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
1. This division moves by rail to destination unknown beginning at 6.00
A.M., July 28th. Motor organizations of the Division move overland.
Your motorized units will accompany the advanced section of the
Division Supply Train, and will form a part of that train.
2. Time of departure and routes to be taken will be announced later.
3. Secretaries attached to units may accompany units, if it is so
desired.
By command of Major-General Summerall.
P. E. Peabody,
Captain, Infantry,
G-1
Copies:
YMCA
Red Cross
Salvation Army
G-3
C. of S.
File
The girls stowed themselves and their belongings into the big truck.
Just as they were about to start they saw some infantry coming, seven
men whom they knew, but in such a plight! They were unshaven, with
white, sunken faces, and great dark hollows under their eyes. They were
simply “all in,” and could hardly walk.
Without an instant’s hesitation the girls made a place for those poor,
tired, dirty men in the truck, and the invitation was gratefully
accepted.
There were more poor forlorn fellows coming along the road. They kept
meeting them every little way, but they had no room to take in any more
so they piled oranges in the back end of the truck and gave them to all
the boys they passed who were walking.
Now the girls were on their way to Senlis, where they had planned to
take dinner at a hotel in which they had dined before. It was one of
the few buildings remaining in the town for the Germans, when they left
Senlis, had set it on fire and destroyed nearly everything. But as the
girls neared the town they began to think about the boys asleep in the
back of the truck, who probably hadn’t had a square meal for a week,
and they decided to take them with them. So they woke them up when they
arrived at the hotel. Oh, but those seven dirty, unshaven soldiers were
embarrassed with the invitation to dinner! At first they declined, but
the girls insisted, and they found a place to wash and tidy up
themselves a bit. In a few minutes into the big dining-room filled with
French soldiers and a goodly sprinkling of French officers, marched
those two girls, followed by their seven big unshaven soldiers with
their white faces and hollow eyes, sat proudly down at a table in the
very centre and ordered a big dinner. That is the kind of girls
Salvation Army lassies are. Never ashamed to do a big right thing.
After the dinner they took the boys to their divisional headquarters,
where they found their outfit.
They went on their way from Senlis to Dam-Martin to stay for a week
back of the lines for rest.
There was a big French cantonment building here built for moving
pictures, which was given to them for a canteen, and they set up their
stove and went to work making doughnuts, and doing all the helpful
things they could find to do for the boys who were soon to go to the
front again.
Then orders came to move back to the Toul Sector.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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