San Antonio Express. (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 220, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 8, 1915 Page: 23 of 66
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aAN ANTONIO EXPRESS: SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 8, 1915.
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Great Good Is Being Accom-
plished by Women and Gtrls
Who Turn Out Mattresses
and Bandages, Knit Socks
and Make Leather Coats for
the War Birds.
PRESS comment in many directions is making merry with the thirty
years' age limit for Young Women's Christian Association members.
Of course if it is a question of grammatical accuracy only, thirty seems a
charitable bound for youth—but—as youth of heart and age in wisdom make
for ideal efficiency among workers in any cause, it might be better to alter
(he name of the organization rather thjin drop from the lists the great band
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of women of experience, breadth of charity and understanding, which only
comes with years of service for others.
Japan seems to have come to a better appreciation of the fact that ex-
perience in any direction is of great value, than we of the Occident—for as
a woman increases in age in Japan, so she grows in importance. In that
blissful land birthday anniversaries are real fetes, for each one gives wom-
an greater independence, larger value.
In quite a different setting women of
experience without regard to the thirty
years' dead line are doing magnificent
work—particularly in France. Once friv-
olous Paris also valued only the very
young, if woman was the subject under
discussion, now in the important work of
rehabilitation any one who knows how,
who has experience in organization, zeal in
service, is received with Joyful acclaim
particularly in the Paris branch of the
Young Woman's Christian Association.
I had only been in Paris a few hours
when I found myself a member of this
order, and a few hours later I was send-
ing a hurry message to St. Paul's Chapel,
Broadway: "If they loved me th send
me a thousand yards of mattress material
for Belgian and French relief." The Bel-
gian relief part was to make a bed for a
refugee, the French relief was to give
sowing to a French girl who had nd work
on account of the closing of the great
dressmaking departments owing to the war
which is keeping fashionable America,
away. Within an hour of arrival in my
own city, Brooklyn, I was registering at
the Young Woman's Christian Asportation
sure of a haven after 8,000 miles of dan-
gerous and often heart-breaking experi-
ence, but it was not a very commodious
haven, for I am decidedly on the wrong
wide of thirty so I was politely remanded
that 1 could only consider myself a bird
of passage unless the clock of time could
be set back—but that is another story.
REFt'GEfiS MILLIONS OF THEM
There seems little romance connected
with bed making, even though beds have
a part in a third of the life of man. and
figure in poetry and art—but there is
much charity suggested in a bed for the
homeless, for with It goes a roof. It
was not very hard to get roofs in Paris
to shelter the refugee—the most pathetic
word in the language just now. when one
remembers there are certainly three mil-
lions of them in France and Belgium
at this time. So weary are the poor moth-
ers. so nearly dead from fatigue are the
little children who reach the shelters pro-
vided by the "Coraite da Seeours Na-
tional," that a place to lie down Is all
they want for the time being—if there is
no "bed on which they can rest, it is like
the child calling for bread when there is
but a stone to offer him.
With this French «oc|ety most of the
American relief work is connected, for
it knows the people and the best may to
aid without pauperling them. The Amer-
icana are furnishing help in everj^ direc
tion, no countrywomen that I have met
la miktpg one penny of support for herself
from war work, the auxiliary nurses in the
hospitals draw money from home to live
on while they give every waking hour to
nursing, and so it Is all along the line.
This war is costing America an enor-
mous sum in the work and money its citi-
zens are lavishing of the needy, but in
spiritual gain and valuable experience the
United States will certainly be enriched
if its children lUe to come home after
the war Is ended.
The association has a fund for unem-
ployed women—no that it gives out the
cash alone to the unemployed, the plan is
better—it provides workrooms and gives
sewing to all who care to take it. From
nine to six, with two hours in the middle
of the day for b&akfast and rest, the
women sew. They receive a franc (twenty
cents) and all they can eat at one meal.
The long rest at noon makes it possible
to return home to look after domestic af
fairs and the late hour in the morning
also makes possible to attend to their lit
tie ones before coming to work.
Under this fund up to April 1, last,
12,000 days of employment had been given
which meant 12.000 meals also. At present
over one hundred women are regularly
employed in sewing each day. Their work
largely consists of garments for soldiers,
refugees, the poor of Paris and the blind.
There are four hundred blind In Parli
from near the scene of the battle of the
Marne—not blinded by war, but deprived
of homes through the war.
Two hundred mattresses a week ar^
made, giving more than two hundred days'
employment to the workers—and as the
American contributions flow in for thjp
latest work the number of workers will
be added to. The form of bed Is practical,
a strongly made tick fileld with clean
straw, which is often changed. Then when
the user returns to the country, for that
is the hope of the organizers, to return
the people to their own land at the first
opportunity, the tick can be carried home
*ith them and refilled wherever the owner
chances to be. *
THE WORLD OUT OF JOINT
The making of bandages goes on all the
times at the association. This work is
in charge of Mrs. Wade Ransom of Sa-
vannah, Ga„ with a corps of twenty-
fire ladies—not girls. Compresses, band-
ages. and recently, proteetorn from gas
fumes are being turned ont «t the rate of
4,500 a month. This work is very carefully
done. Every piece of gauze is cut after
drawing out of a thread to guide the
scissors so there will be no ravelling t«»
annoy a woun«f. The strips, five yards
ioug. and of different widths, are tightly
wound on a little machine which is turned
by band. Then they are sent away to be
sterilized and are given to the various
ambulances where there is a constantly
increasing demand for them.
