Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 133, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1918 — “They Are Our Boys; Get Ready, Everyone, for a Rush!” [ARTICLE]

“They Are Our Boys; Get Ready, Everyone, for a Rush!”

The long train of freight cars whined and grumbled as it strove to stop. In the doorway of a great low building a white capped and gowned woman released a sunny smile and, turning so her voice carried into the building, called out, “They are ours; get ready for a rush.” Just how she could tell they were “ours” would-be hard to explain, for at the moment she spoke hundreds of the dirtiest, grizzliest inen a woman ever saw came fairly tumbling out of the freight cars. A moment more she was welcoming this muddy rabble with a laugh and cheering-words. •

Inside the building there were more women, all spick and span in white, with faces beaming, handing out good “home cooked” food over spotless tiled counters. Some of the boys fairly ran for the’food; others went into the long batteries of baths, throwing out their vermin ridden clothes to be sterilized while they scrubbed their bodies back to a healthy glow. What luxury It all was —food, tables, chairs, things to read, games to play, paper for writing, a barber shop, a movie theater and goon, clean beds! No one ever thought that these hap-

py, smiling women might be tired, nor were they tired then, even though all day long they had been serving train after train of French ’ and English troops, literally thousands of them. Yet what did that matter? For these boys that came at the end of a long day—.these boys are “ours.” If your boy is In France you may be sure he has a song of praise for the fine women at work tn the railway canteens of our own Red Cross, for at every Important railway junction there is one of our Red Cross canteens and at each canteen there are 18 women—real, true American women.