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70
and freely. The Russian Evangelical Christians were conducting
services for working people, soldiers and others. The Student
Movement was planning to hold a conference in the fall. The
Y. M. C. A. was on the ground with a program of work. Russian
women, particularly the group who had invited the Y. W. C. A.
to Russia, felt that the new opportunities in the opening of all
privileges to women, presented problems too large to be grappled
with without the help of other women of experience. Educated,
liberal minded, they yet felt the need for being conservative. Theo-
retically democratic, they still moved with that distinction of
class which made benevolence a bending down rather than a
reaching out. And the two American secretaries with an experi-
ence that knew no social^ distinctions when it came to the needs
of girls, brought unconscfously the democratic spirit into all their
relationships.
In June the two secretaries made a trip to Moscow and to
Kiev — the first real journey in Russia and therefore vibrant with
interest. Moscow so picturesque and so truly Russian was even
more likable than Petrograd. Kiev seemed very near the front
with trenches prepared and barb wired in case of a German ad-
vance. Thus the summer of 1917 was spent getting acquainted with
the people and the country and studying Russian. By the end of
summer the conviction was stronger than ever of the need for Asso-
ciation work in Russia. The field was unlimited, woman having
greater influence in Russia than in any other country, not only pos-
sessed now the ballot but held government positions in the min-
istries and in municipal councils. Therefore, whatever was done
for the women of Russia would have vast influence upon all Rus-
sian society. The Y. W. C. A. as a large world wide women's or-
ff^ization, occupied a unique position in regard to the situation.
JaI an organization democratic, many sided, holding out a great
"ideal, it was particularly adapted to a time when Russia was seek-
ing self-realization in true democracy and light in ideals. The
day of attainment might be far distant, but if the road was hard,
the need was greate?^
The women of Russia had poise, charm, wholesomeness and a
quick intelligence which made them eager to learn and improve,
and aflfectionate and devoted to whatever they gave their allegi-
ance. Their tendencies led toward extreme individualism and
fatalism. A Russian Consul described their needs as follows:
"Our young women have not had their bodies developed or
trained — many have fine, scientifically trained minds and then no
physical strength to enable them to be eflfective. I like the way
American girls think it is a desirable thing to be strong first and
then to study. In Russia we often have a big person — clever,
intelligent, but having no will, no discipline." Strength of body
and strength of will according to this Russian, seemed the two
characteristics Russia might well take from America.
Russians were agreed that the hope of Russia lay in its women.
Yet the health conditions of women were poor. Many of them
71
lived in small crowded quarters with no ventilation. They wore
high heels. They steadily neglected cases of bad eyesight. More-
over, the moral conditions were deplorable. This state was due
to the general depression. Chances for marriage were small. The
prospects for any steady satisfying life were clouded. There was
a lack of hope in the future.
And yet the future was throbbing with possibilities even in the
instability of present day Russia. A paragraph from Lenin's
"The Great Beginning," quoted in Le Populaire (Paris) and in
The Nation (Feb. 7, 1920), states the situation: 'Tt is a fact that,
in the course of the past ten years not a single democratic party
in the world, not one among the leaders of the bourgeois republics,
has undertaken for the emancipation of women the hundredth
part of what has been realized by Russia in one year. All the
humiliating laws prejudicial to the rights of women have been
abolished. . . . We are justly proud of our progress in this field.
But as soon as we had destroyed the foundation of bourgeois laws
and institutions, we arrived at a clear conception of the prepara-
tory nature of our work, destined solely to prepare the ground for
the edifice which was to be built. We have not yet come to the
construction of the building." Whatever the future held for Rus-
sia, Russian women must take their share in its burdens and in
its triumphs.
Russian women reaching out to America for help in unexpected
ways found a response and a welcome. A remarkable example of
enterprise is seen in a young Russian girl who in 1917, finding the
University in Geneva, Switzerland, closed on account of the war,
had come to America to spend five years studying engineering.
For what America had already done in ^Russia, Russian women
we're eager to express their gratefulness, \jnie. following telegram*
was sent by Catherine Breshkovsky, Chairman, Russian Commit-
tee on Civic Education, to President Wilson : **We Russian citi-
zens have been receiving from the American people so many
tokens of friendship and expressions of good will to help Russia
in her hour of difficulties that we feel an imperious desire on our
part to say to the great democracy of the United States how near
to our hearts is the union with that democratic people and how
fervently we wish to preserve that union and friendship so long
as our nations iast.^'\
\.
It was not strange, therefore, that the two secretaries reached
the conclusion that the Association could be of use to Russian
women in present day, changing, challenging Russia. In Septem-
ber, 1917, they cabled for seven secretaries. Four arrived that
fall: Miss Marcia Dunham, Mis^Clara Taylor, Miss Elizabeth
Dickerson, Miss Helen Ogden. "Meanwhile the two already on
the ground worked steadily ahead, inconspicuously fitting into
their surroundings, studying situations, winning friends for the
Association one by one as they gained the confidence of the girls
in industry and the women in positions of leadership. ; In Septem-
ber a few girls were finding their way to the~seijretaries* rooms
72
at the Hotel d'Angleterre. The beginnings of an Association
were being made. This group of fifteen to twenty girls had
learned enough of the Association to desire to see it fully organ-
ized in their midst. They, therefore, came together every Wed-
nesday evening to join in the games and songs that created Asso-
ciation spirit and thus to tide over the discouraging time of wait-
ing till the organization could be effected.
There were many difficulties. The food situation emphasized
the need of a restaurant on a large scale for feeding girls who
would have come in literal thousands to find relief from chronic
under-nourishment. But so large an undertaking would involve
having a cafeteria expert from America, the cooperation of the
Red Cross and of Russian government officials who at this time
of uncertainty were not in a mood to count upon the future in any
large scale plan.
The next possibility was to carry on other parts of the Associ-
ation program as circumstances permitted. For this the Wed-
nesday night group formed a nucleus. Classes were started and
the number enrolled rapidly grew to 150. The greatest demand
was for French. Two advanced and two beginners' classes quick-
ly filled up. Next came English with two advanced and four be-
ginners. There was a small demand for Russian. Other courses
were bookkeeping, commercial arithmetic, stenography and
choral singing.
Gymnasium work had been discouraged by Russian women
who predicted failure because in Russia girls considered it below
their dignity to play games, or do gymnasium exercises. But
when the work was actually organized these obstacles proved no
hindrance to its great success. Social distinctions were abol-
ished. University girls, store girls and waitresses all joined
classes together.
Such a program of work demanded a location in a central sec-
tion of Petrograd. After weeks of search a building was finally
secured, modern, well equipped, clean, formerly occupied by the
Deaf and Dumb School. Two large rooms furnished with the per-
sonal care of the secretaries, took on readily an Association at-
mosphere. Another two rooms became class rooms. A large
salon was used for gymnasium and evening gatherings.
The formal opening of the first city Association in Russia took
place in October, 1917, with three hundred guests, including the
American Ambassador, two Associate ministers, a number of
government officials and other prominent Russians who had be-
come interested, and a great many girls. Two Russian priests
connected with the School for Deaf and Dumb children officiated
in all the appropriate rites and ceremonies. The chanting and
singing were by a group of orphans. Miss Spencer began the
exercises by thanking the officials who had made possible such an
auspicious opening. Madame Polotsova impressed everybody
with an address on what Russian women could do for their coun-
73
try. Then the officials insisted upon expressing their thanks that
the Y. W. C^ A. had come. The refreshments served were tea
with sugar, and biscuits, both articles having been saved all sum-
mer in anticipation of an opening event. This was followed by
some lovely music with cello and piano — a great delight to the
girls. Many questions were asked regarding the work and the
plans but the chief one seemed to be: "Where did you get all
these girls?" The fact that two Americans speaking poor Rus-
sian could manage to see and know and interest so many girls
was to the Russians marvelous, but to the two Americans them-
selves the most understandable thing in the world.