So much is this work needed that in
many hospitals they have to wash and
use time and again the ontside bandages.
So much cotton i* going into the making
of high explosives little is left for repair-
ing the damage made by the explosives.
The world is certainly "out of Joint."
Great ouantitle* of papfr napkins are
folded and sent to the men in the trenches,
they use them for towels, to lift pots and
pans off their fires and finally to kindle
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widow and baby will have to look else-
where for a living.
The educational classes of the association
have been suspended, except the French
and English for all work now has war aid
in view rather than personal advancement
-—French is necessary for hospital work
a point it is well for American girls to
keen In mind. I returned to New York
with two deeply disgusted local girls who
went forth on borrowed money to do great
deeds for France in the hospitals, but be-
cause they had no French they were not
accepted. The patients In Parts are mostly
French or Belgians one must know what
they are asking for, or be able to en-
courage in a tongue they can understand.
First aid, medical massage, bandaging
classes and lectures on war needs have
taken the place once held by cooking
classes and typing and literature and art.
Nothing else but war and- rehabilitation
fill the minds of the workers now. religion
is evidenced more in work and prayer
than in profession, but Dr. Hlatt of the
American Church and Dr. Shurtleff, whose
work for the last decade in the Latin
quarter has brought liiin in kindly touch
with the American student class, and Dr.
.\. S V. Blunt of the British Embassy
Church, often find time to talk on Sunday
evenings to those gathered in the rooms at
rue C.odot de Mauroi. After "i>elng good"
w«* all have ten together and « hat of what
we are to do next day for the "cause.'*
IlOW BALANCE IS STRl'CK.
Breakfast and tea at the<« rooms are
i quite an institution, for a ver> g«H>d meal
is given for a franc at noon, and tea for
hair that price to members and as Frenclt
menues are decidedly trying for a novice
! in French it is a blessing relief to have
| fpod with American names spread before
I you. This part of the work is run with a
profit, and the surplus goes to war relief,
' as does everything anyone of us can save.
It is really not very good form in Paris
I to buy anything foi personal adornment,
glove* are worn until they begin t«» break,
and are only given up then for if worn
long they will not be good enough fop
the air man's Jacket It i^ not bad for
trade, as one would jhink. not to buy, /«r
tlie •'hops are mostly out of business, few
the '
rhst
leavings
the fires with -all this comfort, and I
hear the paper towels are very great com-
fort t«» the boys in front, came from New
York City friends May they keep the good
work going
One rather picturesque bit of work Is
the making of kid vests for the men of the
flying craft. Most of the romance of war
clings to tf • "war birds** as the aeroplanes
are called but when it Is remembered that
the«e vests are made of bits of kid gloves
which have probably eovered beautiful
hands at wedding or ball an«l now cover
stout b«»srt< way up in the air. where the
great machines bover over the sleeping
city and camps, watching, watching for the
birds of prey who are waitlug to hurl
bombs of fire on the unconscious children
and wonnded below—and are only prevent
ed from doing so by the steady spirits on
guard.
These bits of gloves come from every
part of the I'nlted States—tfeey must have
beon cleaned before being sent -that Is the
onlj reqiinnt it matters not bow
small the piece of kid Is It mill be added to
other pieces with pretty stitches, until
the whole is large enough to be fitted to
the breast snd shoulders of the 'flying
man.' It would be interesting to know
how many old gloves are thrown away In
New York each week; please send them to
Paris instead—5 cents postage will carry
several pair.
WHAT AMERICA CAN DO
An American firm has loaned a knitting
machine to the work rooms of the Young
Woman's Christian Association and It is
turning out beautiful socks for the soldiers.
A good little French widow -husband mas
killed when her son was one meek old -
runs it for us for one franc a day and
in., meals. Every three honrs she Joy-
fully re«*ords a S*omplete pair of socks, not
only made but pressed, a very important
Item which has escaped tne attention of
the good people who spend s.» rmauy weary
hours knitting for tlu- soldiers theu turn
In socks rough or full of knots which
probably will rub the'skin of the wearers.
Oue pound of mool mill make four pairs
of socks the cost in labor and f«»od is lit
tie over tw«» francs I On cental, four men
made <*oQifortable. a woman and baby sup
ported for every pound of mool received
wool Is very high In France nam. Could
not some American girls save their « andy
money and put it into yarn for this ma-
chine? For when the small «stock of wool
on hand Is gone the machine stops, the
new things are brought int
Is on sale Is in most
o! las; summer.
The shop girls mho have been thrown
ont of employment by the lonv ni Miths of
war form *onie part of our m«»rkuu fon-e
in the sewing rooms so self denial of the
members and friends of the a^-«* iatioii
help them, as personal adornment in hap-
piei days gave them a living >«> a balance
Is struck with the «eale In favor rather of
the denial side, for certainly I have never
nitnc in touch with momen any sweeter
than those w«»rkiug so hard for i»eople who
are not of their own. nor even of their
tongue War is quite ;ts bad as It i*
(minted, even more but its firesslMvn
burmsl am«v the dross of self froi
thousands of heart< and better men awl
better women will be parents of conrtnf
generations because of it.
JEAN CABELlt ON&IUC
m *
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San Antonio Express. (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 220, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 8, 1915, newspaper, August 8, 1915; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth433122/m1/23/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Library Consortium.