Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 175, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1916 — Prominent Women in Training Camp for War Service [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Prominent Women in Training Camp for War Service

Mrs. Robert Lansing, wife of the Secretary of State; is among those who drill and learn at the National Service School.

/TT'V HE outstanding feature at | the end of the first week 1 of the women’s prepared- | ness camp at Chevy Chase, near Washington, seemed Ay t° b® blisters —blisters on the feet, says the Kansas iQwp City Star. Wj And tan. The thousand young women In the trainin ing camp were as red faced as lobsters, always assuming lobsters to be red faced. It is the tan of wind and sun and life in the open. _;. The belles who tangoed in high heels all winter long, with never a hint of anguish, were nursing swollen, blistered feet as a result of wearing stiff high service shoes. The khaki coats and skirts were bad enough, they were so different from the soft, fluffy garments that the girls otherwise might have worn. It was the National Service School for Wopien, this training camp, conducted by the woman’s section of the Navy league, of which Mrs. George Dewey, wife of Admiral Dewey, is president. The thousand girls soon settled down to the business of learning how women may help in time of war. It was preparedness of the most practical gprt being undertaken. Imagine a tented city, Jaid out in regular streets, with guards posted and military discipline prevailing. In each tent are five cots, occupied by four girls and a chaperon—some matron whb is enjoying the training camp just as much a& if she weren’t mar-

ried, because she, too, is a girl again. One of these matrons is Mrs. Robert Lansing, wife of the secretary of state, and she is drilling with the girls in her $10.50 khaki uniform just as though she had never known the social burdens of an official hostess in the national capital. . There are five wash basins and five small mirrors in each tent also. Betents are electrically lighted. And because it is further convenient, showerbaths are provided for the girls in khaki. But these need not be regarded as luxuries. They simply are modemnecessities. - Reveille at 6:30. Out of these tents, when reveille is sounded at 6:30 o’clock in the morning, pour the “boarding pupils” of the sendee school. The “day pupils” live in Washington and come later. For half an hour there is marching and countermarching under the direction of three United States army officers, who are assigned to the camp as instructors. They pretend to dislike their job, these officers, but in reality, they wouldn’t miss it for a good deal. The girls are so pretty, and despite their blistered feet they smile so bewitchingly. At seven the mess tent calls. Breakfast for one iporning consists of eggs and bacon, prunes, baked potatoes and coffee. Another morning it is oranges, bacon and hominy, bread and butter, green onions and coffee. The only difference between the fare of the woman’s training camp and that of the United States Marine corps is that the girls are allowed butter three times a day and the marines only twice. But they thrive on it. Bless you, there was less need of rouge among these thousand girls last week than any week in all their lives. The unbreakable crockery and the camp “silver” are lent by the marine corps, by the way. - •' Then comes the ceremony of the changing of the guard, which is another regulation borrowed from the United States army. And after that there is a busy day.

The one obligatory course is that of Red Cross first aid and surgical dressing of wounds. No less than 3,600 yards of gauze is used in the classes in a week’s time. A Red Cross head nurse and 30 trained assistants are the instructors in these classes, of which there are five dally, each putting in an hour. Girls Enjoy Signaling. Then the girls may take semaphore signaling lessons if they like, and nearly all of them do. “Wigwagging” is one of the most enjoyable of all the camn activities. The “pupils” learn the signal alphabet, finding some difficulty With the letters beyond “N” and pronouncing "R” particularly hard, but they learn it and can transmit dispatches by signal with some facility already, as well as “read” those sent There are classes in wireless teieg-

raphy. A big tent serves as the wireless station, and a very large number of the young women are enrolled as students here. And classes in dietetic cookery for the wounded attract many others, while another important instraction tent 7 Is thatr where ~ sewing for the wounded Is taught and where many sewing machines are kept humming by apt pupils. But the hospital tent, after all, is the chief center of interest in the camp. One lesson, for instance, consisted in demonstrations of how to make a bandage and how to dress and bind an injury, and how to use a broom in properly sweeping a floor — all being practical duties that fall to army nurses. Then there is drilling and more march, lunch and supper in due time, Inspection of tents by a regular army officer and inspection of personal equipment, just as In the army. _

O. K. on Silk Pajamas. The inspector who found pink boudoir slippers under the cots and pale blue negligees and silken pajamas draped over the cots, and here and there a rainbow petticoat, merely smiled and put his official O. K. on it all. Finally comes taps, at ten o’clock, and every light in the camp goes out, and the tired, footsore young women slip off into dreamland, where there are no regulations of any sort. For, while there may be cases of leniency and an occasional overlook-

ing of some minor infraction of. the camp rules, it is no pink tea affair, after all. Penalties are Imposed for such breaches of the regulations as absence from classes, absence from

taps, unauthorized absence from camp, Insubordination and lack of personal neatness or neatness of quarters, the penalties running from reprimand to dismissal. As in a regular army camp, there Is no trilling permitted. Every afternoon and evening there are lectures, dealing w’lth preparedness in some form. F. D. Roosevelt, assistant secretary of the navy, talked on “National Preparedness” at one of these lectures. At another Mme. Slavko Grouitch, a refugee, described the horrors of the Serbian situation and told “How Women Can Help In Preparing.” John Barrett, Pan-Amer-ican authority, told of our relations with Central and South American nations, and what may be expected of them in the event this nation becomes involved in war. And so on. Experts in various phases of national defense tell the thousand young women at Chevy Chase all about the many sides of preparedness and how women can help In times of stress. Many widely-known women answered to first roll call at the Service school. Missouri was represented by Mrs. Genevieve Clark Thompson, daughter of Speaker Champ Clark. Mrs. Frank G. Odenhelmer of Maryland, president general of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, was there too. Every section of the country was represented, as a matter of fact, although the largest delegations came from New York. When the president, in his address to the students of the Service school, said, “God forbid that we should be drawn into war,” and then added that if war came America would be found ready to defend its honor apd integrity, the young women of Chevy Chase camp felt a patriotic thrill like, that which must have animated the mothers of the Revolution and the heroic women of Civil war times. Miss Elizabeth Elliott Poe, the commandant, and Mrs. Vella Poe Wilson, the adjutant of the camp, headed the list of officers, which included those of the two battalions and the two companies which compose each battalion. The camp was a complete success at the end of the first week—so success

ful that already plans are under wdf for holding similar service schools at Ga.; San Diego, Cal., and San Francisco. At San Francisco the school will be open for three months and one thousand women will be Instructed each month. The Chevy Chase camp, it may be predicted, is only the beginning of a great national woman’s movement for national defense.