Miss Russell’s work is somewhat different in character, for the hostel which she manages is at one of the chief bases, and is the clearing station at which all the relatives coming to France arrive. From this base they are then posted on to the various hospitals, some having to be sent eighty miles by motor. The work here is very strenuous, for it means perpetual comings and goings, and there are always twenty to thirty relatives resident at this hostel, besides those who pass through. The workers can never, at any hour of the day or night, feel safe from fresh arrivals, for whom food and accommodation have to be provided pending the uncertain departures of boats and trains. Miss Russell reports that in most cases the relatives are touchingly grateful. A welcome for all who come is never lacking, but the work of hostel helpers is exhausting, physically and mentally, and relentless in its demands on their sympathy. One of Miss Russell’s privileges is a permit giving her the entry into all the hospitals, so that she is able to keep in touch with some of the soldiers after their people have returned, if they are, as she says, “homesick, and in need of a little extra spoiling.” In a letter to a friend she writes: “The opportunities this bit of one’s work gives are inestimable, and the example of the patient, faithful work the sisters do is the greatest help and comfort. Everything, I think, pales before their glory--second only to that of the soldiers in courage, sacrifice and devotion. As to the men themselves, I can’t write of what they almost all are--how self-forgetful, modest and unselfish down to the very gates of death.” To those who wait in the shadow of suspense and anxiety which hangs over so many English homes, it is indeed a consolation to know that, if their soldier should be lying in danger, his own people will be able to go to him. This privilege is available for rich and poor alike, the Government being responsible for the cost of their journey and visit, however long the relations may stay. XXI MISS DOROTHY MATHEWS AND MISS URSULA WINSER At a great women’s meeting held recently in London, Mr. Prothero, the Minister for Agriculture, used the following words: “I do not pretend that work on the land is attractive to many women. It is hard work--fatiguing, backaching, monotonous, dirty work in all sorts of weather. It is poorly paid, the accommodation is rough, and those who undertake it have to face physical discomforts. In all respects it is comparable to the work your men-folk are doing in the trenches at the front. It is not a case of ‘lilac sunbonnets.’ There is no romance in it: it is prose.”