Hermanner Volksblatt. [volume] (Hermann, Mo.) 1875-1928, 1919-01-24
Y. VIC. A. WORKER
IS BIG SISTER.
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
Girl Workers.
Katherine Holland Brown.

UNTY name is May Isabel Carna-
iVI han. l am eighteen years
old, and l work in a big fac
tory in Michigan. More than four
hundred other girls work there too.
l don't aim to tell you about Il 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 a town at all. It's a huge barn
of buildings stuck down In the country
nineteen miles from nowhere. There
Is q railroad siding, a station the size
Of a dry goods box, seven farmhouses
and one general store and p~ostoffice
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 n solitary
movie show, in all those nineteen
miles. Lonesome? It's the ragged
edge Of ~desolation, that's what 1t Is.
II was one Of the first carload of
forty girls that IA shipped up from
Chicago. The factory was swarming
cry. and we girls couldn't begin work
for a day or so, so we began hunting
places to eat and sleep. That was Il
trlfe that the employment folks hadn't
thought Of. The workmen were Sleep
ing and eating in the cars that had
Iro,Obf than, fhnrn hQpkn6 IN tho
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 HospitabIe.
II will say that those women were kind
and hospitable. They fixed 1t up be-
tween them to feed us forty girls, and
they gave us good food too. But for
rooms, that vas the question. They
gould 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 u
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 1t. Three girls
would use a room from eight at night
till six the next morning. Then they'd
I,,r,Jn n,.n. a., thN fnatrr- ,r1 A.,
three girls who'd been working all
night would take the room and sleep
till afternoon. 1t wasn't any luxuri-
Gus slumbcr, believe me. The farm
women had so few sheets and pillow |
cases that most of us went without.
And towels were 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 ii to calk a ship. But
we made on till the next three car
loads Of girls came rolling in. Then
girls had TO sleep in tents and in the
cars that the workmen had abandoned
by this time, and they we're 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. To
cap the climax the farm folks cut
down on food, and for a week 1t was
potatoes and beans and mighty few
beans at that.
Along Came a Miracle.
But, right when we were about
ready to quit our jobs and beat 1t for
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 tar
paper, another carload Of cots and
blankets anu pillows and sheets and
towels--brand new blankets and beds
Of the glory Of that land
of dishes and rolls of oilcloth
and enough hurlap to carpet the coun-
try. You won't believe me when 7 tell
YOU that in ten days their workmep
had a scantling-and-tar-paper shack
put up and burlap tackled over the
walls, and the Y. w. C. A. secretary
and her helper had set up board tables
md coffee kettles and were serving us
he grandeSt hot lunches every day
And back behind the burlap screens
we're set those rows of clean cots, with
cover to keep you warm the
,oldest night that ever blew, and n
.owel apiece for every single girl. Do
wonder that we all felt. as one
put it, I'll wager the Fritz-Carle-
on has nothing on this!
"Who We're those women? Why.
Z. w. G. A. secretaries. of course. I'd
hink you'd know that without being I
old. All over the country wherever
We girls have pitched in to make aero.
'Iane cloth or overallS or munitions ar
AIMED goods you'll find a Y. ". C. A
ecretary working harder than any, 1
'ody else to make the girls comfort I
bic and TO keep them happy and well.
they haven't money enough
o get all that we really need. But nj.
they stretch every cent to make q
do its level best for us. Do YOU won.
er that we girl workers have lon rned y