The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1918-08-29
FRENCH CHILDREN
LIVE NEAR FRONT
AND PRESENT SOME VERY UNI
SPEAkA5LE SCENES.
SOCIAL SERVICE WORK BEGUN
Salvation Army DouehgirIs Inspect
Homes of French Families
Adopt Measures To Provide
Clothing and Shoes for Them.
(By Miss Gladys McIntyre1

(By Miss Gladys McIntyre)
Salvation Army Doughgirl in France.
With the American Boys at the
Front, July 80. (By Mail,)- This
is hardly ''doughboy" or dough
girl" story, though we all do figure Z
in it a little bit. It's a story about
the little tots belonging to French
families who live in the ruined viii
lagos near Their firing lines.
A lot of these French families have
lived under bombardment since the
beginning of the war, just behind the
evacuated these folks, because they
begged to be allowed their homes.
They have nothing else So the
Americans cannot sent them off very
ians.
The most pathetic part of it is the
flock of little children, belonging to
these poor families. They play
around in the dirt. and are always
unclean and have lice on them. They
cannot remember when there wasn't
war, and most of them never have
been in school. 1t is awful for them.
Some Helpful Work.
| Some of the boys in the village we
were in were plying them, and said
! they wanted to do something to help
the dirty little youngsters out. So
began some social service work
with them, and Mr.. Charles Sinkler,
the Red Cross man in our village.
We went to all the families, and
inspected their homes. They were
almost unspeakable. Then we in
yited all the youngsters to our hut
one day, and promised to measure
them for clothes and shoes. The
boys promised to raise some money.
and Mr.. Sinkler would do the rest,
and Irene and | would clean the kid
dies and do what we could to clothe
! them.
They turned out, ever" last Young
ster, about 90 in ALL We measured
them. Then with what little French
we knew we told them how to kill
the lice on their bodies, how they
ought to battle, and promised them
some clean clothes and possibly
shoes, if they would clean them
selves up.
They were all delighted, and prom
Used to wash. They did that, most
of them. They reported with their
hands and faces washed, but the rest
of their bodies were still filthy. Dirt
caked behind their ears and in their
| hair. We hardly knew what to do,
for they would not battle and appar-
emily never had done SO in their
lives.
Bathed Two Girls.
Irene and undertook to battle a
couple of little girls who had been
working for us, and whom we knew
! better than the others. 1t was about
the worst job we ever undertook. We
were exhausted completely when we
were through. We never could
bring ourselves to undertake the
bathing of the rest of them, and
| piODduiy CUulu HOJ nave uOne III, III
we had attempted, for we incurred
the wrath of the parents of the two
we did battle.
However, We did send back to the
nearest city and buy some little
clothes, just ordinary ones. but so
much better than the rags these chill
dren had been wearing, that they all
looked dressed up for holiday ex-
ercise. The youngsters were de-
lighted with the clothes, and the
ribbons We gave them for their hair.
But they had no idea of how to keep
clean, and though we improved their
looks some, we still have doubts as
to the value of social service work
at tho front