Over Periscope Pond : $b Letters from two American girls in Paris October 1916-January 1918Root, Esther Sayles
History
Over Periscope Pond : $b Letters from two American girls in Paris October 1916-January 1918
Root, Esther Sayles
World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
We have found that people can get a furnished room for thirty centimes a
day and up. Awful little rooms, dens of darkness and disease, can be
found (only occasionally, praise be) for three francs a week; but I
can't consider those. I saw one yesterday--a mother and two little girls
live there, and it was about the size of the cabin in our motor-boat,
but made the latter seem vast and airy by comparison. With the prices of
food and coal high, and constantly soaring, the poor people can just
make out their rent and food, but cannot buy clothes. Shoes are thirty
francs and up. You can figure it out for yourself. With our help,
however, many, many poor families can get along that would otherwise be
destitute. Sometimes we can give a girl a suit which will enable her to
present herself for a far better position than she could hope to obtain
in rags. Sometimes boys can go to school if they have warm new shoes, a
black apron, and an overcoat, when without them they would stay at home
and shiver in idleness. Warm strong clothing not only gives a new lease
to health, but to life as a whole. You should see the little girls when
I give them a hair-ribbon or a dress for their doll, if they have one.
I have gathered a lot of old stuff that I found at the Vestiaire and
have brought it home and ironed it out and cut it up fresh and given it
away to all sorts of little "fillettes." I do believe in the trimmings
even for the most wretched, especially if they're kids, and I am glad to
say that Mrs. Shurtleff does, too. We have a box of tinsel favors filled
with tiny bonbons that we give to the littlest, if they are restless
while their parents are being accommodated. The other day we had a
little angel of less than two, a small refugee from Rheims with its
father and mother. Her ears were pierced and supported tiny earrings.
When in this war-time any one had the time and inclination to pierce
that child's ears is one on me! Her father left our part of the
Vestiaire a few minutes to be fitted to an overcoat in the men's
department, and the child began to howl. I took it in my arms and rushed
it after its father as fast as I could go. Then all was serene again. In
some cases we go so far as to move families from crowded, dirty,
unsavory quarters to as clean and as airy a place as we can find in
proportion to their income. We then guarantee their rent for three
months and help them to furnish. This is all in the hands of the
installation department, and I have nothing to do with that, so I cannot
tell you as much as I would like to.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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