Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 234, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1918 — SEW FOR ITALIAN REFUGEES [ARTICLE]

SEW FOR ITALIAN REFUGEES

Another Illustration of Splendid Work Being Done by the American Red Cross in Europe.

A letter from Red Cross headquarters at Rome, quoted by St Paul Pioneer Press, Says: “Great success has attended the operation of ouvroirs, or sewing rooms, for the benefit of women refugees and the poor women of soldiers’ families in Italy. These ouvroirs, established by the American Red Cross, afford em-. ployment to thousands of willing workers, who thereby are enabled to make money to maintain themselves and at the same time supply clothing to others of their own class at about onethird the usual price.” The initial sales of the products of the ouvroirs at Padua and Taormina, Sicily, were gala events in the lives of the afflicted refugees. For hours before the sale opened at Padua long lines of women awaited their chance. Each person was allowed to buy only a given amount. There was also clothing for men and children. Concerning the first public sale at Taormina, a Red Cross worker in charge of the sewing room wrote: “The women, most of them barefoot and pitifully ragged, filed past me to receive for their two and one-half lire (about 35 cents), the fresh, not to say pretty garments made by the workers. One woman wore a dress of sacking. Each was allowed to choose her own dress and each received besides the dress a change of underwear, and, as long as the stockings we had on hand held out, a pair of stockings. The children received two dresses and a change of underwear, and the old men shirts and underwear.”