The War Romance of the Salvation Army

tdidier

er the hillsides like a garment sewn with colored broidery of blossoms. Great scarlet poppies flamed from ruined homes as if the blood that had been spilt were resurrected in a glorious color

admitted that their backs were against the wall, and it

he Division was located at Montdidier. Under the rules for the conduct of war, they were not permitted to know where they were destine

nto the Sector, and rules and regulations were made which w

liest possible moment and as they could not secure permits, espe

ved with the greatest joy and portable tents were set up. It seemed as if every man in the Division must come to say how glad he was to see them back. The men decided that if it was in their power they would never again allow the Salvation Army to be separated from them. A few days later when the Division was ordered to move they took these same lassies with them riding in arm

rs just come from the States. Then one morning they woke up and found their outfit gone, they knew not where, and th

e they had their canteen. The Division stayed there five weeks-under a roar of

, they were all received back with the statement from the French that, seeing the workers were already there, it was not now necessary that permits should be issued. It must be reported that the French Army was opposed to the pres

ally destroyed buildings or houses or stores that had been vacated by their owners, and on the extreme front canteens were established in dugouts and cellars and the entire district was under bombardment from the German guns as well as from the airpla

and many a new worker almost lost his life in a baptism of fire on his way to his post of duty for the first time. But all th

was concentrated, looking back sometimes to see a geyser of flame leap up from a bend around which they had just whirled. Shells would rain in the fields on

t and flare up like a house-on-fire lighting up the whole country for miles about, and there you were in plain sight of the enemy! And you cou

o were actually engaged in fighting. Every night the shattered villages were raked and torn above them. Such dugouts could only be left at night or when the firing ceased. The two men who operated these lived a nerve-racking existence. Of co

arts filled with anxiety, for a rumor had reached them that two Salvation Army lassies had been killed by shell fire. The night was full of the

hree feet below the road right side up but tightly wedged in. The two travelers climbed out and reconnoitered but found the situation hopeless. There had been many sleepless nigh

nd of reality when a soldier

on't mind I'll just pick your old bus out of here and send you on your way

m cheerfully and they

was Smiling Billy, the same one the soldiers called "one game littl

guess we can turn the trick

ent reappeared with ten more dark forms following him, and ano

German prisoners of war. Under his direction they soon had the little Ford pushed and shouldered into the road once more. In a

d in France from the start, drove a little flivver carrying supplies for several nights, accompanied only by a young boy d

odor they will never forget--moreover, it was already inhabited by rats. They frequently had to retire to the cellar during gas attacks, and stay for hours,

to leave town. When the boys heard that the hut was being shelled and the girls were ordered to leave they poured in to tell them how much they would miss them. They well knew from experience that their staunch hardworking little friends would not have left them if they could have helped it. Also, they dreaded to lose these c

e girls had dined once at their invitation, brough

l miss you li

red: "That sure is some comparison!" The officer

an. I don't know just how to s

moonlight as they hiked it down the road, the airplanes were whizzing over their heads and the anti-aircraft guns piling into them. They started for La Folie, the Headquarters of the St

tes. Right over there beyond where you are standing a bomb dropped a few minut

ed of all but French and American Military Police. They tried to get directions, and at last found a

to Tartigny, where they we

he Divisional Gas Officer to get a new gas mask, for something had happened to hers. As they reached

started to take a short cut back to Tartigny, but the Military Police stopped them, saying they couldn't go on that road in the daytime as it was under observation, so they had to go back by the road they had co

special invitation. The shells had been falling all the afternoon, but they were quite accustomed to shells and that did not stop the festi

and sweet and pure in the glance of their blue eyes, the set of their firm little chins, so pleasant and wholesome and merry in

girls had chosen, with a sweet, touching melody, a

ath the ga

astern--sun

ea of grief

ays in

at is o

rs like

t world f

w such tear

rs He wep

on a ru

hill of

fered, de

iour of

pierced

s and fe

ken hear

ew such pa

n He bor

r a second, wavered, as the reverberation of the shock died away, and then went on with their song; and the officers, abashed, wondering, dropped back into their seats marvelling

nquered o'er

h has imm

h is the

n heart

through t

ht grace

d Heaven

w such love

e He gav

ork. The majority of them in France are fine, well-bred, carefully reared daughters of Christian fathers and mothers who have taught them that the home is a little bit of heaven on earth, and a woman God's means of drawing man nearer to Him. They have been especially trained from childhood to forget self and to live for others. The