The success of the event was evidenced by the eagerness with
which the committee ladies who had been uncertain before, now
precipitated their ofifers to help. Madame Orjevsky, the one
woman in Russia who had known the Association in America, had
been of great assistance in preparing for the occasion and was
gratified by the results. The movement from the beginning had
been helped and encouraged by Countess Panin whose official ad-
vice had been sought.
The girls themselves proved their interest by their presence
not only on the great occasion of the opening, but at the regular
class meetings. And this meant loyalty through times of revolu-
tion and bloodshed. First had come to Korniloff rebellion par-
alysing everything for a week or two. But the girls still came.
Three weeks after the official opening. Civil War precipitated its
week of rioting and terrorization. Still came the faithful few through
it all. In the next lull a second opening and registration for new
classes found 225 girls ready to listen to an evening's address by
Madame Orjevsky and to respond eagerly to moving pictures of
tent life at a Lake Geneva summer conference. Classes boomed in
spite of revolution. In the midst of very irregular conditions a
regular Association had come into being because girls had found
there something different from : anything they had known before,
and something they very much wanted.
/T like the American way," said one girl. "There is so much
fun and 'lightness.' " That is just a new term for expressing
Association enthusiasrq.
The next step w^s to plan to open in Moscow. After having
won their way alone in Petrograd, it was an interesting experience
to the two American secretaries to have Madame Orjevsky go
along to blaze a trail before them with her smooth Russian, her
wide acquaintance and her absolute conviction that the Y. W.
C. A. was the thing Russian women needed and wanted. She
described glowingly the opening in Petrograd, the eager coming
of the girls, the home-like restful atmosphere of the place. Of
the religious purpose of the Association she spoke with no hesi-
tation. She even referred to the bravery of the two American
secretaries in being in Russia at such a time and the consequent
duty of all patriotic earnest Russians to forward their work. She
made her greatest impression by her story of the little girl who
74
said that when she was in the Association she had such a good
time that she forgot all about being in war-tried Petrograd till
she went outdoors again. That the Association could likewise
succeed in Moscow she had not the slightest doubt.
A spacious hall and two small rooms, formerly occupied by the
Religious Theosophical Society, was secured from Madame
MorozofT, president of the Society. In 'December, 1917, the first
meeting was held. Among those who came were the wife of the
American Consul, the woman who owned the building and also
several factories, and a number of women from cross sections
of Russian society who had never heard of each other. Madame
Orjevsky (presided, but the meeting consisted mostly of informal
chatting which seemed to create the atmosphere desired. After
all, the great fact was that the Association was open and girls
were coming. With a committee of representative Russian
women to advise or to throw themselves into work by teach-
ing, by giving an afternoon a week or by organizing excursions
to the art galleries, the secretaries enthusiastically made up the
Association program.
The largest class was for Russian language study, taught by
Madame Shidlovsky, a committee member, who delighted in her
big group of girls as in her own family. It was a pleasant sur-
prise to the American secretaries that little cash and messenger
girls would study the things they needed, such as Russian and
arithmetic, instead of choosing the froth as most young Ameri-
cans of their type would do. Just as in Petrograd, the gymnasium
classes were very popular. They did more than anything else to
abolish distinctions. In drinking tea one naturally seeks one's
intimates, but in playing an exciting game one forgets whether
she is side by side with shop girls or university girls in the ex-
hilaration of working for the team. Besides a waitress may plaj-
just as good a game as a student.
The Association in Moscow and in Petrograd differed
in type as the two cities differed. In Petrograd, the
city of international affairs, many dependable members
were girls from the Baltic provinces: Letts, Courland-
ers, Esthonians, with a mixture of Poles and Armenians. They
came from the government offices and the banks and had educa-
tion commensurate with the responsibilities of such positions. In
Moscow, the commercial center, the girls were mostly pure Rus-
sian and largely from the two biggest department stores, the ma-
jority, so young, in short skirts and braids,^ that the committee
women found it difficult to believe they were working. The fact
that they lived in the poorer parts of the city and at some distance
from the Association influenced the food committee to allow the
Association a fourth of a quarter pound of bread per person per
day which was served with tea by way of a small collation before
the evening classes, since the girls came directly from work, and
after the meeting usually walked home on account of the crowded
condition of the irregularly run street cars.
75
The Moscow Association too suffered some interruptions in its
schedule. There were the Christmas and New Year's holidays of
three days each and then the big holiday foi^ blessing the waters
of the Moscow river. This was followed by a week of shooting.
But when the shutters came off the shop windows again and the
people began to go about freely, the girls came back so glad to
see the Association again that it made even such interruptions
seem worth while as a demonstration of their loyalty and in-
terest.
Outbreaks of shooting came to be such every day affairs in
January, 1918, that they were hardly interruptions. One day
when the American secretaries in Moscow were visiting the big
Sucharof Market jammed with people peacefully bickering over
fish, sauerkraut and strips of cloth, the shots began to come. An
open stall, the first haven of refuge, presented possibilities of
escape in a big empty barrel. But the old peasant shopkeeper
deciding it was too hot for her began closing up. There was
nothing left but to run for it. Out into the boulevard, bent half
double, the Americans tore along, stumbling over sleds and
bumping into people, tumbling into a large puddle of water, then
up and at it again, with the bullets whizzing from all sides at
once. Several blocks away they found a cab to take them home.
Everything had stopped running except the ambulances and
motor cars of the red guards. But the other side of the city
where they lived was not disturbing itself.
In February, 1918, along with a celebration of Washington's
Birthday, came the rumor that Smolensk was taken by the Ger-
mans and her thousand troops sent on toward Moscow. Immedi-
ately plans were put into operation by the American Consul for
getting all the Americans to Samara, a place of greater safety.
Miss Dunham and Miss Dickerson, in charge of the Petrograd
Association, were out of communication. There was nothing to
do but act as isolated units and obey orders. When it came to
the point of leaving Moscow and the work for Russian girls,
Miss Boies felt she could not go. Perhaps one person could stay.
Since it was necessary to reduce the staff to no more than one
person, Miss Taylor and Miss Ogden went with the other Ameri-
cans to Samara.
The Russian girls in Moscow grieved at the thought of bidding
goodby to their Association and all their American friends. It
was, therefore, a piece of good fortune for them that Miss Boies
stayed on to hold them together and give them some pleasant and
profitable hours with play and classes at the close of the very
trying days through which they must go. The food shortage and
the loneliness were the worst features. ■ Most of the supplies had
been sent to Samara in expectation of the Germans shortly taking
Moscow. But food shortage was not an unusual experience to
those who had lived through the winter in Russia. To be always
a little undernourished, always cold with a maximum heat of
only 45 degrees Fahrenheit allowed by law, had become the nor-
1^
mal thing. But to be alone with momentous questions of policy,
of cooperation or of personal safety, was to know the miseries of
discouragement.
There was nothing in the surroundings to add a drop of cheer.
