Evening star., 1919-05-04

EtANuElANE hOOkHS
Commander Of the Salvation Array in
the United states.
(photo by Ira l.. Hills Studio.)
men. Spiritual help and advice they
could have when they wanted it and
needed it, but the thing they treas
ured most was the homely. sympathetic
understanding from the sort of
women they had known and honored
at home. The way Of man with a
maid, particularly when he is a SOL
dier, is rather well known. The Saliva
ton Army lassies. together with the
Older women. We're the touch of home
which comforted the soldier on the
front line The Salvation Army lassie
has never known anything but the di-
rect verities of life--honor integrity,
labor and love. Her work has brought
her into no middle course in the
scheme of things. Equipped with the
best she had to meet the worst. To
every real man real sister is about
the best thing in life, and these girls
were sisters to the men in khaki.
Stories have come back to our head
quarters of great husky lads who
called nineteen year-old girls Ma"
1t was not funny. it was perfectly
natural. and the girls and the men
understood the great instinct which
prompted the anectionate greeting.
When the enemy began to push
down toward the Marne with an
avaricious eye on Paris, and the
Americans were rushed across the
ocean day and night, with never a
word Of their leaving and never
word Of their arriving, these Saliva
tion Army men and women began to
find themselves sort Of hyphens be-
tween that west front with it's line
sttNened past all possibility Of break
ing and the home front, which stood
no less firm in the days and weeks Of
suspense and doubt. Those were days
when the Salvation Army did not
worry about uniforms. Women went
out in their everyday working clothes.
with kitchen aprons and working
dresses with little armband to
signify the organization back Of them.
It has been great cause Of pride
Immediately went as far afield as the
American officers would permit q
woman to go, according to the un-
changed laws of military strategy
Funny old kitchen stoves, made out
of sheet iron picked out from the
or by any roadside and when wom-
an in big kitchen apron and work
ing day dress stood beside that stove,
peering through her glasses in order
to see that her doughnuts were cook
ed just right, l think I can guess what
tired, dusty doughboys lined up wait
ing their turn. With the background
of sinister woods behind her and the
smoke Of great guns in the air, that lit
tie figure bending over the queer
rickety stove was a figure which the
boys understood and loved. This I
submit. is the chief reason for the
success of the Salvation Army at the
front.
When the tide Of battle turned and
the enemy retreated and the Yanks
went from the Marine to the Asne, the
dauntless little kitchens tried to keen
pace with them. The boys who have
come back tell us how they have. seen
little Fords picking their way over
she'll torn roads, creeping along as
best they could in the rain and the
desultory firing of shells.
4 II
The boys helped all they could They
set up the stoves and chopped the wood
and stood around offering advice while
the doughnuts, fried. "Ma's' conyer-
sation was worth infinitely more even
than her precious doughnuts, and there
would be group Of twenty five boys all
around that stove trying to tell her
about the last letter from home and all
talking at the same time. These are
the reasons why with us success" is
a homely everyday thing. based upon
the love and affection Of 1000. 900 men in
khaki.
The Salvation Army has always been