The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-01-11
Industrial WomansS Service Club.
Brings Home to Girls in New
Factory Community.
BLUE, TRIANGLE MEANS CHEER
Club Stands for Hot Lunches, Clean
Towels, comfortableAcots Parties,
Games and Recreation to
Girl Workers.
Katherine Holland Brown.

WI han. l am eighteen sears I
- soad. 7and work ifisa big sfac-i 4
tory in Michigan. More than four
hundred other girls work there too.
| don't aim to tell you about our jobs.
You can read about our work in the
lahbrh OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. But II do
aim to tell you about our Big Sister
and of the things she has done for US.
ITO begin with, our factory town
isn't town at all. It's a huge barn
of buildings stuck down in the country
nineteen miles from nowhere. There
is a railroads siding station the size
of a dry goods box, seven farmhouses
and one general store and postoffice
COMMUNICATES pretty near as big as
hot tamale stand. And that's all. No
Main street, nos hanks .aogs stores, no
ice-creain parlors,@ not one, solitary
movie show, in all those nineteen
miles Lonesome? It's the ragged
edge of desolation, that's what it is.
81 was one of the first carload of
forty girls that was shipped up from
Chicago The factory was swarming
with workmen putting in the machin
eI,y,{ and we girls couldn't begin work
for day oIs so, so we began hunting
places to eat and sleep. = That was
trifie that the employment folks hadn't
thought Of The workmen 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 Wives HospitabIe
Twill say that thosewomen were kind
and hospitable. They fixed it up be-
| tween them to feed US forty girls, and
| they gave us good food too. But for
rooms, that7,was tf1eN question. They
kcould each spare one raom. hat
meantssleeps five or SIX in a4room.a Bglt
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
i miaate, YOU seek But that gave, us aesr4
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 room from eight at night
i 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-
4 Gus slumber, 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
t soap, that kind that is so full of rosin'
you could use it to calk ship. But
/. we made out till the next three car
loads of girls came rolling in Then
we went most distracted. Those poor
+, girls had TO sleep in tents and in the
!, cars that the workmen had abandoned
by this time, and they were lucky if
! they got n straw tick and blanket.
By this time 1t 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 it was
/ potatoes and beans and mighty few
Il beans at that. @te.
z Along Came a Miracle.
"But, right when we were about
J ready to quit our Jobs and beat it tor
: home, along came a miracle. Two
: quiet, businesslike women climbed
down from the eastbound train one
= morning. With them came eight work
!. men, carload Of j scantling and tar
!, paper, another carload of cots and
blankets and pillows and sheets and
: towels brand new blankets and beds
think of the glory OF that land
bushels of dishes and rolls of oilclotf
q and enough burlap- to carpet the coun.
\ try. You won't believe me when j tel
y you that in ten days their workmen
had scantling-and-tar-pa shack
: put up and burlap tackled over the
: walls, and the Y. W.; C. A. secretary
and her helper had set up board tables
and coffee kettles and were serving us
the grandest hot. lunches every day
And back behind the burlap screens
We're set those rows of clean cots. will
e enough cover to keep you warm ths
coolest night that ever blew, and s
Bf towel apiece for every single girl. DE-
= you wonder that we all felt, as ont
I girl put it. I'll wager the Fritz Carrie
ton has nothing on this y
Id "Who were those women? Why
7. W. c. A. secretaries, of course II
think you'd know that without bein:
told. All over the country whereve
we girls have pitched in to make aero
plane cloth or overalls or munitions O
: canned goods you'll find Y. w. G. A
secretary working harder than any
N body else to make the girls comfort
III able and to keep them happy and well
Sometimes they haven't money enp5gl
III to get all that We really need. But 81
Il.yways they street evely cent to max
ifa 90 IFS Level best. Tor sls. Il seiiyou Non
der that we girl YerKais have Iearfe
= ~ As