Women of Belgium: Turning Tragedy to TriumphKellogg, Charlotte
History
Women of Belgium: Turning Tragedy to Triumph
Kellogg, Charlotte
Commission for Relief in Belgium; World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals
That morning an old uncle had begged Monsieur to take charge of his
nephew and niece; he had not a penny left, they must starve unless
something were done for them. Some months before, the father had been
wounded at the front, and the mother had foolishly hurried away to try
to reach him, leaving the children with her brother. Months had gone
by—he had had no word from any one—and now he was quite at the end of
his resources. And so it was with case after case. Something _must_ be
done!
Besides being the section kitchen and dining-room, this school has
become a social center. Every Sunday afternoon the children are invited
to gather there to have a good time. They are taught to play games,
each is given a bonbon, a simple sweet of some sort—“nothing of the
kind to encourage luxury!” They are occupied, happy, and kept off the
streets and out of homes made miserable through lack of employment.
We see, then, that “every day” means literally _every_ day, and we
realize how arduous is the task of the thousands of devoted teachers
who are standing between the war and those who would otherwise be its
victims.
And as they tell us over and over again that the one thing that makes
them able to stand is their confidence in the love and sympathy of
the United States, we begin to realize our responsibility. It is not
only that the wheat and cloth are essential, the encouragement of the
presence of even the few (forty to fifty) Americans is the _great_
necessity!
At 8.30 the next morning I visited one of the “Jardins
d’Enfants”—schools for children between two and a half and six years
of age. There were the teachers already busy in that new department of
their work—the war-food department; 460 tiny tots were being given
their first meal of the day—a cup of hot cocoa, and, during that
month, a little white bread bun. No American can understand what this
single piece of _white_ bread means to a French or Belgian child. I
am sure that if a tempting course dinner were set at one side, and a
slice of white bread at the other, he would not hesitate to choose the
bread. It is white bread that they all beg for, tho the brown war bread
made from flour milled at 82 per cent. is really very palatable, and
superior to the war bread of other countries.
A sheaf of letters sent from a school in Lille to thank the C. R. B.
director for the improved brown (not nearly white) bread gave me my
first impression of the all-importance of the color and quality of the
bread.
Amélie B. wrote:
“Before May 5, 1915, we had to eat black bread, which we preferred to
make into flowers of all sorts as souvenirs of the war! But after that
date we have had the good, light bread—so eatable. It is for this we
thank you.”
Another says:
“Since we have had the _good_ bread the happiest people are the
mothers, who before had to let their “chers petits” suffer from hunger,
because their delicate stomachs would not digest the bad, black bread.”
Further:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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