HEROES' HOSTESSES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11805, 16 September 1916, Page 10

HEROES' HOSTESSES.

AN Ei.GLIS"' W9MAN.IN THE HRING LINE. I (R.v MRS K.MILY PERTWEE.) Not many of their lc! low-conn irvrneu know anything lit u(1 .about -he brave doings ol oiu: small biuid oi' krh-j.-.ii heroes !iuu' at work in ]• rntjci?. '/here aro (hreo hundred them, and every day they laugh in tho iace of death. They are tho ambulance men ! wiih the French Itnd Cross who pilot motors full or wounded poihis Irom ih;- , firing J,jit; across it .s.ieil-pwied oomurvside into the hospitals. Seventeen of th\so men havo Ikcu driving up to tho trenches beyond Verdun, anu turn, f. ir I'.v a nappy inir.ine, tm.y hare micceeded in gefiuig throng.i "tvitnoui: liusliap. I ' At the Women's ilrnorgfiuey Canteen in ! siv. aero 1 haw sat 'for hours listening to rirst-fomul stories from our yo.dUT guests, tile men who drive the motor ambulances over the Vc>:-;>es Mountains told rue of how a cenaj'ii milt) oi > o.sges raoviitaiu pass is under ih' l 11 <■! hro of ilie enemy on evei'y trip. " 1 expert wo fhal! get caught, souk; day, ' an ambulance man tcld mo cheerily. Meanwhiie, Um.v carry on. Others who have come to our Pari? canteen are Brifiiu scMicrs going homo on leave, Lritish wounded rei'urninc, to their ba.se from hospiuii, and on fch.mrlays in cur club we- liavo a soil, oi' af liopio day for the Army Service Corps men who repair motors at St Denis. I talked .several young m*n who spent the cay with m oil their, return from a four days' rest at Vcrraiiles after the Loos fight. "What are you going if/do next?" I asked them. '• Wo are going to eat apples," said 1 one.

X was puzzled. * "You arc going to . . . what?" ■ "We are going to eat apples," he reppa ted. Tliou light came to mo.' It was j Etaples th;:fc they were going to. Again, .tr,'o boys from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders told mo how seven Germans in a trench, thinking that thcro were more Highlanders behind, .surrendered to the pair of them. Naturally they were rat/ier annoyed when they found how 1 hoy had boon bluffed. One, indeed, jumped hack to get his rifie. " I did not let him get up again, mi!".],'' was the lad's cjuiet comment upon the sequel. Th cy tcld me. ton, about Mr other hatch pf prisoner?— Prussian soldiers, elderly .men, knocked up and tired, whom the Scots supplied with their own ciga-qt tos. " Englrh gncd comrade," commented one appreciative German; and, ruchilly, ''French, no!"' + IDOLS OF PARIS. The Parisians, too. adoro the Scots; so much so t.iat the military police have to escort them across tho city from Los invalides to the Gare du Nord. On one occasion when they took thirty of them up a, side street to rest, the enthusiastic Frenca people within three minutes unearthed tho party and simply mobbed them with attentions. At oui' canteen we also take in, and keep entirely free for a day or longer, lic.giau'&okiiers on leave In Paris with very little money. In the canteen, which is a large building twenty-five yards long by twelve wide, under the Gare dn Xord, there aro sixty beds,, hot and cold baths, and a ch;b for the men, with gramophones, books, and games of all sorts. Here we have "supplied more than two thousand meals a* week to Belgians; alone. Tho Belgians like soups and stews; and from a great cauldron wo give, them big bowls' of