seem made for toil. Yet for all that they toiled night and day for the soldiers. They were educated, refined, cultured, could talk easily and well on almost any subject you would mention. They never appeared to force their religious views to the front, yet all the while it was perfectly evident that their religion was the main object of their lives; that this was

velier women. No wonder the boys loved to see them working about the hut, loved to carry water and pick up the dishes for washing, and peel apples, and scrape out the bowl after the cake batter had been turned into the pans. No wonder they came to these girls with their troubles, or a button that needed sewing on, and rushed to them first with the glad news that a letter had come from home even before they had opened it. These girls were real women, the kind of woman God meant us all to be w

nded of that verse in the Bible about those brave and wonderful disci

with them, and one of them, a Salvation Army Major, stayed to keep the place open for the boys. He was the only Salvation Army man who is entitled to wear a wound stripe. By his devot

d had to be removed to the rear and undergo hospital treatment. For this service he was awarded a wound stripe. During the St. Mihiel offensive he was appointed in the Toul Sector and f

t from his diary when he manned

y

. After cleaning our dugout, gave medicine to sick man, who refused to sleep in my bed bec

of E Battery visited me to-day, and then I visited the Battery and had chow with t

g. I did good business in the evening and also had long services by requ

y might come in my dugout any hour in the night, whenever they wanted. I visited infantry officers to-day, Capt. Cribbs and Capt. Crisp. I had a lovely talk with them. I offered

my kitten ran away but came back. A three-legged cat came to the ruined home where I am; its leg evidently had been cut off by shrapnel. Great air fight all day. Incendiary shells were fired into the town and burnt for a long time. I visited Battery F, and gave the fellows medicine. To-day both officers and men were in the gun pits and I with them, while they

it was their end of the town that needed looking after. He laughed and enjoyed it. My supplies are kept up by the courage and devotion of the Staff-Ca

upply them with such food as I had. They assured me it would be a mighty good thing for them if I would, and I took four boxes of biscuits and six pots of jam and other things to their trench in the rear of their batteries-- they surely thought I was an angel and I left them pretty happy. This was all done under fire and at great risk. I chowed with Battery E and saw shell hole through building which was new since my last visit--boys offer to teach me how to work gun, their spirit is wonderful under the terrific strain which they labor. I visited ruined church and

ieut. Roolan (since promoted), of the Fifth Field Artillery, was there for two hours and half. 480 shells, I was informed, came down, averaging up three and four

River" song at the same time as the firing of the big guns much to the enjoyment of the boys. I understand that General Summerall visited and heard the Victrola soon after I had taken it to the boys. I placed about fifty books among officers of the Hospital Corps, Infantry officers, Battery officers. They were highly appreciated. I slept with Signal Corps boys again as Fritzy decided to continue the bombardment of the town which he did from 5.30 P.M. to 5.30 A.M. I slept with

y had been visiting me that night, the shell would have hit the Ford right in the center. Fierce bombardment all the day. Houses were struck on the entire street from end to end. Shells fell in the yard, one struck the corner of the house. The soldiers next door have gone, and my place can only be opened in the evenings. Things are pretty hot, I started out visiting the batteries to-day

y feet and twenty feet. I gather up a box full of remnants. I find I am gassed by a contact with the poor fellow coming in whom I took to the doctor. I get treatment two or three times for my eyes and throat. My hands begin to c

c. I plan to move my dugout and pack up accordingly. Things are quieter today; had serv

dugout when Staff-Captain arrives and te

y Order received by

Majo

ation

ts that the Salvation Army evacuat

hat they leave to

as received by me f

John

ieut.,

r the removal of the Salvat

rs, 1st Div

Expedition

e 3,

. L. A. Coe, Salva

my is operating in Broyes, will, for military rea

workers be employed in huts or canteens east of the line Mory-Chepo

cies is a function of this section of the General Staff and all questions pertaini

of Major Gen

K Wi

Genera

of S.

ms, one of them very large. The billeting of

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 cante

, coming in here!" one of the

t 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 airpla

d the girls got into the habit of running out into th

day the nose of an unexploded shell fell in the street j

ved, being three hundred crates, four hundred oranges to a cr

iar color that seemed to be invisible to the airplanes. There were woods all around it and

