Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1920-04-05
FORMER LOCAL
GIRL HEROINE
Miss Elizabeth Balm, Form
erly of This City,
Known as "Boule-
ward Angel"
WONDERFUL WORK
Story Tells how Americans
We're Saved From French
Sirens.
WONDERFUL O r

The story of the Incompatible wal
work of Il former Webster City girl,
Miss Elizabeth Balm, is told in a re.
cent number Of The Congregationalist
aud Advance, aicopy of which is in the
possession Of Mrs. George s. Neel OF
this city.
Miss Bain's home is 10 in Portland,
Orc, but. she is well known here, hav-
ing been reared here and having gradu'
ated from the Webster City schools
She is a daughter of Mrs. ]. II. Balm
Of this city, and a sister of Mrs. q. D
Doolittle, a former resident, now OF
Des Moimcs.
Miss Balm went to France as a Y. NJ.
C. A. worker and through her social
work among the soldiers became known
as the Boulevard Angel" The story
published by The'Congrcgationalist and
Alliance, written by u ~" man., is as
follows:
This is not a story Of the front line
trenches Of France. But it is neverthe-
less a tale Of, heroism, unique and in
spiring-a narrative of a sweet, fear
less, fesOurccful American girl armed
with an u~nflagging sense Of humor,
who for six months helped our soldier
boys hold the trench line of virtue when
they came. up from the various pro-
yimccs of France on three days leave
to enjoy what they called ''the Battle
Of Paris"
Miss Elizabeth Balm Of Portland,
Ore, was a member OF. the staff Of the
American Y. NJ. C. A., in the French
METROPOLIS. Her achievements. amaz-
ingly novel even in a war fraught with
novelty, led one trained observer to
vote her 1.-THE most wonderful woman
in France She was the boulevard
Angel whose ardu0us working hours
were from nine in the evening until
two or three In the morning, whose
beat was the liveliest and wickedest
street in the civilized world, and whose
task was the saving Of a few Of our
American soldier lads from the clutches
Of the immoral women of Paris.
Having heard cnticing tales Of her
achievements, l started out late one
chilly evening eastward along the Boul.
cvard DIES Capucines to catch her. If
l might, in the very act of doing her
brave service. The sidewalk held the
typical Partisan boulevard thr0ng Of
the postwar months. gray-blue with
many uniforms of French sOldiery. even
more conspicuously Olive-drab with the
men Of the American Expcditionary
Force. Like railroad trains slowly
passing each other, the two streams of
lettering humanity drifted. the one
nearer the shop windows toward the
Madeleine. the other nearer the gutter
toward the Place de la Republique. !
stopped to chat with some d%oughboys
seated in the high lights in front of a
cafe. "We're just watching 'em roll
along. roll along they said.
Preyins Upon the Doughboys.
But not all Of the rolling tide was
aimlessly drifting. The sirens were
there, the forty thousand street girls
of Paris, b%razenly, cleverly, ceaselessly
plying their trade. If a man was in
the khaki Of an American private, a
dozen 'camOufiaged DANES" as the
dougboys call them, would accost him
In the space Of q block. Ii he an
officers belt and puttecs and sauntered
along with tempting leisureliness. the
number might become a round scOr..
The underwOrlds Of London and Pari.
have been lOath to give up the Ameri-
can soldier. With his cmbarkatioa for
the states faded away their golden op-
p~Ortdnity which they have been I'M
proving with .devilish ingenuity during
the last year.
But 1 failed to discover the Angel
until / had ~traversed eastward to the
Rue sd'Hautevi1le. Here l expected to
find her, here l did find her-where
the throng was most deeply Olive-draD
with the dougbOys coming from and
going toward the nearby Hotel du Pa
villon. the enlisted mems headquarters.
She had been chatting with two sol
diers sitting on boulevard chairs. and
as she left them with a goodnight,
their eyes followed her with
unconcealed admiration. Her blue hat
wore the inverted red triangle. her
long blue-collared green cape was the
same as that which has endeared sew
eral thousands of our picked American
girls, to thousands upon thousands Of
our fighting lads overseas.
When the story of the war is told In
its proportional completeness, the most
amazingly new chapter in 1.-THE chap
ter which has struck Europe dumb with
hOrriRed astOnishment-will be the tale
OF the canteen girl. whether represent
ing the ..Y,' Red Cross or Salvation
- $50 .a,- nHa