j thick soup and moat and a large round j of broad. One day f mad'.! pancaKes j as a treat for i.ur Mritish. visitors, f Woulrt t:io English lady let us S <;i),tu tin; patty j 7 '' a Belgian asked. J And lie seiit. back his plate for :m----j ox in.lie had never oaien anything L like it before. i Tiic Helgcuis aro very pi end indeed i to hi- Had in khaki like ',ho Bfritish { Tomiuien. One day when wo were hav- . nag a rush of ambulance trains 1 loaded i "!» koiuo baskets and asked what J took • ;» yii.'ivf Hritirh soldier ;o carry : urn-- roinul for me. Who it ho looked up it'" Vicrp'exed I haw that he was a 1 lieiginn ; a; -d tremendously pleased he wjt ■; to In.\ ii been taken fo l ' an Eng- ; li-dimaii. foisting the I-a -krt or i his head he led I ho way to i'm piam, J thought we should I v vex }>«< through. but, when thev saw ; that if. wss one o' the dame.-; angla i the i" reucji soldiers at once nrdc a ; stra-ghfc lane down which my ; and f marr. l lc<l to the train. When I over iho .nwbnh'ncc trains h'-eak thoijournov at Paris we always go up air 1 'eod nil (he Joen, covered up to their w;ii'-ts in clay stili h3iicl[ with gunpov.'dor. j Occa.'ioTially wo send meat out i. r j yvA, hint as a genera! rule, our ccH; ! 'iig"!') all done on tho premises. . The J solo oevj wn:l-:«r.s ai - e two men who ac' I rs o.'deni'.vi. Triev clean the floors | th'-y ».'•>;)k'<- un the- beds, "nd th-r-v leer i tho brasiers burning. The rest of th--j wo"k. the cr-oking, the wasJiing up, th< i waiting, is done bv ten Englishwomen I who not only pay a]] their- own expense | bui, g-ve a donntion, too. They ar j not, allrtwed to iro for less than sir i week.?; soreetimes they remain for ;.r ! Viiany nonths. One or two of them arI girK who liavo saved up, or who hav< I got donat'ons from their friends, i: | order that they may play their part v ! this l.ir.siiitablo enterprise. And the- | work in seven-hour shifts, night ni!< ! ! df'.v : for the canteen is'always open, i There are hve. : ve. mora worn on m.cu j canteen at X., fix miles behind th I i'h'enc'i tranches, llither come not only j i' rcnch-hom soldiei-s, but Algerians: i jß<!<ih -Bazcnks, Senalese, and Turce: ! for two or weeks' rest. We Inv ] leading and writing rooms for their and a b!g recreation room with gamea gramophone, and a piano. Tho nativ soldiers 'liavo an extraordinary lore fe tin gramophone. 1 once watched one I of thorn sitt'ng for a solid hour w : th }i*' J ear quite close indeed, his head was als most in the trumpet, and the exprpr ! p'on on his couutenanw was perfect!'• j seraphic. Others, particularly the A 1 I gcrians, take a huge delight in playing i dnmiiioes. What they like best is in j piny with the English ladies. Two of them play two of us for cigarettes—and if we win thoy smoke the cigarettes just the same. WOMEN C A YE- DWELLER S. At lv. we have a large clothing club, w'th quantities of warm clothes for all the men. and there is also a workshop in which they make rings. t cigarette holders, brooches, serviette rings, bri{juettes>, paper knives and penVdclerg from the aluminium, copper and hras,s_ gathered on the battlefield. Some of our helpers are artists, and thus it comes about that men not previously skilled in such work—for example, a cook from a London hotrl aad a bandmaster from Algiers-—turn out excellent souvenirs. We" provide them with the | tools, and pny them <it tho recogaised value for everything they make.' A couple of miles from K. we have | another workshop, and another recreai tio i room, just opened in connection I with a first-line hesnita! [or men win | arc en rcpos. Sliortly f. am'going cut ' on a visit to the new canteen set no. zt ! the requeifc of the French authorities, onlv three kilometres behind the firing j Kne. It is 'for the hen'-'i 1 . of t'-e reen who, after an engagement, waile hack from the trenches tor a few hours'_ or p few day.-.' rest. Half a mile off lies what is left of the building wh'ch wo had ol wen for our pnrnoses. It was levelled by a shell, lucidly just before we es.me upon the scene. That is why ire chose the little oot-

On" of the windows serves as » I siiop fpr the sale of tobacco, notepnmr, o:i -i cigarettes. Through the other every evenuig- five hundred of chocolate and cnli'ca aro handed out to weary men. • p ollr cleus! Chocolat pour trois F 5 one may hear a poiiu singi.ij; out upon discovering that lie QWjtis " .Vr,r.c_ They revel in standing 01,0 another treat. Ie t'riv cottnge tr?mbl«s as tlie 75's roar oilt over the firing lire; and, lest an inconven'ont reply should come their way, our tromea have a splendid cave for themselves. Yet, "* I would i?ot have, missed • it for. the world,"

I one of them te.lis me. "It is quite ihe next be>st ( thing to being in the trenches." lio',v grat-fu] are our Allies trill appear from this letter written to us by one of tiiom in Englisk " Too mistresses.'' he says, " I am going to c.-rprcss all n>v thanks in particular iud gnneral for distractions, amusements, plays, and games of all sorts furnished to me during my passage at since the seventh to trie eighteenth day' of September, 1915. I keep the Ti,. perarv song for remind" of you, and * would sing that always in your honou\ Agaia thanks you very much—Your ljttli 1 loving |