The girls who came to the Association day by day were gradually
running down physically. The committee women were percepti-
bly growing older and thinner. Evidences of mental suffering
were on every hand — young boys and girls committing suicide or
going crazy — until a sort of apathy settled down over the people
as if nothing mattered, not even peace. And yet to the secretary
there was the one consoling fact of being there as friend to help,
if only by the giving out of such bits of bread as were procurable
to the girls who came in for their hour of recreation, to try to for-
get. Some of the classes were able to continue and some new
ones were added in millinery and sewing. During Lent two
classes in Bible Study, one of them in English, taught by Miss
Boies, the other m Russian by a Russian woman, helped to ob-
serve the season,(^d a friendly Russian priest gave several re- . ^^
ligious addresses, which meant much to the gij5^\jty\Nl kj\j 1't-iiA\ \j\jp^
The political situation changed from day to day and no news
was dependable. The Germans could take Moscow in one drive
if they cared tq do it. Foreigners were getting out as fast as
they could on any kind of trains. But travel conditions were in-
variably bad. Then came the signing of a peace with people
scarcely aware of a change. Whether it was the red flag of Bol-
shevism or the black flag of Anarchy seemed to make little dif-
ference to an apathetic people who needed bread.
In the meantime word had been received that the secretaries in
Petrograd had been taken to Vladivostok on the official evacua-
tion train. For several months there had been two secretaries in
Vladivostok, Miss Katherine Childs and Miss Muriel Heap, wait-
ing for an opportunity to get across Siberia into Russia. The
four of them together continued their study of the Russian lan-
guage and looked into conditions at Vladivostok which showed
many needs for Y. W. C. A. work in Siberia.
The two who had gone to Samara were likewise studying the
language and looking about. Samara offered greater relief.
Many refugees from Northern Russia and from Poland had left
Petrograd and Moscow for this less crowded city; the center of
a fertile area, watered by the Volga, from which came large sup-
plies of grain. Samara had a troop of 500 Girl Scouts without a
leader, which called for just the things a Y. W. C. A. secretary
could do. The Scouts themselves were eager to have the Ameri-
cans take hold.
In April, 1918, Miss Boies made a trip from Moscow to Petro-
grad, which for a history of transportation in 1918 and of endur-
ance tests in the face of great discouragements should be recorded.
"Goodby. We'll see you after the war," was the farewell of the
people in Moscow as she started on her cheerless journey. A
third class car with narrow benches filled with soldiers all smok-
77
HMMuH
ing and eating, only one other woman in the car, one soldier who
sang from two in the morning till seven, driving away even what
sleep might come in a bolt upright position. Such were the con-
ditions of the journey. Was it worth while for the sake of spend-
ing a week in Petrograd? "It was one of the most worth while
weeks I have spent in Russia," wrote Miss Boies. The rumors she
had heard in Moscow that the Petrograd Association, left without
an American secretary, was in danger of a slump, made any dis-
comforts worth enduring for the sake of seeing the real situation
of the girls in Petrograd who had learned to look to the Associa-
tion for help in a crisis.
Miss Boies thus described her week : ^'Petrograd was a surprise
to us — instead of a sad abandoned city, everything was gay; peo-
ple were walking or riding, very well dressed, no strain, a city
without a care or a fear apparently. There were no soldiers on
the street and officers everywhere in their best coats, gold braid
such as I had never seen before. But underneath there was much
suffering in spite of the gay streets. There was literally no food
to be bought in the stores or at the hotels. We stayed at the
Hotel d'Europe — no bread, only cofifee with a few grains of sugar
in the morning, and at noon or night a soup and a meat, no pota-
toes, no vegetables of any kind and not even dried fruits. If we
had not brought along an ample food basket for the journey we
would have starved. Of course people can still buy limited sup-
plies at the cooperatives and the city stores, but there has been
no sugar given out by card even for a month, and that is the
nearest experience of starvation that I ever want to see. I was
surprised- in our committee members — they have changed so, aged
and grown thinner even in the three months that I have been
away from Petrograd. It makes one feel very sad.
"They were so glad to see me it was most touching. They in-
sisted on my coming to their house to tea or dinner. Of course
I did not want to eat of their slender stores and they were too
dear for anything. It happened that they were in sort of a crisis
so my coming was very opportune. The school that had evacu-
ated was moving back to Petrograd that week and they had or-
dered us out. Why they are moving deaf and dumb children into
a starving city no one knows, but Moscow is being completely
requisitioned by the Bolsheviks, so they must leave there. We
made a strong plea to the house committee, and they decided to
send out all the other organizations and let us remain.
"Not the least encouraging part was the fine work that our two
little Russian secretaries, Nina Stephanovna and Antonina.^Mihae-
lovna, are doing. They have really caught the Association spirit. A
fX)ur committee women are getting new ideals, and our irislst-
ance on the democracy of the Association ®n the sharing of re-
sponsibility with the girls is something new. One of the commit-
tee members in Petrograd said to me: "We must keep the American
spirit. We have missed that since Miss Dunham went away;
78
that is the thing that is most important.** What she really jpeant
was our attitude of equality and comradeship with the girls.V
On her return to Moscow, Miss Boies had word that the four
secretaries in Vladivostok were coming to Russia, Miss Dunham
and Miss 'Dickerson to resume their work, Miss Childs and Miss
Heap to begin theirs. The next step was to confer on the whole
subject — of how best to conserve what was already begun, how to
concentrate forces, and how to plan for new work. It was con-
sidered wise to hold Petrograd and Moscow, where the Association
already had a start, to open in Samara with the Girl Scout troop,
and to cooperate with the Y. M. C. A., at their invitation, in some
summer work along the Volga River; also planning ahead for
student work in connection with the World's Student Christian
Federation.
Of the work already established the most important seemed to
be that in Moscow. Not only was Moscow in normal times more
thoroughly Russian than Petrograd, but it had now become the
seat of the Government. As a center for Association work it was
of strategic importance. Famous for having more churches than
any other city in the world, its religious prestige was unquestioned.
It was also the first city in Russia industrially. Realizing the
significance of this fact in the Association program. Miss Taylor
spent June and July of 1918 making an industrial survey of the
city. With a permission which gave her entree into every factory
in Moscow, she toiled through the hottest days of summer, visiting
225 factories. These giant buildings fringed the city, forming the
circumference of the circle which surrounds the Kremlin as the
center. The factories are of many trades, in which textiles stand
at the head of the list in numerical importance. Next came the
factories making candy, rubber, cigarettes, shoes, buttons, the tea-
packing industries, the army equipment places, and the sewing
trades, with their ramifications and abuses such as sweating.
The number of women employed was below the normal of pre-
war years, due partly to shortage of raw materials and fuel. De-
mobilization of soldiers added to the unemployment problem ; but
in socialistic Russia, where principle demanded that all engage in
productive work, the labor leaders frowned upon the displacement
of women workers by soldiers whose places they had taken during
the war.
The right to organize openly and to think, talk and act collec-
tively and freely, without fear of arrest, had wrought fundamental
changes. Labor unions organized by trades, with compulsory mem-
bership, had much power in regulating conditions of work and
policies of workers. The fact that women did not live up to the
privileges accorded them in the unions, but left most of the man-
agement to the men, was due to the greater educational advantages
which gave the men a wider interest and ability. The Bolsheviks
were recognizing, however, the fact that greater strength and
efficiency were to be gained through industrial rather than trade
organization, and by including both men and women in its com-
79
pulsory membership. Under the Soviet government all industries
would be completely controlled and reorganized.
