The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-10-06
Rev. Mr.. Rankin
Tells of Y Work
(Continued from page one)


had come through. We were wildly
cheered all the way up the harbor
and nearly every vessel on
the Thames River blew blasts to vel
come us in.
"Only one incident of excitement
happened throughout the trip across.
This was when one of the vessels in
our convoy suddenly broke away
and gave chase to a ship that had
lust passed us. Although we were
unable to learn automatically the out
come of the chase, we received re-
ports that the convoy ship caught,
overhauled and sunk the mysterious
vessel.
zone other incident of interest
happened when we locked at Lon
DON Two men and woman, report
| ed to be suspected German agents,
! were taken off our vessel and held
| for examination. 1t was also re-
ported that two unexploded bombs
were found in the hold of the Corsl-
ca which created stir among the
men aboard. They all realized how
near they had come to being blown
up while out on the high seas. No
explanation was made as to why the
| Internal machines had not, exploded.
Faulty mechanism was probably re-
sponsible.
"The one thing that | noticed more
than anything else when we docked
at London was the large number OF
women in overalls, working in fac
tories, railroad yards, shipyards, mu-
nitions factories and other pla -,
bringing home forcefully the knowl-
edge that Great Britain's man power
was being used at the front to stem
the German tide These women all
appeared happy and contented and
were very enthusiastic over their
work.
lowing to lack of hotel accom-
modatons in London, we were all
forced to stay on board ship for "a
hours. A few grumbled but most of
1 the bows took their first real taste of
hardship good-naturedly and made
the most of it. By wearing a smile
our work seemed easier. We were
under almost as strict military regu-
lations as the army men and were
not allowed to move around freely
without pass. ~b
"The late Governor Prouty, before
| left for overseas, had given me a
check for 500 and a letter of intro
, duction to give to Mr.. Campbell who
was in charge of the 'Y' service IN
England. The day after my arrival
in England l went to see Mr.. Camp
bell and received very cordial
greeting from him. We had dinner al
the Temple Chambers.
> "The next day Mr. Campbell tcok
: me to the home Of his niece, whose
y husband was u celebrated surgeon II
: the British army. Their home was
beautiful.
"The following day Mr.. Campbell
: took me around and showed n'
many of the interesting spots in OLE
London. We visited a big hall which
was built by Queen Elizabeth ant
. where the barristers of England have
been indicted into Office since them
h There is an old table in this hal
>, which was made from the mas. of thu
g shin in which Sir Francis Drake, ia
, nous British explorer of early days
made his trip around the world.
n 81 heard that there were abou
. 5000 American soldiers located a
4, Codford and | went down there tt
E spend Sunday with them. When | ar
O rived | found only $50, an advance
{ guard which had come to prepare TIL
camp for 5000 others. At Codford
: came across a 'Y' hut which had beel
&C conducted by woman for the. pas
" three years. The woman had beel
q very successful in her efforts to serv
~ the soldiers.
i, "Boots worn by the people of Eng
: land at this time were of very poo
~ quality, owing to the great shortag
n of leather. A boy scout who me- u
at the wharf inquired if we did no
~ have some old boots which were n
+ longer of use to us. | explained t
6 him that he had got us at the. Wron
g end as we were all given new boot
before we went aboard ship on tn
- side of the water. The scout e>
planned that even old American boot
IN would wear a great deal longer tina
al their new boots as the material wa
i of much better quality. Enels
# sweedes had not been seen in yea