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
At 4.30 P.M. the ship’s propeller ceased to turn and the steamer came
up into the wind. The United States destroyer acting as convoy also
came to a halt. The French flag on the steamer and the American flag on
the destroyer were at half-mast. Thirty-two men from the dead man’s
company lined up on the after-deck. The coffin (a rough pine box),
heavily weighted at one end, lay across the rail over the stern. Here a
chute had been rigged so that the coffin might not foul the ship’s
screws. The flags remained at half-mast for half an hour. The Salvation
Army Adjutant read the burial service and prayed. Passengers on the
promenade deck looked on. Then a bugler played taps. Every soldier
stood facing the stern with hat off and held across the breast. As the
coffin slipped down the chute and splashed into the sea a firing squad
fired a single rattling volley. The ship came about and, with a shudder
of starting engines, continued her voyage, the destroyer doing
likewise.
During the passage the Adjutant conducted six such funerals, two more
being conducted by a Catholic priest. Four more bodies of men who died
as they neared port were landed and buried ashore.
In the hospital the Envoy was undoubtedly the means of saving several
lives by her endless toil and by the encouragement of her cheerful face
in that depressing place. The sick men called her “Mother” and no
mother could have been more tender than she.
“You look so much like mother,” said one boy just before he died.
“Won’t you please kiss me?”
Another lad, with a great, convulsive effort, drew her hand to his lips
and kissed her just as he passed away.
All of the American officers and two French officers attended the
funerals in full dress uniform and ten sailors of the French navy were
also present.
The night before the ship docked at Bordeaux a letter signed by the
Captain of the ship and the American officers was handed to the Envoy
lady. It contained a warm statement of their appreciation of her
service. Officers of the Aviation Corps who were aboard the ship
arranged a banquet to be held in her honor when they should reach port;
but she told them that she was under orders even as they were and that
she must report to Paris Headquarters at once. And so the banquet did
not take place.
As she left the ship, the soldiers were lined up on the wharf ready to
march. When she came down the gangplank and walked past them to the
street, they cheered her and shouted: “Good-bye, mother! Good luck!”
As the fame of the doughnuts and pies spread through the camps a new
distress loomed ahead for the Salvation Army. Where were the flour and
the sugar and the lard and the other ingredients to come from wherewith
to concoct these delicacies for the homesick soldiers?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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