The housing of v^orkers wsls for the most part by the barrack
system, due to the necessity of providing living quarters for the
peasants brought from villages, where they were dependent on
landlords. Many of the conditions of crowding and lack of sani-
tation were due to the ignorance of the people of any laws of health,
rather than to negligence of the management, who provided in
many cases good buildings, with laundry and bathing facilities.
However, there were instances of bad housing and neglect. Medi-
cal and dental care for employees was required of employers by
Russian law. The working conditions in some of the factories
were poor, due to bad sanitation.
The factory girl was a type distinctly Russian, differing in ap-
pearance, temperament and ambition from the wiry, alert American
girl in industry. One difference was in education, the American
girl plainly showing evidence of greater advantages and Wider in-
terests. But the fundamental difference was in origin. The Rus-
sian girl, of peasant stock and country upbringing, presented an
appearance of stolid strength and backward conservatism. Her
interests, emerging from a background of hard work in small com-
munity circles, whether in village or in factory, primarily per-
tained to the physical necessities of her being. The great event
in her life would be marriage. Coming out of a life of hard work,
she would go, back into a life of harder work. And yet the natural
instincts of girlhood — the desire for beauty and personal charm,
the seeking of joy, and the unconscious shy longing for self-expres-
sion — ran not much below the surface of the most stolid appearing
of these Russian factory girls. From their normal country life they
were never entirely cut off, for in the slack seasons, which were
the times of harvest, they would go back to help with the crops.
After the long Russian winter, the effulgence of summer served
to emphasize in the minds of the American secretaries the vital
importance of the peasant to Russia. Not only the fact that peas-
ants were now coming to take a large place in organized industry
but also the historical significance of a group numerically tremen-
dous, for centuries attached to the land, pointed to the strategic
importance of any kind of country work. When the Y. W. C. A.,
therefore, was invited to cooperate in a scheme for country work
in a boat trip along the Volga River in the summer of 1918, the
offer furnished too large an opportunity to be refused. The long-
ing to get as close as possible to the Russian peasant had here
its chance of fulfillment.
Any effort to reach the peasants of Russia must take the rivers
into the itinerary. Great arteries carrying the life of commerce,
of production, in many cases of all outside communication, they
nourish the heart of Russia. And Russia's rivers are many. The
Volga, one of the proudest of them, its wide waters, filled with
floating barges, separating vast stretches of low lands shading off
into deserts, on one side, from a succession of rich farms and vill-
$0
8i
age on the other bank, was to be the route of the expedition. Its
purpose was to help the country people at the very points at which
they most needed help by taking them new ideas along practical
lines on subjects of particular interest to them and by demonstrat-
ing how these ideas could be carried out. Although the whole
scheme was to be directed by the Y. M. C. A., the cooperation of
the government, of the Red Cross and of a staff of Russians made
it possible. Of the women's work the Y. W. C. A. was given full
charge. It was a help to have them also run the commissary de-
partment of the boat.
The steam boat furnished by the government was equipped with
an exhibit covering many aspects of agriculture, such as bee keep-
ing, poultry raising, dairying, and the use of farm machinery, and
demonstrating the right and wrong way of caring for babies, some
proper methods of domestic science, including cooking and house-
keeping, particularly the large uses of the foods at hand, such as
vegetables which were entirely neglected by the peasants, substi-
tutes for sugar of which there was none, and the making of potato
flour.
Starting from Nizhni-Novgorod in June, 1918, the boat made its
way down the Volga as far as Simbirsk, stopping for one or two
days at about eighty towns and villages. At each stopping place
the coming of the boat had been advertised beforehand and a crowd
was already assembled on the dock by the time the boat was ready
to tie up. In the case of early morning arrivals when one wanted
to sleep, this was rather inconvenient, for four A. M. made no dif-
ference to the noisy throngs in waiting. The morning was occu-
pied with seeing the village authorities, the priest of the local
church, and the people affiliated with agricultural societies, and
in visiting the schools to arrange with the teachers to havd the
children come down to the boat in the afternoon. The afternoon
was given up to showing them the exhibits. First came the school
children and their teachers all eager to have a look at the wonders
the boat held. Nothing escaped them, although to the children
some of the mysteries of hygiene might remain forever inexplicable.
To the teachers the coming of the boat was providential — new in-
spiration, new ideas, a relief from monotony, a real help in the
process of teaching. After the rest of the exhibit had been seen
and explained came the wonder of wonders down in the hold, for
some of the children had never seen moving pictures. They had
heard tales, however, of strange people who sometimes stole little
children, and some of them were afraid to go down inside the
boat. Once down, they could hardly be induced to come out again,
so great were the fascinations of the picture people who moved and
acted. The children were then taken up into the village in order
to keep the evening on board free for the grown people. To hold
the children there required the services of one person who could
play games with them. Scared at first as they had been at the
boat, they ended by accompanying this strange new friend back to
the boat when the evening was over and holding her hand tightly
all the way.
82
In the meantime, the exhibit was being shown to the peasants
and the village people. They came early, spent the evening and
were loath to leave at midnight. Amazement, wonder and curios-
ity held them. The exhibit had been planned with a special view
to interesting the men in newer agricultural methods and the
women in domestic science and child welfare. But often the men
seemed to take more interest in the child exhibit than the women,
due to the fact that the men had more education and, therefore,
more appreciation. Or sometimes the younger women were off
working in the fields, which left only the older women free to come.
It was not unusual to hear two or three old women in low tones
speculating about the possible reasons that could have brought the
exhibition. The theories varied from robbery to enemy propa-
ganda, and the talk usually ended in sending a delegation to see
what it was all about. As the admission was only thirty kopecks
the robbery theory was soon abandoned. As for the propaganda
it seemed friendly enough. It was certainly useful to learn how to
make flour from potatoes. Thus the majority of the visitors gained
several practical ideas and by the time the boat departed, there was
always left a group of from ten to thirty who had grasped the
deeper meaning of it. For after all, better farming, better com-
munity life, better babies and better schools were matters of vital
import in every community.
The group who cared the most about the message brought by the^
boat were the school teachers. Into them it put new life. Not^
infrequently they would follow the boat down the river two or/
three miles to the next landing in order to hear again the explany
ations and see again the pictures and thus to understand a littlei^
more. The teachers were the key to the country situation wherever
any welfare work was concerned, because the teachers, having been
students, had had their minds opened. This fact pointed likewise to
the strategic place of student work in any program for Russia.
The Volga trip served to emphasize to those who made it, some
of the great opportunities for work in Russia. It had demonstrated
that country work was possible. Following the open route of the
rivers, a boat might tie up anywhere and get an audience. It had
shown the need for such work. The simplest demonstrations of
cooking and for food values were of use in meeting the stringent food
situation. The deeper application of the demonstrations and the
lectures could be grasped by a few and turned to account in the
community life for the good of larger numbers. Moreover, the trip
had shown the possibilities and needs in specific places for intensive
Association work. Nizhni-Novgorod presented limitless possibili-
ties. As a great trade center it brought together people from great
distances : old traders from the north journeying with packs on their
backs ; many people passing to and fro in boats. Important indus-
trial suburbs surrounded the town. A university brought together
great numbers of sudents. The president of the university having
heard of the work of the Y. W. C. A. had asked for help and advice
in establishing a domestic science department, even signifying his
wiUingness to take over one of the secretaries to be on the faculty.
83
Kazan and Samara also had universities, the importance of which
was greatly increased on account of the closing of the universities
in Petrograd and Moscow.
