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Show I, WHAT AMERlCflW WORflEW Of WEALTK ARE UK II FRANCE TO HELP ALLEVIATE THE HARDSHIPS OF FRENCH SOLDIERS I NEW YORK, Feb. 9 How American Ameri-can women of wealth and reflnoment arc performing the most menial tasks and undergoing severe hardships to ! malt tho lol of the French soldier easier on the way to and from tho front is told graphically in a series of letters received hero from Mrs. Belmont Bel-mont Tiffany, a New York society woman and leader in Red Cross work, who organized a Red Cross canteen at a French railway Junction. Sho wrote with no thought of publication but tho letters written to relatives and released re-leased for publication today by the American Red Cross tell thoir own story. On October 25 last, Mrs. Tiffany ar-i ar-i rived at the railroad center, "some where" behind the French front. Four i railroads .converged there, she found, and moro than 3000 men a day stopped aver at tho station tor refreshments, which were procurable In liquid form l only. There were no other facilities for thoir comfort. "I wish you could see our ILttlo vil-J lage, so tiny and primitive ono long street winding up a hill with the big junction railroad station at the bottom bot-tom and tho church at the top; and a stream,' winding under a" bridge half way up, a stream which allows tho in-, in-, , cvitable laundry to go on," Mrs. Tif- fanv wrote- It is picturesque as all French villages go but rather too poor for beauty and there are no gardens i at all, which is strange." Less than a month later. November Novem-ber 13, to bo exact, Mrs. Tiffany told of the progress achieved in establish - i ing tho canteen. A rough addition had )' been added to tho station, and dor- ( mitory and a recreation room had been f' J' completed wbilo a reception room to 1 ! accommodate 1000 men was in course 11 of construction. "We have red and white oilcloth on , the tables, red glass carafes; and I j turkey-red curtains, and always L flowers on the counter of the recrea- ' tion room," Mrs. Tiffany wrote. It is the gayest, brightest room you ever I ( saw. However, it only holds 120 men. L , Our big room is to have a huge f kitchen and seats for over a thou- V sand men. Pi "The dormitories arc wonderful. I ' ' never was so proud of anything be fore. Two hundred canvas stretchers for beds! We havea splendid fumi- I gating plant and an incinerator and , 1 tho place. is a model' of cleanliness, j' , "All the men take off their wet and I dirty boots, and we have good felt ' slippers for them. There are two big ' j' stoves in the room, two woolen j blankets for each,, an ordercly who wakes the men for their trains, good ! I shower baths and wash rooms. Alto- i gelher, when the big room is finished, JJ I honestly think It will be a model -of , ' what it should be. I "Last year the men slept in the toad!" j" i However, the speedy transformation I i iaBgJm Eaaac',!i.,.,,.'i.'i was not effected without the expenditure expendi-ture of great effort. Mrs. Tiffany summcd It up by saying: "Everything is going awfully well and the whole unit has been fine. No ono should comn for this work who is not as strong as a horse and indifferent indiffer-ent to cold and fatigue. It is terribly hard. Tho good it docs is enormous, however, and more than repays one. , You never saw anything like the appreciation ap-preciation and gratitude for tho food we give the men and the price we charge. Wo give them a whole meal for 15 cents, soup, meat and vegetables, vege-tables, or meat and salad, bread and compote. It is really good, too. I thought I had a good many occupations, occupa-tions, as I wrote you before, but since then I have been particularly proud i of being a gooocook." Cantecn'3 Night Shift. Mrs. Tiffany in another letter describes de-scribes in interesting detail the routine of the canteen's "night shift," which she regards as more strenuous than the day relief. "Tho station is always empty when we arrive, but 15 minutes later It fills up as if by magic," Mrs. Tiffany says. "This crowd keeps on pretty continuously. con-tinuously. It is never an overpowering overpower-ing rush, but a steady stream until about 2:30 and sometimes until 4:30. The men buy their tickets at the first window and tHen pass on to the counter coun-ter where the food is served. Of course they arc always in n tearing hurry and push and shove each other as if they were going to get left if they didn't. But there is no reason for it, because they don't come in for meals unless they .have at least an hour and usually they have a wait of three hours. But that makes no difference. dif-ference. They act as if they had one .minute in which to . get and eat their food. But all arc good-natured, and if the regular food gives out, they will cheerfully accept any substitute. "At 11:55 comes the big platform service which lasts about an hour. It was the ono thing I dreaded before coming, but far from minding it now, I enjoy it. It certainly is amusing and though on a cold or windy night it is rather trying, you feel that you are so much more use. just because it is so cold arid disagreeable. "Well, this crowd keeps on till after two, when we have our second platform plat-form service, but If the first train in this cast is late the canteen is full until 4 30 as the men won't trust themselves to sleep" in the dormitory when they have only an hour or two to wait. "Then wo gel the dishes washed, the table wiped off, and the marmites scoured and at three or four our French volunteers leave us. The cook stays until six, when the day cook I comes on duty. At that time the day scrubwoman comes and also ono or two French volunteers, who stay until eight and help with the ' breakfast nn i inn - - i'i i' i -v-i'i iii ! ii i ii .i- . .. i, u. ., ... ji i i i ii ii i iii , , Jeautiftal Home of Filigree National 1 l f.l- ywmmm, I lilt mm .;wfH iMPfe rush and cleaning up. We have to have tho soup and the ragout started and fresh coffee and cocoa ready to serve at six-thirty or seven but the scrubbing of Iloors comes in the day shift the one that works from seven to three And for us, at seven the night is over." "It has been very hard up to now; but wo arc all very fit and well. Fourteen Four-teen or sixteen hours at a shift have not been at all unusual, and twelve hours are habitual to me, but it has been so very well worth while. Can fou imagine feeding an average of 3000 men a day, a shifting population, infantry, cavalry, artillery! marines, chasseurs Alpins, engineers, Turcos, Egyptians, Senegalese, and today about 500 Annamites?' Mrs. Tiffany writing one letter is interrupted by the arrival of a train- .' 1 put, 1 1 , , 1 iv . 1 I'jry. i ,i'T load of wounded. At the conclusion of her duties she resumed her letter: "Four hours I have just come back from the canteen. Such an afternoon! after-noon! A great train of seriously wounded, which is tiring, as one has to climb in all the carriages. The men adore cocoa. We get into the sanitary sani-tary trains and begin with the men who are well enough to sit up and handle tin cups, and afterwards those I who are too 111 to lift their heads or use their hands. Those, of course, we havo to lift and feed ourselves; as there are usually between two and three hundred men in a train you, can see one has to work quickly to get through. i "This work is hard and takes a real vision and Inspiration to keep on dij after day. ( "na "As long as I live I shall be fnt ful that I havo -had the chance to $ L , this work. It is far bigger and non important than I had any Idea oL'j |