The Work of American Women Overseas in French Canteens, Jan. 7, 1919

From The Monroe Journal, January 7, 1919

Work of American Women in French Canteens. . . Ladies Do Everything From Making Ice Cream to Caring for the Wounded

Mrs. Vincent Astor has returned from 18 months service in a Y.M.C.A. Canteen at Bordeaux, France. She gives the following account of her work:

American women have filled such an enormous place in the war that it is difficult to imagine now what would have been done without their help. The thousands of women who got to the other side have themselves up completely to working for the soldiers, both the sick and the well, and they never spared themselves in any way. They worked all the day and often danced long hours in the evening, sometimes with 100 partners. In the cantonment at Bordeaux, where I was stationed, there were eight American women, and we never asked the French maids to do anything that we would not do ourselves; and not only did we do all this manual work at first, but later, when it was necessary, we would take a hand at a broom or at frying eggs or washing dishes. One time Mrs. Russell and I unloaded and stored a truckload of sugar into the basement.

The soldiers over there showed the most complete gratitude and courtesy to every American woman over thee and that made it intensely pleasant to be doing things for them. Every few nights we have a dance. We would send out a call for American women and all those who volunteered were brought in by army machines. There were usually about 20 and they would have to divide up their time between several hundred men. Once we had eight women and 2,000 sailors.

To even things up I borrowed a bosun’s whistle and gave a signal every two minutes to change partners. The result was that every couple would have possible 20 men following after them waiting for the next dance. No distinction was made between officers and men at such dances, but at the ones given at the camps, part of the evening was devoted to the officers and part to the men.

In the cafeteria we began by serving about 50 men a day and soon it was thousands. They all wanted eggs and doughnuts and ice cream. We had one person frying eggs all the time and one making ice cream.

We had a canteen, which means strictly a tobacco and candy store where the men bought at cost and three nights a week we gave pictures and entertainments. There would often be as many as 5000 and 6,000 men trying to get into the entertainment hall.

When the convoys of wounded first commenced arriving at Bordeaux the stretchers bearing the wounded men would be put on the station platform, and we would go among them distributing coffee and cigarettes. Later this work was taken over by the Red Cross.

Mrs. Henry Russell and I were near St. Mihiel when the Americans made their drive last September and we appealed so hard that they sent us up to the front for emergency work. We went past the captured German lines up to within two miles of the actual fighting and helped distribute candy and cigars to the 5^th and 6^th marines when they were relieved. They came out of the battle laughing and happy and with no more looks of wear and tear than if they had been in a football game.