Other possible centers for the work of the Y. W. C. A. had been
noted by the secretaries in their many enforced journeys. The
route of the Siberian railway offered opportunities in Perm and
Ekaterinburg, in Omsk and in that great strategic port either of
entry or of exit — Vladivostok.
The work already accomplished in Russia had demonstrated it-
self and its adaptability to Russian women. The fact that they
came in numbers to the Moscow Association, which was none too
centrally located, at a time when traffic conditions were crowded
to the limit and when the matter of wearing out shoe leather had
to be considered, and that they came on dark nights through un-
lighted streets with the sound of shooting as common as the sound
of an automobile horn, spoke eloquently for the continuance and
enlargement of the work.
But the end of the summer of 1918 brought such clouds to the
political horizon as made the storm seem too near for further risk.
The American government authorities called on Americans to seek
shelter and safety outside Russia from the outbreak that was sure
to come. The Red Cross was going to Sweden, The Y. W. C. A.
was ordered there, too.
A letter dated Stockholm, Sweden, September 12, 1918, tells a
story, by contrasts, of endurance and pluck and unfailing faith in
their purpose :
"We feel as if we had come out into daylight from shadow, and
we are surprised that the matter of food, laundry, repairing old
clothes and buying new ones can be accomplished with so little
effort. To get shoes resoled in a couple of days or a waist cleaned
in a week seems a miracle. I just wish I could give you an idea of
how the neatness and order and cleanliness of the buildings and
streets excite us. And the shop windows, full of food and candy!
It's great to see them.
"Of course you know that we are simply en route to Archangel
via Stockholm and we do not consider that we have come out of
Russia at all. Probably by the time that you receive this letter
we shall be again in Archangel and pushing down into central Rus-
sia again, for that is where there is work for us."
As for the two Associations in Russia, Moscow had had to close
in August when the Bolshevik government requisitioned the build-
ing. Petrograd, in many respects like an abandoned city, had al-
lowed the Association to continue its work unnoticed and unmo-
lested. The fact of having now only Russians in charge had made
it less conspicuous.
The way back to central Russia did not open as quickly as the
optimistic secretaries had thought. There was opportunity, how-
ever, for serving in Archangel, where a number of American troops
84
were stationed in a military situation that called for specific war
work as loudly as any need in France. Archangel might present
new openings for real Association work, or it might be a blind alley
so far as work in Russia was concerned. But at least it furnished
the Y. W. C. A. an opportunity to be of service during a time of
enforced waiting.
Willingness to serve is not always the only requirement. Some-
times the willingness must demonstrate its own worthiness. To
get the necessary permissions for going was easier than to win the
unqualified approbation of the American authorities. Many were
the situations in the Great War that furnished women the chance
to prove themselves. But none was more rigorous than the situa-
tion in North Russia. Nevertheless, the morning of October 5,
1918 found the women of the Y. W. C. A. writing from Archangel:
"We have just this morning arrived here and are again in Rus-
sia. It is so exciting to hear the good old Russian language again."
Their motives in coming sprang from two sources : their desire to
be in Russia, the country they had come to serve, and their eager-
ness to make their presence count in an immediate task for Ameri-
can soldiers.
The American North Russia Expeditionary Forces had arrived in
Archangel about a month before and 5,500 troops were quartered
along a 400 mile Front on the Archangel to Vologda Railroad. The
Y. M. C. A. was at work with a splendid program as an Allied
organization. Large huts were running with canteens adapted to
handle crowds of soldiers from all the y\]lied nations. The help of
women workers was very much needed in these canteens. And to
this work the six Y. W. C. A. secretaries gladly gave themselves.
Their presence behind the counter added a touch which only the
American woman can give to the homesick American soldier. One
of the secretaries describes those first days :
"We arrived some weeks after the landing of our troops when
most of them had gone to the various fronts, to fight in the cold
swamps of a seemingly limitless forest; so that only a compara-
tively small unit remained in Smolny, Archangel and Solombola,
three adjoining military centers, for guard duty. The joy was not
less than the amazement of these soldiers in discovering that Ameri-
can women had come to Archangel. It was in those first days that
we were constantly amused and touched by their frank exclama-
tions. One day we entered a street car. Upon apologizing for
stumbling over a sizable pair of American feet, an astonished youth
rose to exclaim, "Gee! you must be from the States!" and then
as the word was passed along that American women were here, a
veritable; car of smiles greeted us. ^^rom that time,^, swearing
in street cars and on the streets became noticeably les§17
At all social events the presence of the American women was
sought. Almost every evening some one of them was present at
the Y. M. C. A. hut in the Solombola and Solny districts and every
afternoon and evening one was in charge of the canteen at the
Central Hut in Archangel. Their presence made it natural and
8s
possible to secure the help of congenial volunteer women workers
and to employ the right kind of servants. By November, 1918, even
the Ambassador was not only thoroughly reconciled to having
American women in North Russia but was urging that ten more
secretaries be sent, adding to his request an unconscious compli-
ment for the six already present, in the words. "Send only strong
characters."
Wherever they went, the American women found the men look-
ing at them as if they were too good to be true. "Gee, it sounds
good to hear an American woman's voice !" was remarked over and
over again. Both men and officers, too , puzzled over why the
American Army was there and what would come of it, to feel in the
mood for making the little sacrifices necessary in a soldier's life,
were in need of a lot of cheering. In the hospital where lay the
sick and wounded facing possibly the supreme sacrifice, the passing
about among the cots of an American woman brought comfort and
courage. Casual visits developed real acquaintance and oppor-
tunities for more intimate chats over problems and difficulties.
Entertainments of all sorts were part of the program, and the vari-
ety in the nationalities to amuse and be amused furnished variety
in costume, color and form. Each nationality celebrated its par-
ticular national day. For Americans it was Thanksgiving Day.
Christmas was observed by all, beginning with music by a Rus-
sian Church choir on Christmas Eve. The day itself was packed
so full of joy that no one had a chance to get homesick. Carols
sung in the early morning through the wards, packaged and
goodies distributed and laughed over, Christmas trees decorated
and lighted beside the beds (a special dinner, followed by real cofifee
and cigars, cheerful stories read), all these things made Christmas
cheery at the Hospital. The huts were just as busy with a round
of eating and entertaining.
Not only to the men in Archangel did the Y. W. C. A. secre-
taries become like sisters from home, but even to the men upon
the railroad front they went, eager to share in the life of these box
car settlements among the snow-laden Russian pines. These set-
tlements of a few block houses for the guards, and a string of
diminutive Russian box cars along two or three sidings compris-
ing mess car, supply car, canteen car, a big American box car to
be used for classes and lectures and a large steel mail car arranged
as a reception car for the Y. W. C. A., kept one secretary on duty
there all the time. If she left they petitioned for her return. What
it meant to the men in these days of twenty hour darkness and a
temperature of thirty or forty degrees below zero, to have even one
American woman in camp, is practically expressed by the boy
who, when he went off guard duty, left a standing order, "Wake
me up if the *Y' people come !' "
Since Archangel was the center for all these American troops
the Y. W. C. A. secretaries were quick to recognize the need there
for a Hostess House designed exclusively to be to the American
man a real American Home. The Y. ^M. C. A. huts were neces-
86
sarily too big and international in character to be homelike, wrote
one of the secretaries, "although they were all as attractive as
fresh paint, curtains and big pictures could make them! Jji this
faraway land where the people talk such an outlandish language
and customs are so different, we wanted to keep the ideals and
memories of time so fresh that temptation might be lessened, re-
sistance increased,. an4 keeping in touch with mother, wife or
sweetheart, a necessity."
