The War Romance of the Salvation ArmyHill, Grace Livingston
History
The War Romance of the Salvation Army
Hill, Grace Livingston
World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Salvation Army
During the early days of the Salvation Army work in France, while the
work was still under inspection as to its influence on the men, and one
Colonel had sent a Captain around to the meetings to report upon them
to him, “Ma’s” was one of the meetings to which the Captain came.
She did not know that she was under suspicion, but that night she spoke
on obedience and discipline, taking as her text: “Take heed to the
law,” and urging the men to obey both moral and military laws so that
they might be better men and better soldiers. The Captain reported on
her sermon and said that he wished the regiment had a Salvation Army
chaplain for every company.
The hospital visitation work was started by “Ma” in the Paris hospitals
while she was in that city for several months regaining her strength
after a physical break-down at the front. She was idolized by the
wounded. If she walked along any hospital passageway or through any
ward, a crowd of men were sure to call her by name. They knew her as
“Ma,” and frequently, overworked nurses have called up the Paris
Salvation Army Headquarters asking if Ma could not find time to come
down and sit with a dying boy who was calling for her. She observed
their birthdays with books and other small presents, wrote to their
mothers, wives and sweethearts, and performed a multitude of
invaluable, precious little services of love. For weeks after she left
Paris, returning to the front, the wounded called for her. She is one
of the outstanding figures of the Salvation Army’s work with the
American Expeditionary Forces in France. She is indelibly enshrined in
the hearts of hundreds of American soldiers.
A Salvation Army lassie bent over the bed of a wounded boy recently
arrived in the Paris hospital from the front, and gave him an orange
and a little sack of candy.
“I know the Salvation Army,” he said with a faint smile, “I knew I
should find you here.”
She asked him his division and he told her he belonged to one that had
been coöperating with the French.
“But how can that be?” she asked in surprise, “we have never worked
with your division. How do you know about us?”
“I only saw the Salvation Army once,” he replied, “but I’ll never
forget it. It was when I came back to consciousness in the Dressing
Station at Cheppy, and the first thing I saw was a Salvation Army girl
bending over me washing the blood and dirt off my face with cold water.
She looked like an angel and she was that to me. She gave me a drink of
cold lemonade when I was burning up with fever, and she lifted my head
to pour it between my lips when I had not strength to move myself. No,
I shall not forget!”
One bright young fellow with a bandaged eye turned a cheerful grin
toward the Salvation Army visitor as she said with compassion: “Son,
I’m sorry you’ve lost your eye.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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