A "Y" Girl in France: Letters of Katherine Shortall — John Shaqi
A "Y" Girl in France: Letters of Katherine ShortallShortall, Katherine
History
A "Y" Girl in France: Letters of Katherine Shortall
Shortall, Katherine
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
I really have been doing a little work; don't worry. I have been cook
and nurse for three boys with influenza, two in their gloomy billets
and the other in a cold, damp house. That has taken a good deal of
time. Also the Y.M.C.A. has just put up a large tent to be used
instead of its present inadequate quarters and I, with the help of
many boys, have been fixing it up. On Wednesday I went to Sémur on a
shopping tour, riding in on an open limber drawn by mules. The driver
told me those mules had delivered many loads of rations to the boys in
the front trenches by night and had been through gas and shell fire of
the worst kind. It seems that mules can stand much more than horses.
At the Sémur Y.M.C.A. I was able to get flags and posters, tables and
benches for our tent, which were loaded on to the limber. The next day
we set to work on our interior decorating. Never did the hanging of
magnificent paintings in a rich mansion receive more consideration
than the placing of our French and American posters. Symmetry is the
rule of the army! If I put a picture on one side of the tent, it was
absolutely necessary to put one of the same size exactly opposite. At
the end of the long tent are the French and American flags crossed,
and under them, cut with painstaking care from a 1917 Liberty Loan
poster, hangs the Liberty Bell with the words "Ring it Again" above. A
wreath of smilax gathered from the woods encircles each electric
light. Really it is very pretty and gay. But there is a big drawback;
the dampness. The floor is covered with damp sawdust, and one little
stove burning green wood is not enough to dry it. The captain of the
Supply Co. has promised another stove, but until it comes and has been
kept burning several days we can't think of moving in. I have my heart
set on making it the brightest and warmest spot in town. Wine and
cognac shops are my strong competitors. I must get busy.
How would you like to send all your copies of "Life" and any other
magazines to me instead of to the great unknown? They would be
greatly appreciated in Pouillenay. And here's a novel suggestion from
a "highbrow Shortall." Papa, (I exempt Mamma), won't you invite H. and
M. to every musical comedy that comes along, and whenever you hear a
song that is new and good and snappy, send me the music "toot sweet"
as the boys say.
Feb. 14th.
On the other side of this card I have marked my present home on "Main
Street." If you follow this road over the hills you come to the
heights where Vercingetorix of the Gauls made his last stand against
Julius Cæsar. This is historical country. Where javelins and arrows
once flew thick, hordes of Americans are now living, the latest
liberators of these old vineyards. And almost on the site of a pagan
temple stands the Y.M.C.A. tent where a twentieth century priestess
from Chicago hands out cigarettes and plays ragtime. We are in our
tent and drawing crowds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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