The process of obtaining a house was as long and as involved
as in other parts of Russia. Besides there were the Americans to
convince. But the year's experience had taught these American
secretaries the value of persistence in obtaining their desires and
proving their point. After three disappointments a house was
secured. The process had taken three months. New Year's Eve
celebrated the opening event, a party for officers; and New Year's
Day, 1919, welcomed the men of the Army to their "American
Home" in North Russia.
The three rooms the furnishing of which had been achieved
more by ingenuity and artistic adaptability than by any materials
that were procurable in the empty shops of Archangel, readily
assumed a homelike appearance to the big American boys who
wandered about within the bright flag decked walls and admired
the stenciled coarse linen curtains, To them it was palatial. It
was a place exclusively for them but to which they might invite
a comrade from the Russian, Italian, English, Canadian or French
Army. The cooperation of the Y. M. C. A. and American Red
Cross made possible the serving of food which seemed like home
too. Pies, doughnuts and pancakes, even chocolate layer cake,
came from the kitchen and, with homelike disregard for service
hours, were in demand at all hours. The most appreciative guest
of all was the boy from the front, to whom eager hosts never
failed to show off all the marvels: real TUgs^ a big^juirror, a hat
rack, and best of all an American rocking chair. rWhy, boy, it's
a real home !" wa^ the unfailing comment and pernaps one more
wife or girl back in America would have-r^eason to be thankful
the Y. W. C. A. had come to North Russia^
The summer of 1919 brought its changes. 'The American troops
sailed for home with the Hostess House "on the job" even to the
moment of "Bon Voyage" to speed them on their way with joy
toward their real American homes. The secretaries of the Y. W.
C. A., with mingled delight and sadness that this day of the sol-
diers' release had come, turned their attention to other work.
Never iov a moment had they forgotten that their real mission
was to serve girls.
The girls of Archangel were as ready to become Association
en'tKusTasts as had been the girls of Central Russia. ' With the
arrival of five new secretaries in July, 1919, it was possible to plan
some club work immediately in the rooms that had formerly been
the Hostess House. No opportunity had been lost in getting ac-
quainted with girls and their needs. Wherever the American
secretaries went, even if it were off on a day's holiday, they were
objects of special interest to the Russian girls. A trip one day to
Solovetski, the great monastery of North Russia, brought the sec-
retaries into contact with about a hundred and fifty girls who, with
their parents and teachers, were on the sbip making a pilgrimage
to this sacred place. What contrasts the two groups presented :
The American secretaries, alert, straight, uniformed, low - heeled,
spectacled, were the incarnation of the practical. The Russian
girls, slightly stooping as they strolled, high-heeled, some with
eyes blinking from poor sight, because in Russia only the old
make themselves hideous in spectacles, endlessly reasoning and
fruitlessly speculating, were living representatives of the theoreti-
cal. And what possibilities of mutual benefit from these con-
trasts !
It was not long before the groups were talking together by the
use of a mixture of Russian, English, French and German, to the
mutual linguistic improvement of both groups. As soon as they
heard about the plan of opening a girls' club in Archangel the
Russians had a torrent of questions. The whole idea was new to
them. The fact that there could be a place like that designed just
for girls was indeed cause for questions. When would it open?
How many could come? What would they do?
The next week the club opened. The clean fresh rooms were
crowded to the limit and class registrations mounted up by heaps.
The teaching of English gave the new secretaries something to
do. There was one doctor among them who was quick to see the
great needs for some simple lessons in hygiene. With the aid of
an interpreter, Dr. Warner was able to carry on two large classes.
The one in First Aid and Emergency Treatment, with fifty girls
registered and an average attendance of about forty, gave special
credit for outside practice in actual cases, and devoted two hours
to lecture on simple physiology, sex hygiene, and social rela-
tions between men and women with due allowance for any ques-
tions the girls might care to ask on any of the subjects. The
other class dealt with Home Nursing and Infant Care. Dr. War-
ner also found time to help in the work for the Girl Guides.
These classes gave Dr. Warner an insight into moral conditions
among girls which deepened her conviction of the need for Asso-
ciation work in North Russia. Morals were at low ebb among
them. She found the girls quick to grasp the theoretical aspects
of the subject, but slow to apply them in practical usefulness.
And yet the doctor was strong in her belief in the women of Rus-
sia not only as superior, morally and intellectually to the men,
but also as strategically important in relation to the future of Rus-
sia. "J firmly believe," she wrote in her report, ''that with very
little- education in social hygiene, with a little encouragement as
to the marvelous possibilities, latent still, in these very women of
Russia — in raising the morale of the young women of the country,
who-, as never before, are branching out into all sorts of economic
enterprises — the social and moral conditions of the country can
be raised to a greater height with unbelievable rapidity."
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89
All the secretaries were impressed likewise with the limitless
possibilities for the future. But for the summer of 1919 any aspect
of work was necessarily temporary. The political situation col-
ored everything. In a secretary's own words : "Living in Russia
now is like living on a volcano. Yet we lived on that volcano for
about six weeks, very happily and very comfortably. What if one
did see many soldiers on the streets; or hear the monotonous
clamp of their iron shod boots on the cobble stones ; or what if
one were stopped at night by the home guards, with long bayo-
nets, very weird in their combination of civilian and mihtary
clothes; and what if one heard, late in the night, mysterious Rus-
sian mutterings in which one could only grasp the word 'Bol-
shevists' and nothing more; and what if one heard reports of ex-
pected counter-revolutions and d^angers from Bolshevism. In
contrasts there was the incomparable glow of sunlight in the gold-
en domes of the cathedral, a pageant of color on the street, queer-
ly costumed priests, peasants stopping from market before ikons
or small chapels and crossing themselves again and again. And
best of all, there was the sunset on the Dvina with the domes of
Russian churches in soft outlines in the distance. I shall never
forget the strange, mysterious effect of these Russian sunsets.
Even the Allied battleships in the harbor could not withstand the
charm and seemed to be only phantom ships of blue and pink. I
wanted to sit under the white birches along the quay and dream
dreams and see visions. How can a Russian excel in anything but
art and letters when he has such haunting beauty about him?"
So vivid an understanding of Russia and the Russian temperament
must have value for future days.
The girls' club of Archangel was destined to be interrupted. In
September, 1919, came the sweeping order for all the Allies to
leave Russia. There was no escape this time. The Y. W. C. A.
must go too. When the news was known, a spirit of sadness de-
scended upon the girls meeting for classes. VTlesson were set aside
for other topics which sprang from deep ^^ated interest in the
American secretaries and all that surrounded their departure —
questions of the great land from which they came and to which
they would some day return. What was America like? And the
secretaries gladly satisfied the eager questions, and in their turn
were just as eager to ask more about Russia. The last class hour
was given up to talk about Russia, her literature, her music, her
dance, her drama. The girls delighted to hear what Russian lit-
erature and music meant to other nations. They described their
Russian Easter. Then the needs of Russia^ere discussed. They
agreed that the greatest need was educ ation.j
On the last evening a farewell speech was made by one of the
girls in an attempt to express their appreciation for what the Club
had meant. The following is her own translation :
"The girls begged me to make a speech, but I beg your pardon
that I shall not say much, because I am very excited and therefore
my speech may be confused. But, what I want to say, is true not
only for myself, but every one of you.
