The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-01-22

Until last summer, the Y. w. C.. A. meant nothing more to me than the feminine gender of Y. M. c. A., formed by turning the M upside down. And of the Y. M. c. A. I knew little beyond the fact that it had swimming pools in most of the large American cities. It was inter- esting, therefore, last August, on the
 Continent, in a crowded railway car
 iage (which on European trains are cOmpartmental, and so make for easy
 conversation and acQuaintanceship)
 to meet two Young Women Chris tian associates returning to the United States after five years missionary sojourn in Japan.
 We did not speak at once; Eng fish and American tourists never do, the former because they are soured with the superior airs of Anglicanism the latter because we are tainted with the bad manners of Methodists. We went through the usual preliminary ritual of pretending to be disinter- ested in one another, of unnecessary clearings of ones throat, unneces- sary windings of ones watch, un- necessary mistings and dryings of ones spectacles, and all the foolish frigidity of behavior that came to be regarded as good form" when the Reformers ruined the natural com radeship of Christianity.
 It was very nice Polish gentle man, Catholic, travelling in our family, who shamed us into conver- sation. After vainly trying to make friends with us by cordial little blinkings of his eyes, fittings of his nose, churnings of his mouth, and shruggings of his shoulders, fiis warm Catholic heart, eager to give and receive affection, drove him, as a last desperate effort, to open his lunch basket and offer us each, for pity's sake. a cheese sandwich.
 It was cruel to refuse him, but we Americans did, the ladies for their own reasons, and because my usual railway headache was with me. and was doing quite well, thank you, without any further caloric assist ance. However, we tried to make it up to him with much gracious bow ling and smiling, and I tried to tell him in eesticulated Polish that ke was an .wfully good sport, and I wasn't refusing because l feared the Poles bearing gifts, but only be- cause l couldn't manage a cheese and a headache on the same jour- ney.
 After this episode the Y. w. c. A. and the k. C. Church felt we could exchange a word or two without violating the conventional canons of Christian conduct. Hitherto we had had nothing in common (except a language, flag, an Unknown Soldier a human nature, and an original father and mother). Now, by Gods mercy, we had acquired something definitely in common, something that would warrant cur truning Hem and Flaw into Hello. Even Emily Post would forgive us now for speaking without icing introduced. We had esta blished a point of social con- tact. We mad refused a cheese sand wich conjointly. (And incidentally they were the largest cheese sand wiches in point Of cheese have ever witnessed. There was an absolute geometrical minimum of bread to them, just enough to give one a the nice Polish gentleman. after talk ing a gigantic lite out his, showed us. by round smile and a luscious bulge on his cheek, that we didn't know what we were missing.)
 It was not to be expected, al- though we chatted for three hours, that the Y. w. c. A. ladies should give me their. names. And in a way I am rather glad they did not do so, as it will allow me to write about them with less embarrassment and more elbow-room. So whether they were Carrie and Cora, or Daph- ne and Iora, or Eff and Flora. or some other selections from a fem mine litany not usually associated with ora pro nobis, for purposes cf this tale let x (equaD Y. w. c. A.: let SX (equaD two ex-mission- aries returning from Japan; and let 3X (equsD three exiles in Europe, two members of the "Y," and one member of the "liy" Catholic priest hood, who became friends in a Con- tinental railway compartment all over a cheese sandwich.
 If there is any bitterness in these lines so far, and there seems to be, it is directed against a heresy, and not against these Young Women's Christian Associates personally. Per
 sonally they won my regard and admiration much more than they will ever know. Indeed, this paper is in- tended 10 be a eulogy of their spen- did goodness. eulogy feel will be ] all the iEore sincere because they
 will never read 1t or even dream of