The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1919-02-19
7. M. {. A. In Russia

Paris, Feb. l7.-She seemed just
| little, unobtrusive American wo-
ian in a very big fur coat when she
anne into Paris yesterday.
But today she is famous. Every
yody in the Ho,ei Petrograd, the y.
W, C. AS big Paris hotel for Wo-
len war workers, is calling her the
), oman for Russia" and pointing
Ter out to ali new corners in the
crowded dining room.
Elizabeth BoIes is her name. She
ines from Cincinnati, o. For TWO
ears she mas lived amidst the snow
.ll ice ana revolutions OF RUSSIA.
one has fought her way past the al
mics OF the Bolsheviki, up through
ne foodless, snow swept north OIL
I.ussia, into the northern most point
of land in Norway and back across
the ice-choked Norway fjords. All
his to get to a port in Russia from
which she could sail out into civil
zation.
And she has come to civilization
TO get six American girls to send
oack to Russia. She herself is going
oack after she goes to America for
d short visit.
She left five American women in
Archangel. All of them, like herself
are Y. w. C. A. women. They are
really ugitives-refugees from a va
riety of revolutions that drove them
out of Moscow and Petrograd where
they had been working.
But they have been very busy since
they arrived in Archangel early in
the fall
The whole Archangel district, ex-
tending out into long Russian miles
of vast bleak woods and frozen
swamps, is dotted every few miles a
little group of American or allied
soldiers.
At practically every outpost there
is a headquarters train Of box cars
where the troops live when they are
not on actual duty.
The American women have taken
turns maintaining a kind of clu
room in one end OF the last box car
in sC.ne OF, the American trains.
When this worker has anything to
serve she has a tea" But food is
very scarce. She tries to bring bit
of home into her corner of the box
car. But there is nothing in the
snow covered wastes of the land that
can be used for furnishings.
While she is running her club
room her sleeping quarters is an i'm
proyised bed in one corner.
The men of one group have no
communication with those of anoth-
er because the snow and ice make
travelling impossible.
So these American women, who go
out one by one for two weeks at a
time, make home out of bare box
car and bring to these isolated Amerl
can men their only glimpse of the
world they have had to leave 20 far
behind them.
In the city of Archangel proper,
this little band of women who were
under Miss Bcies' direction, are
hard at work.
They have opened a Hostess
House on the order OF the Y. w. G.
AS famous American canronement
hostess houses.
But, oh! how different it is from
our American and French hostess
houses" Miss Boies added. "It has
been impossible to get the simplest
furnishings. Cloth, for example, is
unobtainable.
"A doctor in the Red Cross Hos
pital there at Archangel gave us a
bolt of ordinary bandage gauze and
the Michigan Engineers who are up
there contributed pot of Glue paint.
That cloth and little pot of paint was
more precious than rubies and all
the money in Archangel could not
have bought them.
with the paint the cloth is to be
stenciled for curtains. You cannot
imagine what an event the hanging
of those curtains will be.
Thread is unheard of UP there.
All of us brought into Russia what
seemed to be great deal for our
personal use, but long since that has
been used up. What we have now is
some rescued from box of supplies
sent us by our New York headquar-
tiers. Unfortunately the ship that
the box was on, when down in the
White Sea. 1t was later salvaged
and many of its contents used. The
thread came out of the episode
many-colored and rotten, but it is
all we have and we are using it.
"The Hostess House is used by the
American and British troops quar-,
tered in the city and passing through
it. There are only two other Ameri'
can women there, besides ourselves
These are two Red Cross Nurses. The
Russian girls come here. 1t is the
only decent gathering place for men
and women.
"Archangel is frightfully conges'
ted. There is a big foreign popula,
ton both of allied soldiers and oftici-
ais. Members of all the embassies
the Military Mission, the Interna,
tional City Bank, newspaper men and
other foreign merchants who fec
from Moscow and Petrograd about
the time we did, are living there. Be
sides these, there are a great many
of the intellectual Russians living
there to escape the revolution ter
rors with which they have no sym,
pathy.
'"'Archangel was only little vii
lage before this. 1t was never meant