Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1919-01-30
Industrial Woman's Service Club
Brings Home to Girls in New
/ Factory Community.
BLUE TRIANGLE MEANS CHEER
Club Stands for Hot Lunches, Clean
Towels, Comfortable Cots, Parties,
Games and Recreation to
I Girl Workers.
Katherine Holland Brown.

hundred other girls work there too.
1 don't aim to tell you about our jobs.
You can read about our work in the
labor department reports. But I do
aim to tell you about u Big Sister
and Of the things she has done for us.
ITO begin with, our factory town
isn't a town at all. It's a huge barn
of buildings stuck down in the country
nineteen miles from nowhere. There
is a railroad siding, a station the size
Of a dry goods box, seven ~farmhouses
and one general store and postoffice
combined-it's pretty near as big as a
hot tamale stand. And that's all. No
Main street, no banks nor stores, no
ice-cream parlors, not M solitary
movie show, in all those nineteen
miles. Lonesome? It's the ragged
edge of desolation, that's what it is.
II was one of the first carload of
forty girls that was shipped up from
Chicago. The factory was swarming
with workmen putting in the machin-
cry, and we girls couldn't begin work
for a day or so, so we began hunting
places to eat and sleep. That was a
tri1e that the employment folks hadn't
thought Of. The workmen were sleep
ing and eating in the cars that had
brought them there, backed on the
siding. Our only chance for beds and
food was with those seven farmhouses,
so we marched straight to the farmers
wives and asked for board and room.
Farmers Wives Hospitable.
81 will say that those mi were kind
and hospitable. They fixed it up be-
tween them to feed US forty girls, and
they gave us good food too. But for
rooms, that was the question. They
could each spare one room. That
meant sleep five or six in a room. But
right then along came the boss of the
factory and told us the machinery was
ready and he'd expect us girls to work
double shifts, night and day.
"He wanted to make use Of every
minute, you see. But that gave US our
chance as to sleeping. We fixed it up
with the farm folks that we'd work
double shifts and sleep double shifts
too.
$50 we planned it. Three girls
would use a room from eight at night
till six the next morning. Then they'd
hustle over to the factory, and the
three girls who'd been working all
night would take the room and sleep
till afternoon. It wasn't any luxuri-
GUS slumber, believe me. The farm
women had so few sheets and pillow
cases that most of US went without.
And towels we're scarce as diamonds
on blackberry bushes. AS to soap
well, the general store kept yellow bar
soap, that kind that is so full of rosin
you could use it to calk a ship. But
we made out till the next three car
loads Of girls came rolling in. Then
we went most distracted. Those poor
girls had to sleep in tents and in the
cars that the workmen had abandoned
by this time, and they were lucky if
they got a straw tick and a blanket.
BY this time it had turned raw cold,
and maybe you know what late au-
tumn nights in Michigan feel like. TIC
cap the climax the farm folks cut
down on food, and for a week it was
potatoes and beans and mighty few
beans at that.
Along Came a Miracle.
"But, right when we were abou'
ready to quit our jobs and beat it fol
home, along came a miracle. Two
quiet, ~businesslike women climbed
down from the eastbound train one
morning. With them came eight work
men, a carload Of scantling and tai
paper, another carload of cots ant
blankets and pillows and sheets ant
towels-brand new blankets and bed:
think Of the glory Of that !-ant
bushels Of dishes and rolls of oilclotf
and enough burlap to carpet the coun
try. You won't believe me when I tel
you that In ten days their workmeI
had a OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES shacl
put up and burlap tackled over thu
walls, and the Y. W. @. A. secretar!
and her helper had set up board table,
and coffee kettles and were serving u
the grandest hot lunches every day
And back behind the burlap screen
were set those rows Of clean cots, witt
enough cover to keep you warm tn,
coolest night that ever blew, and
towel apiece for every single girl. D,
you wonder that we all felt, as on
girl put 1t, I'll wager the Fritz Carrie
ton has nothing on thisI
who were IL use women2 VIII
Y. w. @. A. secretaries, of course. L,
think you'd know that without beinI
told. All owe the country whereve
we girls have pitched In to make aero
plane cloth or overalls or munitions o
canned goods you'll find a Y. W. @. A
secretary working harder than any
body else to make the girls comfort
able and to keep them happy and well
Sometimes they haven't money enoug'
to get all that we really need. But al
ways they stretch every cent to max
It do its level best for us. Do you wor
der that we girl workers have learne
to call the Y. W. G. A. u Big Slste
f-the very best Big Sister Of ALI