The Republican journal., 1919-01-16
Y. ". c. A. WORKER
IS BIC SISTER
Industrial W0man's Service Club
Brings Home to Girls in New
Factory Community.
BLUE TRIANGLE MEANS CHEER
Club Stands for Hot Lunches, Clean
Towels, Comfortable Cots, Parties,
Games and Recreation to
Girl Workers.
Katherine Holland Brown.

VI han. l am eighteen years
old, and | work in a 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 | do
aim to tell you about our Big Sister
and of the things she has done for us.
"To begin with, our factory town
isn't town at all. It's huge harm
of buildings stuck down in the country
nineteen miles from nowhere. There
Is a railroad siding, station the size
of a dry goods box, seven farmhouseS
and one general store and postoffice
combined-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 Lonesome? IFS the ragged
edge of desoation that's what 1t is.
"I was one of the first carload Of
forty girls that was shipped up from
Chicago The factory was swarming
ery, and we girls couldn't begin work
for a day or so, so we began hunting
places to eat and sleep. That was a
trifle 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 Hosptable.
81 will say that those women 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, that was the question. They
could each spare one room. That
meant sleep five or six in a 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 day.
He wanted to make use of every
minute, you see. But that gave us our
chance as to sleeping We fixed it up
with the farm folks that we'd work
double shifts and sleep double shifts
too.
80 we planned it. Three girls
would use a room from eight at night
till six the next morning. Then they'd
hustle over to the factory, and the
three girls who'd been working all
L.,
till afternoon. 1t wasn't any luxuri-
Gus slumber, believe me The farm
women had so few sheets and pillow
cases that most of us went without
And towels We're scarce as diamonds
on blackberry bushes AS TO SOAP
we'll, the general store kept yellow bar
soap that kind that is so full of rosn
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 We're lucky II
they got a 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 week it was
potatoes and beans and mighty few
beans al that.
Along Came Miracle.
But, right when we were about
ready to quit our jobs and beat it for
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 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 and
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 scantling- -and-tar-paper shack
put up and burlap tackled over the
walls and the Y w. G. 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 with
enough cover to keep you warm the
coldest night that ever blew, and a
towel apiece for every single girl. Do
you wonder that we all felt, as one
girl put it, I'll wager the Fritz Garlic
ton has nothing on thisr
'Who were those women? Why.
Y. w. G. 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 or
canned goods you'll find a Y. w. c. A.
secretary working harder than any,
body else to make the girls comfort
able and to Keep them happy and well.
Sometimes they haven't money enough
to get all that we really need, But al
ways they stretch every cent to make
IT do its level best for us. Do you won
der that we girl workers have learned
to call the Y. W. G. A. our Big Sister
the very best Big Sister Of all?