decide for
yourself.
You must sleep where you can; eat
when there's a chance and overlook
the daily bath IL you are lucky
enough to have 8 bed you will be glad
enough to make it yourself. And If
you can find needle and thread you
won't stop to look for somebody else
to mend your clothes. You must be
able to handle dunk with tact and
meet a bully with the first blow You
must be interruption -proof-Pve seen
a lecturer at the British front con-
tinue his talk Under a shower OF air.
bonbs-and noise proof-the other day
an English association woman worker
was killed at the counter of her can
teen in a communication trench, but
her assistant continued selling lemon
ade.
You must be Jack OF an trades
The hut secretary down here is store
keeper, stenographer, club manager
house steward, head waiter, school
teacher, impresario, athletic promoter,
boxing referee, father cenfessor, peace
maker, town orier preacher, good mix
err, and Csad game sport. Why, he
can even umpire cit Dd5&l]llli anu IG-
tain his popularity!
The average worker follows this
routine:
He wakes at a. m, lights an oil
stove, and puts some coffee to boil
Then at $50 he drinks his coffee and
cllews a bit OF bread-that is his break
fast. Then from 6:45 until IL no is
cleaning up his hut-you will remem-
Der that each hut is used by 1900
soldiers a day. and you will realize
that the man who can clean it in four
and a half hours is going some. At II
the worker opens the canteen and sells
there so long as customers appear, and
then, il they slack UP a bit, he may get
a chance to drink another cup of cof-
fee and make himself sandwich to be
eaten between sales.
About ! o'clock business llghtens,
but then the personal contact" begins.
You have promised to advise Smith
about his private conduct; Jones wants
you to send some money home for
him. Robinson would like to know IL
it's true they go into the trenches to-
morrow; Thompson has a confession to
make, and Jackson asks if Boston has
won or whether you've heard the
Harvard Yale score-and if you have
not. won't you please fond out for
him.
That goes on until A. Then--per-
hans, Just as you are in the midst Of
writing to AS girl in Philadelphia to
tell her that her sweetheart deserves
to have her make It up with him, or as
YOU are beginning q letter to B's par
ents IN Cheyenne, who haven't seen
him since he ran away from home
then, say, the men come in from
drill, and the canteen begins to make
sales like department store in the
Christmas rush.
Here is where you are doing two
things at once-and sometimes more.
You have to run outside every little
while TO see that the athletic program
(often a complicated affair." is work.
ing smoothly, and you have to come
right back and sell stuff at the can
teen; and if the athletics stop at sun
down, be sure that the store work goes
on till 1880 or 8. AS often as not
there is no time for supper because YOU
must arrange, perhaps even rehearse.
the evenings entertainment, and YOU
have no sooner arranged it than YOU
must seat the incoming audience. in~
troduce the performers keep things
lively, and, If there is a lack Of talent
do turn or two yourself
The show is over at 9:30-but not
the work OF the worker. IsefoFe he
can tumble between his blankets on a
cold cot in the hut he has TO balance
his books and take account of stock.
In other words the Y. NJ. c. A.
worker Is doing ut least q II and often
a 19-hour day.
In The accepted sense Of the word
salary" almost nobody is ION" it.
Nearly the whole lot are working for
what is called expense" which is a
sum which doesn't quite pay board in
q country where eggs cost nine cents
apiece Sugar cards are going to be
suspended throughout France for the
month Of December. and there is about
as much use of a worker trying to live
at the ten-room village inn-taxed by
the demands of ready money soldiers
as there was in Lazarus trying to en-
croach upon the menu of Dives.
It's life that rather wears on one,
l know secretary lately popular
divine back home, who has two as
sistants under him and runs two nuts.
Between these-they are five miles
apart-he has to ply in a motor car
ESQ colled) that he must drive him
self Whenever he strikes a stretch