The War Romance of the Salvation Army Part 17

_Friday, 24:_ Am all ready to move to a new dugout when Staff-Captain arrives and tells me I am ordered out by the military."

Here is the Military Order received by the Staff-Captain:

"To Major Coe,

"Salvation Army:

"(1) Major Wilson, Chief G1, directs that the Salvation Army evacuate 'Coullemelle' as soon as possible.

"(2) He desires that they leave to-night if possible.

"(3) This message was received by me from the office of G1.

"L. JOHNSON, "1st Lieut., F. A."

Orders also arrived soon for the removal of the Salvation Army workers in Broyes:

"Headquarters, 1st Division, G-1.

"American Expeditionary Forces, " June 3, 1919.

"Memorandum: To Mr. L. A. Coe, Salvation Army, La Folie.

"The hut, which it is understood the Salvation Army is operating in Broyes, will, for military reasons, be removed from there as soon as practicable.

"It is contrary to the desire of the Commanding General that women workers be employed in huts or canteens east of the line Mory-Chepoix-Tartigny, and if any are now so located they are to 'be removed.

"The operations of technical services, Red Cross, Y.M.C.A., and other similar agencies is a function of this section of the General Staff and all questions pertaining to your movements and location of huts should in the future be referred to G.-1.

"By command of Major General Bullard.

"G. K Wilson, "Major, General Staff, "A. C. of S., G.-1."

In Tartigny they found a house with five rooms, one of them very large.

The billeting officer turned this over to the Salvation Army.

There was plenty of s.p.a.ce and the girls might have a room to themselves here, instead of just curtaining off a corner of a tent or making a part.i.tion of supply boxes in one end of the hut as they often had to do.

There was also plenty of furniture in the house, and they were allowed to go around the village and get chairs and tables or anything they wanted to fix up their canteen. The girls had great fun selecting easy-chairs and desks and anything they desired from the deserted houses, and before long the result was a wonderfully comfortable, cozy, home-like room.

"Gee! This is just like heaven, coming in here!" one of the boys said when he first saw it.

Just outside Tartigny there was a large ammunition dump, piles of sh.e.l.ls and boxes of other ammunition. It was under the trees and well camouflaged, but night after night the enemy airplanes kept trying to get it. The girls used to sit in the windows and watch the airplane battles.

They would stay until an airplane got over the house and then they would run to the cellar. They came so close one night that pieces of sh.e.l.l from the anti-aircraft guns fell over the house.

Sometimes the airplanes would come in the daytime, and the girls got into the habit of running out into the street to watch them. But at this the boys protested.

"Don't do that, you will get hit!" they begged. And one day the nose of an unexploded sh.e.l.l fell in the street just outside the door. After that they were more careful.

In this town one afternoon a whole truck-load of oranges arrived, being three hundred crates, four hundred oranges to a crate, for the canteen, and they were all gone by four o'clock!

The Headquarters of the Division Commander were in a beautiful old stone chateau of a peculiar color that seemed to be invisible to the airplanes.

There were woods all around it and the house was never sh.e.l.led. It was filled with rare old tapestries and beautiful furniture.

The Count who owned the chateau asked the Major General to get some furniture that belonged to him out of the village that was being sh.e.l.led.

Later the Count asked the General if he ever got that furniture. The General asked his Colonel, "What did you do with that furniture?" "Oh,"

the Colonel said, "it's down there all right!" "And where is the piano?"

"Oh, I gave that to the Salvation Army."

