The contribution of the Y. W. C. A. to the work of big-brothering the army gave a peculiar touch which, unprecedented in war as the whole movement was, carried in a still more unusual and original way the atmosphere of the home and the influence of the social fabric through the training camps and across the ocean. In more than a hundred camps and cantonments its Hostess Houses, accommodating from 500 to 5,000, offered welcome to women friends and relatives visiting soldiers and sailors. The Hostess House, with its flowers and rugs and easy chairs, its desks for writing and tables offering books and magazines, its cheerful, blazing fireplace in winter and its verandas in summer, its pleasant and well conducted cafeteria and its general homelike air, was a charming bit of the outside world set down in the midst of military activities. There mother, wife, sister, sweetheart, friend could meet her soldier or sailor lad, could spend the night if necessary and have good, inexpensive meals. It was the scene of many impromptu weddings, the hostess of the house and her assistants taking charge of the arrangements, when lovers decided suddenly to be married before the ocean and the chances of battle should separate them. The Y. W. C. A. carried its work to France, and in its Hostess Houses there looked after the welfare of the women workers for the American Expeditionary Force and its canteens followed the American troops even to north Russia, where they were established in Murmansk and Archangel.