90
"We assemble here for the last time, assemble like members of
a family to say 'Goodbye' to those, who did for us so much. I
would like to describe my impressions about the Y. W. C. A. I
remember that day when one of my friends who was on the con-
ference told me about the opening of the Y. W. C. A. In the
Autumn when the evenings were cold and dark and dreary I
thought many times how it would be good if the girls should
gather somewhere for work and for amusement. I think that
many of you wished the same. I was very glad when the Y. W.
C. A. was open, perhaps now it seems very funny, but then really
I could not laugh. When I came to sign my name I was met very
sincerely, like an old acquaintance.
"Many girls became members of the Young Women's Christian
Association. Our American friends were trying to join the pleas-
ant and the useful. They were trying to give us such knowledge,
which is most necessary in our life. English lessons, French les-
sons, typewriting and stenography lesson, all that make it more
possible to find work. Besides this we had First Aid lessons, which
we need so much in our hard times. All these lessons were for us
very interesting because they were taught by the teachers who
loved very much their own work and therefore they gave us their
love too. We will try to use our knowledge in life.
"All the members were very fond of the Y. W. C. A. Every-
body came here after their work to talk with our friends, to enjoy
and to laugh. It was very nice in these cosy rooms with plenty
of electric light. Everybody felt themselves very much at home
and all the troubles were going far away, and nobody wanted to
go home and be separated from our American friends. The fol-
lowing evening we came again, and again, it was so nice. Many
of us have no relations here and for them the Y. W. C. A. was
like a relative family. They find here attention and affection and
forget that they are quite alone. In our hard times we need par-
ticularly much attention and affection, and our American friends
gave it to us. They arranged for us every Sunday concert, games
and singing, always they were with us and took part in our amuse-
ments.
"Today we assemble in order to say, not goodbye for ever, but
goodby for the present, and to give them best wishes. We hope
that again we will meet you very, very soon, and continue our
work together. A 'Great Russian Thank You' to you. In this
short time we loved you, and we are very, very sorry about your
departure. The Young Women's Christian Association shall be
for us a bright and beautiful remembrance for our whole life."
Thus closed the six weeks of club work with the girls of Arch-
angel. Although limited in point of time the club work had been
of a type comparable to the most general Association work. The
girls had come from the larger offices representing the telegraph,
telephone, post office, bank, Y. M. C. A., British General Head-
quarters, and the ouprava, the city government offices as well as
the Archangel or State government offices. Many of them were
91
separated from their families and living in small rooms with no
place to seek recreation except where the many temptations usual
to a port city surrounded them. Comparing them with American
girls a secretary said: "I found the Russian girls very much like
American girls, in enthusiasm, frankness, originality, spontaneity,
but very lacking in the qualities of leadership and action. They
read better literature than our girls of the same position would
read, and they discuss politics, religion and philosophy with more
sincerity and depth."
Owing to the uncertainties the Y. W. C. A. had planned its
work on a short term basis. But even the six weeks had served
to introduce new hope for the future into the lives of hundreds of
girls in Archangel.
*'I shall never forget those girls at Archangel," writes one of
th^ secretaries. "Their gratitude, their responsiveness, and kind-
ness will be a lasting memory. They are now living through not
only a political crisis, but a religious and moral one as well. I
believe the Y. W. C. A. has a very unique and large work to do
with these splendid girls of Russia." One result of the presence
of the Y. W. C. A. in Archangel was the coming of a girl from
Archangel to the National Training .School in New York, where
she took the year's course preparatory^ to service among her own
people.
The leaving of Archangel in September, 1919 closed the first
chapter of the story of the Y. W. C. A. in Russia proper. For
about two years and a half the American Y. W. C. A. had been
in Russia with the object primarily of carrying on a program of
regular Association work adapted to specific Russian needs. This
program had included organization in Petrograd, Moscow and
Archangel. In certain places where they found themselves from
force of circumstances the secretaries had given time to helping in
other situations, notably in the Archangel Hostess House and
recreational program for the North Russia unit of the American
army; in Samara where they helped in some playground and
physical education work and in the leadership of the Girl Scouts.
They had cooperated with the Y. W. C. A. in. some country wel-
fare work along the Volga River in the summer of 1918. They
had touched the Student situation as they visited university cen-
ters. They had served the American consulate in assisting in the
distribution of a sum of money given for the relief of officers' and
soldiers' families; and they had served the British Military
authorities until an English woman could arrive, in running a
Home for Russian women and girls just released from prison. In
these varied capacities the time spent had counted in an influence
out of all proportion to their numbers, as testify letters sent back
from the American front in Russia or from Russian girls in the
clubs. One man who was an eyewitness to their pluck, their ver-
satility, their endurance, remarked that there were no better sol-
diers in Russia than the Y. W. C. A.
When the day^ came for leaving Russia, therefore, the Y. W.
92
C. A. obeying orders in the spirit of true soldiers, marched out as
full of courage as they had entered. In September, 1919, Miss
Dunham and Miss Taylor met in Christiania, Norway, three new
secretaries who had been sent out as reinforcements from New
York headquarters in the summer. Together they talked over the
situation, what had been accomplished, the reasons for the inter-
ruption, the outlook for the future.
It was evident that these new secretaries must be delayed for
some time before being allowed to enter Russia. They therefore
made plans for using their time wherever they were for the good
of Russia. Russian language lessons, a study of Russian history
and customs through close contact with Russian people, and the
helping of individual cases of Russian women and girls whom they
chanced to meet, filled the days. Inasmuch as all Scandinavia
was filled with Russian refugees, their Russian contact was direct
and timely. When they moved from Christiania, Norway, to
Stockholm, Sweden, and from Stockholm to Helsingfors, Finland,
they still found it interesting and pofitable to come in touch with
other national Y. W. C. A. work likewise organized under the
World's Committee, as well as to take a hand in Red Cross sew-
ing and distribution stations, and in refugee relief carried on un-
der the several governments. But whatever the immediate task in
hand, they worked with their eyes always on Russia — her outlook,
her needs, her challenge to service.
In December, 1919, Miss Ebertha Roelofs wrote from Helsing-
fors: "Although some people might question the advisability of
Miss Cline's and my being in Scandinavia so long, since the possi-
bility of getting into Petrograd seems about as remote as ever,
still we believe that it is very worth while for us to be here. We
think we might be called the American Young Women's Chris-
tian Association Mission to Scandinavia for the strengthening of
friendships and the exchanging of ideas and methods." They
had been welcomed in Finland, where there was so much to be
done for refugees. From Helsingfors they were transferred in
January, 1920, to Viborg to help in the work of the Russian Red
Cross.
The first task they were asked to do in Viborg was to conduct
a dining room for refugees, with two Russian women as assist-
ants, one of whom spoke Finnish, thus being able to attend to the
buying. The plan was to serve a dinner of five marks to those
who were able to pay that small sum, and to give it free to those
whose cards showed their inability to pay. The money thus col-
lected was expected to pay running expenses. The food, it was
hoped, could be obtained from America.
The Finns, who had not forgotten America's kindness in send-
ing them food when they were starving, were glad to cooperate
with the American secretaries in their undertakings. In their
search for a location for the restaurant, they ran across some ex-
cellent quarters for Y. W. C. A. work. The opportunity for this
work had come through a Sunday night Bible class meeting at the
93
home of a ninety year old Russian lady, Madame Cherkoff, a
friend of Baroness Nickolay. Miss Roelofs, who was asked to
speak to the group, invited the young women to tea the follow-
ing Wednesday, January 21, 1920.
