"WOOL WOOL, WOOL!"

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 284, 1 December 1915, Page 6

"WOOL WOOL, WOOL!"

CRY ALL OVER ITALY

SUPPLIES FOR ALPINE SOLDIERS.

KEEPING OUT THE WINTER COLD.

[The men fighting in the Alpine passes are already beginning to feel the cold, which will last until Jane, 1916. Italy requires 16,000,000 socks alone for her s-oldiers. The appended article, contributor! by Gmo C. Speranza to the* New York Evening lost, pictures a collecting procession in lHorence, heralded by buglers.]

FLORENCE. Sept. 17. Lana, Lana, Lana! this is the cry all over Italy;, woollen supplies ot every kind and description for the comfort of tho Alpini, who are already beginning to feel tho hardships of .the long winter in the Alps, which, in many places, will last well into next June. * ■ - These soldiers must guard tho heights (some of them over 7000 feet above sen level) »vkich they have won with such patience and gallantry; they must also, with the aid ot the engineering corps. Keep some ot the mountain passes clear both ot the. enemy and of the snow, in order to insure uninterrupted communication with their comrades, who are slowly, but ceaselessly, pushing the further away from the old confines ot Italy. ■ , . • , The hospitals are making special provision for cas'js of injuries and sickness from cold, dampness, exposure, and frost-bites, while the national and local committees - ot "civil preparation and defence, which comprise practically all the population of Italy not engaged in the military service, are redoubling their efforts in buying, collecting, and making all sorts'of "warm supplies; and this, independently of what the military and governmental, authorities are actively providing in the same line. MACt-NTTUDE OF THE TASK.

It is estimated that 16,000,000 socks alone will be needed for the soldiers in Northern Italy, winch wives some idea-pf ?therina-gmtude, *»r the -task, jfadeed, it ;has rbeen semiofficially stated that the, supply ot warm clothing is. second in itnnortance only to the supply of ammunition, and 'the only enemy which the country nmy fears is neither tile Aiistnans nor the "Tedesehi," but;the rigors of winter. Men and women have - banded together, pledging a certain amount of wool to be taken from the mattresses on which they sleep, to be devoted to the cause; sheep-owners in some parts of the country have agreed to contribute a portion of the September wool which soon will .be sheared from Ihei'r flocks. Old furs are being patched into coats and caps, rabbits are being bred on a large scale for food but more especially fpr thenskins : poor women who cannot give more are busy skilfully pleating newspapers which they will cover with cotton material and make into blankets of considerable warnitn, not to mention^ paper waistcoats and paper bags, slightly oiled, such as were used in older days as a protection to the feet against dampness before goloshes were invented.

ERRAND OF MERCY

To-day the insistent call of bugles drew me to the Via , del -Proconsolo; as I turned the corner which shuts from view the magnificent Cathedrai of Florence, I remember this was the day when the Quartiere di San Giovanni—the oldest and busiest section of the city—would be asked.to give its aid to. the Alpine troops in thenbattles against the winter snows. Here in this busy thoroughfare all traffic had stopped to allow the right of way to two field army transports drawn by powerful horses, with troopers sitting easily in the saddle leading them on an errand of mercy. Large posters "hung over the sides hiding the regimental numbers and bearing the inscription, "Raccolta della Lana per 1 SJoldati ' Oue thought of the old days when this Tuscan city was noted for The wealth of itg woollen guilds. On each transport were two buglers •taking turns at summoning the populace.- Men and boys walked beside them as escorts; there 'were members of the Civil Defence, university students in their colored velvet caps, with the medals of their intellectual successes stuck in the folded brims, Boy Sc-outs, and just plain boys.

A SHOWER OF WOOLLENS.

I followed the slow-moving procession through . the narrow, tortuous streets of the Quarter where the rumble of the heavy army waggons1 blended with the vibrant echoes of the bugles. At the call, windows and doors opened everywhere ; faces no less eager, no less earnest than those in the streets oelow, peeped out and then as quickly drew in to reappear promptly " with their offerings. Blankets and shawls came flying down from ancient and storied windows, and overcoats which will be sorely missed later by the givers, but which must not be withheld from boys at the front Men ran out of ships with old clothes and navy, some with great rolls of cloth and bundles of new underclothing;. those who could give nothing else threw down pillows, impulsively as it seemed, from their still warm beds, tossing them as when, in other days, their forebears showered flowers upon some hero passing in the street below.

One felt glad to see it, and to feel tho quick ardour behind the picture. It made one feel that even the awful "tragedy brooding over all Europe could not break the wings of that spirit hovering over these ancient streets thro.igh which we were passing. For here along the Corso degli Allrizzi. in the narrow passes of the Piazza de'Donal' and . tho Piazza

de'Cerchi, even under tho Torre dclla Castagna. on these very stones, passed Dante the Master, he who loved freedom and was exiled from all this beauty and glory; he who built the enduring foundations of this .national tongue. •StoAvly the" procession went from liouso to house till the ponderous waggons Avere full and the horses strained fit the unaccustomed draft.