The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1919-03-13

coming into town, but tEAt lhsy hau
been so instantly set upon by the men,
7 that they had not been able even to
get down or their cannon, much less
unload their supplies into the tent IN
proper order. The Athletic Secretary
7 had gone into the tent 10 start things
there. He was the one who was now
playing for the boys 70 sing
An Athletic Secretary who played
the piano seemed TO ME almost com
ically to sum up the fexibility Of the
Z \ work, which depended SO little on
"ordcrs from Paris" which depended
so much on the tremendous willing
ness of everybody TO do with all his
might whatever there was 10 do in
4 the world where evidently there was
about twice the amount TO be done that
anybody had calculated
The men on the truck were giving
the news 70 my companion in familiar,
jcrky bits. Although they had never
seen her before, the freemasonary OF
the uniform was such that they spoke
as though to member of the family
and, ended their story Of day-and-
night work with them on the march
7 by saying, as though il were n we'll
known family saying, which she could
recognize, "Same old story, same old
story"
! As we drew little apart To watch
the ever-increasing crowd of 1.-the
young soldiers swarming round the
Red Triangle sign, asked what they
had meant by the same old story"
My companion seemed surprised at
having to explain: "Why, it's the
Something everywhere-not enough OF
anything, not enough Y workers, not
enough supplies, everybody working
overtime. You see how evcrybody's
putting in for dear life, and all the
while they keep running out of what
We want to give to men. The demand,
you see, whenever one Of us appears
for moment, is overwhelming. and
it's heart-breaking to have to refuse"
"Why, thought the Y resources
and personnel were enormous al
ready" ! exclaimed.
"They are" she agreed.
| looked again at the hundreds of
eagerly outstretched hands and said,
wonderingly, "But this sort of thing
would seem to indicate that the work
needs to be enlarged-greatly enlarg-
ed"
She looked at me wildly, opened her
mouth as though to cry out on my
simplicity in having only just then re-
allied SO obvious a fact, decided evil
IDENTIFY that it was useless to comment
on such ignorance, and ended by only
remarking grimly: II should rather
think it does need to be enlarged"
Her scorn was diverted by the ap-
pearance on the street Of Ford car
with Red Triangle on the wind
shield.
an warrant that's the chief secre-
tary for this division" said my COM
panion, stepping out in the road and
signalling the driver to stop. So it was,
most providentially for us, for, after
we had shown our credentials, he
took us into the car to go with him to
look after the work being done at the
front.
found him shrewd, level-headed,
business-like man from Ohio, who was
evidently running his force Of sixty
odd workers with the same acumen
and energy that he would have shown
in running an automobile factory. As
we bounced and ratified over the roads
towards the front (why do all chauf-
eurs in the War Zone drive like Je-
hus y got thousand vivid snapshot
grimpses Of the work.
"D'you see that wood there on both
sides of the road? Well, only the day
before yesterday our boys were hold
ing it against the Germans. When we
get up to it you can see the little indi-
vidual trenches made, although, from
here, you'd never know that a couple
of thousand men were stationed there.
We had quite time getting supplies
to them because the road was all under
shell fire. We had To stop the car back
about where we are now and carry our
stuff forward by man-power under
what cover we could get from bushes.
But that wasn't the worst. As soon
as we began TO distribute stuff on one
side of the road, didn't these fool boys
start running across from the woods
on the other side and draw the Ger
man fire till you couldn't hear yourself
think! The commanding officer sent
back word we'd have TO stop our work.
We were stumped for minute. Then
somebody had brilliant idea, and we
sent up to ask him If we put a canteen
on both sides Of the road, right inside
the woods-wouldn't that be all right +!