Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1919-01-01


Mrs Roosevelt credits the old casino
itself with a large share of the sue
cess OF Aix-les- Bains. For II tickled
the doughboy's sense of humor enor-
mously to go into the bar room" and
order Y NJ. C. A. cocoa over the mar
BILE counter and brass rail that was
lef. there from resort days. And he
thought ii was side-splitting that re-
ligious exercises were held in the old
baccharat room OF the casino. "The
casinos converted" became a classic
joke But at any rate, AK speedily
got on the map for the American sol
der. and its fame spread rapidly
throughout the American army.
The whole idea was to give the sol
diers during their leave crowded
seven days of fun and play. and this
meant a continuous performance that
was bound to win their hearts. There
were picnics. excursions, walking
tours. bicycling trips every day and
all day long. At night there were
movies, concerts, vaudeville, dances
and between times games, music, can
cen and reading. The soldiers could
stay up late and sleep late if they
liked, but they usually got up early
for fear they would miss something.
There were no rules of conduct except
one they imposed upon themselves:
That was that every American girl
should be treated like queen.
n. t. -
when the five thousand are all there
and can amuse each other somewhat,
but it becomes a real task when there
are only a few. This happened at
AK during the Easter drive, 1918,
when no leaves were being granted,
and only fly soldiers were there rat
thing around in the great halls of the
building The fifty were regular army
men, "hard-boiled," and chatting at
the humiliation of having a holiday
while the draft kids" were fighting
They didn't like movies and they did
not pretend to. So they just sat
around and thought about their trou-
bles
The ''Y" women were rather ap-
palled. until Mrs. Roosevelt suggest
ad Prisoners Base" that old Ameri-
can. kid game that everyone of them
had played back home years ago. She
didn't know whether they would jeer
or cheer, but she tried it anyway.
They didn't do either. but they grin
ned, for the first time tina day, and
took their positions on the floor. The
kid games were the hit of the area
The regulars" played like children.
tearing and racing around the hall,
believing and roaring with excite
ment, chasing and tagging each other,
while the 'Y'' women, between gasps,
for they were playing too, simply
looked at each other in amazement.
"Aches and Pains" was such success
that the army asked the Y. NJ. C. A.
to cooperate in opening many more
areas, each one to have several CEN
ters Mrs. Roosevelt. was retained as
head of the woman's work and from
her headquarters in Paris organized
and established recreation for seven
areas, thirty centers, and 10000 sol
diers. She also opened "bath cen
tiers" Immediately behind the lines
where during a twenty-four hours
leave, soldiers could come out of ac-
ton, have no. baths, get their clothes
washed and mended and then go back.
Before the leave area work began,
Mrs. Roosevelt did. canteen work in
Paris. In those early days she did all
the hard manual work that she says
every woman working in France did.
She scrubbed the floors of her little
canteen, fried doughnuts, and did
anything else thai came along to be
done. She said she saw her husband,
Lieut.-Col, Roosevelt very little. When
he was wounded she was able to nurse
him, but before that she had not seen
him for six months.