It was agreed that the French administration would furnish the necessary buildings and provide electric light, running water, and coal for heating. On the other hand, the American Red Cross undertook to furnish all other supplies--cooking appliances, coal for cooking, equipment, stores, medical supplies, and personnel. As early as July 31, Major Perkins wrote that our American Red Cross was now ready to serve a full meal at seventy-five centimes (fourteen or fifteen cents) a person, and other drinks and dishes at small cost to the _poilu_. Men without funds on receiving a voucher from the _Commissaire de la Gare_ (railroad-station agent) could obtain meals and hot drinks without charge. The sale of wine, beer, and spirits was prohibited in our canteens. And because of the French coöperation in their establishment, they were named _Les Cantines des Deux Drapeaux_ and bore signs showing both the Tricolor of France and our own Stars and Stripes, with their designating name beneath. The original list of outside stations suggested by the French authorities were five in number: Pont d'Oye, Châlons, Épernay, Belfort, and Bar-le-Duc. Finally it was decided to reduce this list--the hour of the arrival of the American forces in number steadily drawing nearer--and Châlons and Épernay were definitely chosen for American Red Cross canteen work. At that time both of these cities of the Champagne district were well behind the lines; afterwards the Germans came too close for comfort and shelled them badly, which meant the withdrawal of the French troops and a closing of the neat canteens for a time; but they were reopened. When I visited Épernay in January 1919, the Red Cross canteen there was again open and in charge of two young ladies from Watertown, N. Y.--the Misses Emma and Kate Lansing, sisters of the then Secretary of State. You could not keep down the buoyant spirit of our Red Cross. Before the American Red Cross undertook to establish fully equipped canteens--on the scale of those at Châlons and at Épernay--the London Committee of the French Red Cross had been operating at many railroad stations small canteens known as the _Gouttes de Café_, where coffee and bouillon were served free to the soldiers in passing trains. In several cases agreements were made with the French society by which certain individual _Gouttes de Café_ passed to the control of the American Red Cross and were, in other cases, absorbed in the larger installation which it was prepared to support. This, however, took place only when the demands of the situation really called for a larger canteen, prepared to serve full meals and operate dormitories and a recreation room. Occasionally it was found advisable for our Red Cross to inaugurate a canteen of its very own, while the _Goutte de Café_ continued to carry on its own work on the station platform or in the immediate vicinity.