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
A wire had been sent to Paris instructing the men of the party to come
down immediately. A couple of tents were secured to provide temporary
sleeping accommodation and the men lined up in the chow line with the
doughboys at meal-time.
The six Salvationists pulled off their coats at once and went to work,
much to the amusement of a few curious soldiers who stood idly watching
them.
They discovered right at the start that the building materials which
had been sent ahead of them had been dumped on the wrong lot, and the
first thing they had to do was to move them all to the proper site.
This was no easy task for men who had but recently left office chairs
and clerical work. Unaccustomed muscles cried out in protest and weary
backs ached and complained, but the men stubbornly marched back and
forth carrying big timbers, and attracting not a little attention from
soldiers who wondered what in the world the Salvation Army could be up
to over in France. Some of them were suspicious. Had they come to try
and stuff religion down their throats? If so, they would soon find out
their mistake. So, half in belligerence, half in amusement, the
soldiers watched their progress. It was a big joke to them, who had
come here for _serious_ business and longed to be at it.
Steadily, quietly, the work went on. They laid the timbers and erected
the framework of their hut, keeping at it when the rain fell and soaked
them to the skin. They were a bit awkward at it at first, perhaps, for
it was new work to them, and they had but few tools. The hut was
twenty-five feet wide and a hundred feet long. The walls went up
presently, and the roof went on. One or two soldiers were getting
interested and offered to help a bit; but for the most part they stood
apart suspiciously, while the Salvation Army worked cheerily on and
finished the building with their own hands.
Colonel Barker meanwhile had gone back to Paris for supplies and to
bring the women overland in the automobile, because he was somewhat
fearful lest they might be held up if they attempted to go out by
train. The idea of women in the camps was so new to our American
soldiers, and so distasteful to the French, that they presented quite a
problem until their work fully justified their presence.
It got about that some real American girls were coming. The boys began
to grow curious. When the big French limousine carrying them arrived in
the camp it was greeted by some of the soldiers with the greatest
enthusiasm while others looked on in critical silence. But very soon
their influence was felt, for a commanding officer stated that his men
were more contented and more easily handled since the unprecedented
innovation of women in the camp than they had been within the
experience of the old Regular Army officers. Profanity practically
ceased in the vicinity of the hut and was never indulged in in the
presence of the Salvationists.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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