In this area it was one la.s.sie's first bombardment; it came suddenly and without warning. The soldiers in the hut decamped without ceremony for the safety of their dugouts. One soldier who had been detailed to help the la.s.sie, shouted: "Come on! Follow me to your dugout!" Without further talk he turned and started for cover. The girl had been baking. A tray full of luscious lemon cream pies stood on the table. She did not want to leave those pies to the tender mercies of a sh.e.l.l. Also she had some new boots standing beneath the table, and she was not going to lose those. Without stopping to think, she seized the shoes in one hand and the tray in the other and rushed after the soldier. A little gully had to be crossed on the way to the dugout and the only bridge was a twelve-inch plank. The soldier crossed in safety and turned to look after the girl. Just as she reached the middle of the plank a sh.e.l.l burst not far away. The la.s.sie was so startled that she nearly lost her balance, swaying first one way and then the other. In an attempt to stop the tray of pies from slipping, she almost lost the shoes, and in recovering the shoes, the pies just escaped sliding overboard into the thick mud below.

The soldier registered deep agitation.

"Drop the shoes!" he shouted. "I can clean the shoes, but for heaven's sake don't drop them pies!" And the la.s.sie obeyed meekly.

In the little town of Bonnet where the rest room was located in an old barn connected with a Catholic convent, one Salvation Army Envoy and his wife from Texas began their work. They soon became known to the soldiers familiarly as "Pa" and "Ma."

It was in this old barn that the tent top, later made famous at Ansauville, was first used. Stoves were almost impossible to obtain at that time, but "Ma" was determined that she would bake pies for the men, so the Envoy constructed an oven out of two tin cake boxes and using a small two-burner gasoline stove, "Ma" baked biscuits and pies that made her name famous. Through her great motherly heart and her willingness to serve the boys at all times, under all circ.u.mstances, she won their confidence and love. One soldier said he would walk five miles any day to look into "Ma's" gray eyes.

From Bonnet they were transferred to command a hut at Ansauville, but "Ma"

could never rest so long as there was a soldier to be served in any way.

She worked early and late, and she made each individual soldier who came to the hut her special charge as if he were her own son. She could not sleep when they were going over the top unless she prayed with each one before he went.

The meetings which she and her husband held were full of life and power and were never neglected, no matter how hard the strain might be from other lines of service.

It was not long before "Ma's" strength gave out and it was necessary to move her to a quieter place. She was transferred to Houdelainecourt. She would not go until they carried her away.

Houdelainecourt at this time was on the main road travelled by trucks, taking supplies by train from the railroad at Gondrecourt to the front.

Truck drivers invariably made it a point to stop at "Ma's" hut and here they were always sure to receive a welcome and the most delicious doughnuts and pies and hot biscuit which loving hands could make.

Not satisfied with this service alone, she undertook to fry pancakes for the officers' breakfast. It was through these kindly services, ungrudgingly done, at any time of the day or night, that her name was established as one of the most potent factors in contributing to the comfort and welfare of the men, and there was no hole or tear of the men's clothes that "Ma" could not mend.

A short time after the pie contest over at Gondrecourt, "Ma" and one of her la.s.sie helpers set out to break the record of 316 pies as a day's work. Their oven would hold but six pies at a time; their hut had but just been opened and all their equipment had not yet arrived, so they were short a rolling pin, which had to be carved from a broken wagon-shaft with a jack-knife before they could begin; but they achieved the baking of 324 pies between 6 A.M. and 6 P.M. that day. It is fair to state for the sake of the doubter, however, that the pie fillers, both pumpkin and apple, were all prepared and piping hot on the stove ready to be poured into the pastry as it was put into the oven, which, of course, helped a good deal.

A sign was put out announcing that pie would be served at seven o'clock, but the lines formed long before that.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Ma"]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "They had a pie-baking contest in Gondrecourt one day"--the renowned "Aunt Mary" in the right-hand corner]

The pies were unusually large and cut into fifths, but even at that they were much larger pieces than are usually served at the ordinary restaurant.

By half-past eight some men were falling in for a second helping, but "Ma"

had been watching long a little company of men off to one side who hovered about yet never dropped into line themselves, and made up her mind that these were some of those who perhaps sent much of their money home and found it a long time between pay-days. Casting her kindly eye comprehendingly toward these men she mounted a chair and requested:

"All of the men who have already had pie, please step out of the line; and all of those boys who want coffee and pie but have no money, step into line and get some, _anyhow!_"