The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1919-09-05
SHE DREAMS OF AMERICA.
(By Keith Clarke)

GIie u1edllo VI SolHS y 7iilS va,
where she lies in her little white
bed, in a long ward of a French home
for those whom the white plague has
marked for release. Since the Amer
leans came she believed that every
thing would be safe, even her health,
her strength. And, when the Amer
lean women came she knew that her
dream would come true. She was one
of the first American girls taken in
to the summer home the American
Y. w. C. A. has established in the
hills of Grenoble. "This is Amer
ica," she smiled happily, if a little
YEARLY, the first night she sat around
the open fire of the Grenoble summer
camp. "This means that l shall see
America"
Julie will never see America. But
the American girls who direct the
campfire are doing everything they
can to bring America to Julie, know
ing that is what the girls in Amer
lea want. Julie was a working girl,
last November, when the war was still
on, and so many thousands of Amer
lean girls gave what they could just
so that girls like Julie could keep
away from the enemy. She has been
caught by an enemy that cannot be
defeated. But still the American girls
are helping her. And she smiles as
she thinks Of America, where she lies
in her white bed, and holds the Amer
lean flag in her small slender hands.
Julie was a midimette before the
war. She worked in one of the big
dressmaking shops on the rue de la
Paix in Paris. Julie was clever with
her needle and worked away on the
glad gowns which the American ladies
ordered in such luxurious abundance
on the rue la Paix. Julie liked the
American ladies', when she caught a
glimpse of them in the wonderful
gowns she had helped to create. But
she did not dream of going to Amer
lea.
Then the war came. Then the big
dressmaking shops had to close or be
reduced in their staff. Americans
were not coming over to buy. But
long before the shops in which she
worked decided it did not need her
Julie decided eshe cared more for
patriotism than for clothes. She had
been a little midinette. She turned
to a little munitionette. She went to
work in the great munition plant ma
king out toward Ballincourt. Her del
icate hand that held only a needle,
and held it daintily too, in the making
of cobwebs, learned to hold a lathe,
learned to shape an ebus, a deadly
shell that should show her patriotism
should carry destruction to the enemy,
For four years Julie worked in the
munition factory. Then the armis-
tice came. Julie vas delirious with
joy. She returned to the old joy of
the midinette. She knew that she had
to save her country. 1t was good to
know, as she danced from the boule.
wards and cried "Vivent les poilus.'
They had saved France. ITEMS, she
had saved France.
The munition making plants closed
down suddenly. They gave a bonus
for a month. But before the month
vas up Julie was ailing. She saved
France. But who would save her
She spent all her little savings, they
were so %piteously little, during the
winter. When the summer came she
was truly i'll. She went about still but
she went slowly. With a friend one
day she visited a Foyer des Allies
which the American had created a club
for working girls like Julie. And the
American girls there were very gooe
to Julie. She went there every day
just to sit and laugh with the Amer
: leans. But her laugh grew weaker
and her face grew wan. Then thu
> miracle happened. Up in the hill:
above Grenoble, in the foot hills Of
E the Alps, these Americans had open.
| ed a "Maiyon de Vacances." The.
called it a summer camp. And julie
l could go. 1t was for such girls a:
| Julie. The beauty Of the camp, thu
wonder of the Alps and the kindnes:
of the Americans. They told julie
of other girls in America, who hae
worked just as she had worked, bu
who had saved out of their wages
just so they could send money over t.
the girls in France. Julie felt al
!, though she must get well so she coult
: work as they had worked.
But she helped to save her country
t And she was sounded in saving it
t Julie would never work again.
So this summer nineteen nineteen
' little Julie over there in France i
| lying in a white room, in a white cow
looking out on the world with eye
that will not see the world long, an
holding a flag in her hands, two flags
the one of the country she saved
t and the one Of the country that trie
e to save her. Julie is happy. Franc
is saved, and there is the dream O
: America.
NIL A-..-a -:SJ. - A11s. Lie 49,