Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1918 — A BIT OF HOME WITHIN THE CAMP [ARTICLE]

A BIT OF HOME WITHIN THE CAMP

A long, low building of frame construction, attractively planned," with wide verandas and a homelike aspect Outside are hanging the flags—the Stars and Stripes, which must soon be taken in as it is nearly sunset, and another flag bearing a little triangle of blue and the letters Y. W. C. A. It is a fall afternoon and the air is a bit sharp. Through the front windows of the house the woman approaching up the walk can see the cheerful glow of an open fireplace. There is the sound of a piano and some one is singing. The woman, who is slight and young and tired-looking, puts her heavy suitcase down on the walk and shifts the baby she is carrying to the other arm. She listens a minute, then picks up the luggage and walks bravely up to the front door. Some one has heard her coming and is there to meet her. Some one always is in places like this. The door is thrown open and a kind woman’s voice says: “Oh, do come in and rest. Let me take the baby." The baby is passed over and the stranger, worn from a long journey, tired and sad, is given the welcome which only the Y. W. C. A. hostesses know how to give. She explains that she has come to see John before he leaves for the front. She has been saving her money for traveling expenses, and has come to surprise him. John has never seen the baby, and now maybe he never will, for she has discovered that John has just left on a two days’ furlough to surprise her. Before she could get a train back to her home John’s furlough will have expired and he will be on his way back to camp. The little mother does not know Jiow to meet the situation and tears of fatigue and disappointment begin to flow. “Well, that’s too bad," says thqsympathetic Y. W. C. A. worker. >l ßut cheer up. You can just stay here for a couple of days. We’ll send a wire to John at the first place his train stops and tell him to take the next train back. He can enjoy his furlough here." This is done and the little family has a glorious day of it. • The Young Women’s Christian association "has established 92 hostess houses of this character for American soldiers and sailors and their families. In this brief bulletin of news lies one of the most potent factors in the winning of this war. Our boys are fighting for their homes. The Y. W. C. A. with its hostess work in this country end in France is helping to keep the ideal" of American home life constantly before the men who are protecting it. These men had to go away from their individual homes, but there is a home which follows them—a place where they can go when they are off duty and meet their families and rest. There is a room in every Y. W. C. A. hostess house with a real fireplace in it and a domestic hearth. There are chairs with cushions on them; the china is not of the iron-bound bucket variety necessary in camps; and best of all, the boys say, there are nice women to talk to. No boy in camp would hesitate to ask his mother or

sister or the girl he thinks most of to meet him at a Y. W. C. A. house, for he knows that the women she will see there are of the right kind. The very fact that it is known that there is a real, homey place near each camp authorized by the war department and presided over by dignified and refined women, has served very largely to discourage the Other type of woman and keep her away from the men she formerly preyed upon. The Y. W. C. A. houses are not established with any view to marking class lines, however, although many of the hostesses who assist led lives of greatest ease and luxury before the war. Democracy rules at the sign of the little Blue Triangle. A story is told of a great merchant’s wife whose individual fortune mounts to the million mark. This lady is a member of one of the Y. W. C. A. committees, and on one occasion she was helping in the cafeteria of a hostess house at the Great Lakes naval training station. A little shopgirl who had a “day off” from her work in the basement of the great store ovFned by the Y. W. C. A. worker’s husband, and who had come to see her sailor brother, was in a State street hurry for service. She sharply ordered the merchant’s wife to “look alive with these forks, girlie.” The lady addressed as “girlie” quite humbly saw to it that the pile of forks was replenished. Then she went over and talked to the girl, helped her to locate her brother and sent her away happy. ’The shopgirl never knew that she had been talking to her employer’s wife. . There are two hostess houses at the Great Lakes station, and it is a wonderful sight to see the crowds of women relatives and friends of the sailors who throng to them on the Wednesday drill afternoons. From 1,000 to 3,000 persons a day are cared for in the cafeterias, and the nurseries are full of sailor babies, whose mothers can leave them there safely while they are on the grounds. In addition to the hostess house work in this country the Y. W. C. A. has established the famous Hotel Pe* trograd in Paris as a center for transient woman war workers overseas. There are also many foyers or recreation centers in France where girl munitions workers, signal corps girls and others are refreshed ’and brightened by association with the play leaders Of the Y. W. C. A. who have introduced 1 American gymnasium classes Into French life. »