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

he table. She did not want to leave those pies to the tender mercies of a shell. 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

registered d

the shoes, but for heaven's sake don't dr

cted with a Catholic convent, one Salvation Army Envoy and his wife from Texas be

r 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

be served in any way. She worked early and late, and she made each individual soldier who came to the hut her special charge a

f life and power and were never neglected, no matter ho

essary to move her to a quieter place. She was transferred to

t Gondrecourt to the front. Truck drivers invariably made it a point to stop at "Ma's" hut and here they were alway

ervices, ungrudgingly done, at any time of the day or night, that her name was established as one of the most potent factors in

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 f

e would be served at seven o'clock, b

M

ondrecourt one day"--the renowned "

, but even at that they were much larger pieces t

o 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 mo

of the line; and all of those boys who want coffee and p

ended the evening meeting, and almost as many had been present at the morning service. Also, there had been twenty-eight members added to her Bible class. Though the hut was a large one it had been crowded to its utmost capacity in the evening, with men packed into the ope

It seemed as though every shell had my number on it! And when we went over and ran square into their barrage, I'll admit I was scared yellow and was darned afraid I was going to show it! We were under a barrage for ten hours. A shell buried me under about a foot of earth, and for the fi

rible remorse about it ever since he was converted. He had treated his mother badly, and gone and enlisted, saying he was eighteen when he was only sixteen. "Now," said he with relief after he had told the story, "that's all clear. And say, if I'm killed,

her promise, she went through his pockets when he was brought back, and found the

Christ His Son clean

nspection as to its influence on the men, and one Colonel had sent a Captain around to the m

e heed to the law," and urging the men to obey both moral and military laws so that they might be better men and better soldi

knew her as "Ma," and frequently, overworked nurses have called up the Paris Salvation Army Headquarters asking if Ma could not find time to come down and sit with a dying boy who was calling for her. She observed their birthdays with books and other small presents, wrote to their mothers, wives and sweethearts, and performed a mu

boy recently arrived in the Paris hospital from the f

he said with a faint smile, "

told her he belonged to one that h

rprise, "we have never worked with you

ng I saw was a Salvation Army girl bending over me washing the blood and dirt off my face with cold water. She looked like an angel and she was that to me. She gave me a

erful grin toward the Salvation Army visitor as she said

er eye. I've got seven holes in me, too, but believe me I'm not going home fo

ery man in the local hospital every day, sleeping every night in the open fields. A

htly shelling and air-raids to take their blankets out into the fields at night and

ttle girl, you had better get out of town early to-night; I feel as though something is going to happen." Less than an hour later, while the girls were just preparing for the night in a field half a mile d

er childish heart to the Saviour. She feels that she had a kind of vision at that time of what the Lord wanted her to be, a call to do some special work for Christ out in the world, helping people who did not know Him, people who were sick and poor and sorrowful. She did not tell her vision to anyo

and opened work, holding its meetings in a large hall or armory. With her young companions she a

visit her uncle, who was a Baptist minister. The daughter, dutiful and sweet, went willingly away, although she had many a longing for

mself. He went again and found Jesus Christ, and himself joined the Salvation Army. The mother in this case did not object, perhaps because she felt that a

ther's wish and remained at home for some years, like her Master before her, who went down to His home in Nazareth and was subject to His father and mother; showing by

daughter became a Salvationist, her mother coming to feel thor

er grace that makes one think of a young saint. No wonder the soldiers almost worshipped her! No wonder these lassies were as safe over there ten miles from any other woman or any other civilian alone among ten tho

spiration from

er who calmly went to sleep in hi

to ask them what certain verses in the Bible meant, and to kneel with them in some quiet corner behind the chocolate boxes and be prayed with, yes, and pray!

ul something in these girls. Ask them. They will tell you "She is the real thing!" They won't tell you more than that, perhaps, unless

an story, and straightway all the men who were sitting at the tables writing or standing about the room would come to attention with one of those little noisy si

e of this holy influence that was being thrown about them. One officer said his men worked better, and kept their engines oiled up so they wouldn't be delayed on the r

sed the lassie behind the counter as "Dearie." The sweet blue eyes of the lassie grew suddenly cold with a

red, and grew r

hey were young saints to the boys they served, and they had a cordon of ten thousand faithful soldiers drawn about them n

and went to her home for a brief visit, the Mayor gave the home town a holiday, had out the band and waite

Lopes wrote about "Those Salvation A

rance, not far

f workers whose

ome give their li

e beside us, fi

r rest when our b

r freedom, are b

dawn, when the c

red out and chil

rmy with its br

h doughnuts and

d toiling are o

find comfort and w

of home, so we go

of home makes us

e folks to our lov

the Lord to have