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Show AIX-LES-BAINS, March G. (By Mail.) Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., wife of Major Roosevelt, who is now in France on General Pershing's staff, is at Chambory. TVhere tho Y. M. C. A, recently established a foyer du sol-dat, sol-dat, the French equivalent of the army Y. M. C A. Mrs. Rooscevlt is not overly anxious to have it generally known that she is in France, owing to the fact that she is the wife of an officer, and officers' wives arc not particularly welcome in France. Friends ' of Mrs. Roosevelt Telat'e how, by a strategem, she was able to get to France. Before congress passed the hard law against officers' wives, Mrs. Roosevelt, who was then in Washington, Wash-ington, got an advance "Up" that such a restriction was to be put into effect. ef-fect. Without waiting to collect her baggage bag-gage or other personal effects, or to say goodby to her friends, sho boarded board-ed a train for New York, leaped a taxi, and on Saturday afternoon ran up the gangplank of a French lino steamer half an hour before it sailed. Fortunately, Fortu-nately, there was a cabin vacant, a frie.nd supplied her with passage and expense money, and well, It was all a breathelss adventure next day, while the French liner was off Sandy Hook, on its way to France, the New York papers published the dire nows regarding tho officers' wives restrictions. restric-tions. And now Mrs. Roosevelt won't let the photographers take her picture, nor pcrmti reporters to tell how she organized the Y. M. C. A. canteens. She does not care to havo anything said about the fact that she is the manageress man-ageress of tie Y. M. C. A. castle of Cbambery, which is housed in an ancient an-cient chateau where tho dukes of Savoy Sa-voy used to assail in the good old days beforo tho American Y. M. C. A. put tho ban on French wines and liquors li-quors of all description. Mrs. Roosevelt is doing her best in organizing entertainments for the boys In tho French theater at Chambery, has encouraged the negro jazz band to come over from Aix to play those glory hallelujah tunes. The boys have Mrs. Roosevelt to thank for many things. Sho was insistent in-sistent that they should get a "regular" "regu-lar" American breakfast in tho morning, morn-ing, instead of the French rolls and black coffee. Moreover, she saw to It that for ' $2.20 to $3.40 a day which the boys pay for their hotel accommodations thoy get free baths (something unheard un-heard of in France) and a real American Ameri-can "shine" for their shoes, instead of a French lick and a dab which passes current for a shine. As neither tho American army nor the Y. M. C. A controls the Aix, Chambery Cham-bery and Ghalles Les Eux hotels, Mrs. Roosevelt's interventions were much appreciated hy both organizations. |
