The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1919-01-21
Y. ". c. A. WORKER
IS BIG SISTER.
Industrial Woman's Service Club
Brings Home 10 Girls In New
Factory Community.
BLUE TRIANGLE MEANS CHEER
Club Stands for Hot Lunches, Clean
Towels, Comfortable Cots, Partiss
Games and Recreation to
olrl Workers.
Katherine Holland Brown.

N han. i am eighteen years
old, and work In big fac.
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
labor department reports But l 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 I.'s huge barn
of buildings stuck down IN the country
nineteen miles from nowhere. There
is a railroad siding, a station the size
OF dry goods box, seven farinhouses
and one general store and postoffice
comblned--it's pretty near as big as
hot tamale stand. And that's all. No
Main street, no banks nor stores, no
ice-cream parlors, not one solitary
movie show, In all those nineteen
miles Lonesomei It's the ragged
edge OF desolation, that's what II Is,
II was one of the first carload Of
forty girls that was shipped up from
Chicago The factory was swarmlpg
with workmen putting In the machin.
cry, and we girls couldn't begin work
+, for day or so, so we began hunting
! places to eat and sleep. That was
trife that the employment folks hadn't
F., 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,
40 we marched straight to the farmers
wives and asked for board and room.
Farmers Wives Hospitabie.
! Twill say that those women were kind
and hospitable. They fixed II up be-
tween them to feed us forty girls, and
they gave us good food too. But for
rooms, that was the question. They
could each spare one room. That
/ meant sleep five or six In 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 cay.
ale wanted TO make use OF every
minute, you see. But that gave US our
chance rs to sleeping We fixed II NJ
with the farm folks that we'd work
double shifts and sleep double shifts
too.
$50 we planned It. Three girls
would use a room from eight Mt night
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
TIL afternoon. II wasn't any luxurl-
Gus sumber, believe me. The farm
women had so few sheets and pillow
cases that most of us went without
And towels were scarce rs diamonds
on blackberry bushes. As to sonp-
well, the general store kept yellow bar
soap, that kind that Is so full OF rOsin
you could use Il TO calk n ship. But
we made out till the next three car.
londs 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 II
they got straw tick and blanket.
by this time II 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 week II was
potatoes and beans and mighty few
beans at that
Along Came Miracle.
Slut, right when we were about
ready to quit our jobs and beat II for
home, along came q miracle. Two
quiet, businessike women climbed
down from the eHs.hound train one
morning. With them came eight work.
men, a carload of 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 oilcloth
and enough burlap TO carpet the coun-
try. You won't believe me when tell
you that In ten days their workmen
had scnntllng-and-tar-rao shacl;
put up and burlap tackled over the
walls, and the Y w. @. a. secretary
and her helper rad set up hoard tables
and coffee kettles and were serving us
the grandest hot lunches every day
and back beh.:d tie bur'ap screens
were set those rows Of clean cots, with
enough corer to keep you warm the
coolest night that ever blew, and Il
towel apiece for every single girl. 10
you wonder that we all felt as one
girl put 1t, I'll wager the Fritz-Carle,
ton has nothing on thisr
"Who were u use women2 Why
Y. w. C. A. secretaries, OF course. I'd
think you'd know that without being
told. All over the country wherever
we girls have pitched In to make aero
plane cloth or overalls or munitions on
canned goods younl find Y. W. c. A
secretary working harder than any
body else to make the girls cOmfutv