The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1919-01-14
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, Partiea
Games and Recreation to
Girl Workers.
Katherine Holland Brown.


old, and | work i'm n big fac
tory in Michigan. More than four
hundred other girls work there too.
l don't aim to tell you about our Jobs.
You can read about our work In the
labor department reports. But l do
aim to tell you about our Big Sister
and of the things she has done for us.
'TO begin with, our factory town
isn't town at all. It's huge barn
of buildings stuck down In the country
nineteen miles from nowhere. There
Is n railroad siding, a station the size
OF dry goods box. seven farmhOuses
and one general store and pOstoffice
comhined-it'S pretty near rs big as a
hot tamale stand. And that's all. No
Main street, no banks nor stores, no
ice-cream parlors. not one solitary
movie show, I'm all those nineteen
miles. Lonesome? It's the ragged
edge Of dcsontion. that's what II is.
81 was one OF the first carload Of
forty girls that was shipped up from
Chicago. Tho factory was swarming
with workmcn putting In the machin-
cry. and we girls couldn't begin work
for day or SO. so we began hunting
places TO eat and steep. That was a
trlne that the employment folks hadn't
thought or The workmon 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 Wiv-s Hospitabe.
"I will say that those women were kind
and hospitnble They fixed II 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 room But
right then along came the boss OF the
factory and told us the machinery WAS
ready and he'd expect MS girls 10 work
double shifts. night and day
"IIc wanted to make use of every
minute, you see. But that gave Us our
chunc" rs l0 sleeping. We fixed il up
with the farm folks that we'd work
double shifts and sleep double shifts
too.
so we planned it. Three girls
would use n 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 1t wasn't any luxuri-
Gus slumber, believe me. The farm
women had so few sheets and pillow
cases that most OF lis went without.
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 II to calk a ship. But
we made out till the next three car.
luHds OF girls came rolling in Then
wp went most distracted. Those poor
girls had 10 sleep in tents and In the
cars that the workmcn had abandoned
by this time, and they were lucky IL
they got straw tick and blanket
Ey this time II had turned raw cold,
and maybe you know what late au
tunn nights In Michigan feel like To
down on food, and for Il week II was
potatoes and beans and mighty few
beans at that
Along Came Miracle.
"But, right when we were about
ready to quit our jobs and beat II for
home, along came miracle. Two
quiet, busineSSlike women climbed
down from the easthound train one
morning With them came eight work
men, carload of scantling and tar
paper, another carload Of cots and
~ A..
towcls-brand new blankets and beds
think of the glory nt that and
bushels Of dishes and rolls of oilciuth
and enough burlap to carpet the COun-
try You won't believe me when tell
you that in ten days their workmen
had II scantling shack
put up and burlap tackled over the
walls. and the Y w G.. A. secretary
and her helper had set up board tables
and coffee kettles and were serving us
the grandcst hot lunches every Law
And back behind the burlap sore ms
were set those rows Of clean cots. with
enough cover 10 keep you warm the
coolest night that ever blew, and n
towel apiece for every single girl DO
you wonder that we all felt. as one
girl put it, I'll wager the Fritz-Carle-
ton has nothing on this!
"WhO were those women? WHY,
Y w G.. A. secretaries. Of course I'd
think you'd know that without being
told All over the country wherever
We girls have pitched i'm To make aero
plane cloth or ovcraIls or munitions or
canned goods you'l find Y. w. G.. A.
seCrctnry working harder than any.