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
Long before the hour announced for the service the soldier boys had
crowded the hutment to its greatest capacity. Game and reading tables
had been moved to the rear and extra benches brought in. The men stood
three deep upon the tables and filled every seat and every inch of
standing room. When there was no more room on the floor, they climbed
to the roof and lined the rafters. There was no air and the Adjutant
came to say there was too much light, but none of these things damped
the enthusiasm.
With the aid of the regimental chaplain, the Staff-Captain had arranged
a suitable program for the occasion, the regimental band furnishing the
music.
When the General entered the hutment all of the men stood and uncovered
and the band stopped abruptly in the middle of a strain. “That’s the
worst thing I ever did—stopping the music,” he exclaimed ruefully. He
refused to occupy the chair which had been prepared for him, saying:
“No, I want to stand so that I can look at these men.”
The records of the work in that hut would be precious reading for the
fathers and mothers of those boys, for the Fighting Eighteenth Infantry
are mostly gone, having laid their young lives on the altar with so
many others. Here is a bit from one lassie’s letter, giving a picture
of one of her days in the hut:
“Well, I must tell you how the days are spent. We open the hut at 7; it
is cleaned by some of the boys; then at 8 we commence to serve cocoa
and coffee and make pies and doughnuts, cup cakes and fry eggs and make
all kinds of eats until it is all you see. Well, can you think of two
women cooking in one day 2500 doughnuts, 8 dozen cup cakes, 50 pies,
800 pancakes and 225 gallons of cocoa, and one other girl serving it?
That is a day’s work in my last hut. Then meeting at night, and it
lasts two hours.”
A lieutenant came into the canteen to buy something and said to one of
the girls: “Will you please tell me something? Don’t you ever rest?”
That is how both the men and officers appreciated the work of these
tireless girls.
Men often walked miles to look at an American woman. Once acquainted
with the Salvation Army lassies they came to them with many and strange
requests. Having picked a quart or so of wild berries and purchased
from a farmer a pint of cream they would come to ask a girl to make a
strawberry shortcake for them. They would buy a whole dozen of eggs
apiece, and having begged a Salvation Army girl to fry them would eat
the whole dozen at a sitting. They would ask the girls to write their
love letters, or to write assuring some mother or sweetheart that they
were behaving themselves.
Soldiers going into action have left thousands of dollars in cash and
in valuables in the care of Salvation Army officers to be forwarded to
persons designated in case they are killed in action or taken prisoner.
In such cases it is very seldom that a receipt is given for either
money or valuables., so deeply do the soldiers trust the Salvation
Army.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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