This was the beginning of Y. W. C, A. work for Russian women
refugees. And such a meeting as it was ! Instead of the ten who
were expected, twenty were squeezed into the new rooms and
overflowed into the hall. Their great desire was to hear all about
what American girls did in their Associations. This made op-
portunity for a practical demonstration of the gospel of good
health in some simple gymnastic exercises. For these exercises
the group expanded into the dining room, and when the leader
opened the window and jumped up on a table, their amazement
reached its climax. The strenuous part of the program was fol-
lowed by tea and a cozy talk, through an interpreter, on the edu-
cational system in America. Considering the ease with which
Russians express their religion, it was natural to follow this with
a hymn led by a woman interested in Madame Cherkoff's Bible
class, and with a religious talk and an invitation to come to the
class.
Work such as this fully occupied the time of the two secre-
taries who were waiting in Scandinavia. Other secretaries, like-
wise en route to Russia were waiting at other doors of entrance
into that vast country which stretches across two continjents.
One group, known as the South Russia unit, were in Constanti-
nople. Another group, known as the Siberia unit, were in Vladi-
vostok. These units furnished variety to the records of what the
Blue Triangle could accomplish in widely varied situations with
differing problems. But in purpose they were unitedly deter-
mined to help in each situation by bringing one more Christian in-
fluence to bear upon the disintegrating, questioning forces of the
Russian social structure in this formative period for Russia.
The South Russia unit was composed of three secretaries
destined for the work in the north — at Archangel or in Central
Russia — who had arrived after the way was barred, and of an-
other small group of secretaries who had sailed directly to the
South, landing at Constantinople. With the hope of entering
Russia by one of the southern ports, or, at least, of being on the
ground ready to enter when the way was opened, these secre-
taries joined forces in Constantinople with the Y. W. C. A. unit
serving under the American Committee for Near East Relief.
Besides carrying on their Russian language study they were at
the disposal of the Committee for whatever service they could
render in the work of relief for refugees, particularly Russians.
Russian refugees numbering into the thousands were scattered
about in colonies, some of them in Constantinople proper, some of
higher class assigned for the summer to Halki, an island in the
Bosphorus, formerly a summer resort; one shipload of 800 arriv-
ing from Odessa, 200 of them sick and wounded, were hastily re-
ceived on the island of Proti, one of the Princes' Islands. In
04
such emergencies as meeting and relieving these 800 from Odessa,
the Near East Relief turned gladly to the Y. W. C. A. secretaries
for help. "Fortunately, there is in Constantinople a Russian unit
of the Y. W. C. A." wrote one of the officers on February 14,
1920. "We asked them if they would like to cooperate in this
Russian relief; they eagerly accepted and at the present time the
whole Russian unit is on the island working hard in close cooper-
ation with us. Several of them speak Russian and they are very
helpful. Will you say to the Y. W. C. A. that Major Arnold says
every one of them is an Al worker and we are glad to have
them."
The unit was also able to cooperate with the Y. M. C. A. in
some recreatiom and gymnastic activities for the children in a
Russian school which the Y. M. C. A. was promoting. This work
was beneficial on both sides, enabling the secretaries to acquire a
little more facility in understanding the Russian language and peo-
ple, and interesting the Russians — not only the children in the
classes but the ever present adult spectators in organized play.
A few Russian women and girls were helped through the
Y. W. C. A. Service Center, of which the first was established in
Constantinople in June, 1919, with no limit by nationalities in its
field of service. In the turmoil of races that war and pre-war con-
ditions had produced in the Near East, the Y. W. C. A. was find-
ing its policies ever broadening, its scope international.
While the South Russia unit was thus engaged in the Near
East, the Siberia unit was at work in the Far East Siberia, re-
mote from the center stage of the Great War, was yet carrying on
a war program in the wings ; and the nine secretaries who reached
Vladivostok in the summer of 1919 found the opportunities for
work unlimited by any imagined remoteness. To them Vladi-
vostok, with its 700 American soldiers (and more along the
Siberian railroad), its ever present Japanese, its Russians, its
Czech soldiers and its characteristic mixture of other European
military uniforms, together with its hordes of Russian and Czech
refugees, and its pathetic colony o^ Russian children, seemed the
center of the universe. Certainly the ends of the earth were there
represented.
The Y. W. C. A. secretaries arrived in June and July, 1919.
They were immediately recognized as one of the welfare
agencies working with the American Expeditionary Forces and
as such were facilitated in the business of finding a location and
establishing headquarters. They were given representation on
the weekly council which met with the morale officer for the pur-
pose of uniting and coordinating activities. One secretary was
assigned to the staff of the Y. M. C. A. International Hut to work
out some principles of cooperation with that organization. In the
Sunday morning religious service, as in the soldiers' and sailors'
dances, the presence of the newcomers — "real American women"
— touched the occasion with a bit of home atmosphere. One sec-
retary wrote: "The simple fact of being an American woman in
95
this community brings with it responsibilities and privileges of
service which, in themselves, make demand enough upon our time
and strength to make life very full even without the activities
which we ourselves promote, to say nothing of the task of at-
tempting to learn something of the Russian language."
The plan of essentially Y. W. C. A. activities included a Hostess
House and some recreation work for the men of the American
Army on the one hand, and a program of work for women and
children of Vladivostok and of the refugees on the other. And yet
in the following month, August, 1919, the secretaries were writing
back in their reports that the "kaleidoscopic changes of plans and
of facts upon which to base plans" produced a unique challenge to
resourcefulness, originality and patience. *'We are learning that
the only fact upon which we can actually depend is the fact that
no fact is dependable. We live on rumors and act on emergen-
cies!" The arrival of two new secretaries that month, however,
making nine in all, added strength to the force.
As usual in such war crowded centers a location for a Hostess
House was difficult to find, and, once found, was slow to get in
order, owing to the complications of the East, which cannot be
hurried, and of the military, which cannot disentangle itself from
official red tape. By the end of July, 1919, however, the House,
or at least a part of it, was opened, and by September the cafe-
teria or canteen was running. Certain furnishings, such as wicker
tables and easy chairs, had been brought from Japan. Through
the kindness of the American Library Association, three shelves
of good fiction were installed. The formal opening was a Sunday
afternoon concert by a Czech orchestra followed by tea served
from a Russian samovar. Add to this setting the American
doughboys drinking English tea out of dainty Japanese tea cups
and the international aspect of Vladivostok is complete. Even in
an international setting, however, the doughboy is still an Ameri-
can doughboy, and it was not unusual for him to supersede the
Czech orchestra with some good old American "rag," and to sup-
plement the tea with cozy talk to a real American girl, one of the
hostesses. These Sunday afternoons proved so popular that they
were continued into the fall and winter.
The cafeteria was one reason for the popularity of the Hostess
House. To be able to get good food of the American variety at
an attractive place reserved for Americans only, was a fact to be
appreciated. Out of the 700 American troops stationed in Vladi-
vostok a large proportion expressed their appreciation by their
presence and appetite. To take the figures for one month, Decem-
ber, 1919: Fourteen hundred and twenty-seVen men were
served; receipts were $731.85; the average check was fifty-one
cents. Sailors too were among those present as long as a ship
was in port and the weather made possible the long walk to the
Hostess House. Even after the cold had set in, one sailor walked
out to consume at one sitting, five baked custards, three chocolate
puddings, two pieces of pie and cake, and departed with his pock-
ets filled with doughnuts.
96
For special occasions the Hostess House and its catering facili-
ties were in demand. There were the farewell parties for the men
who were leaving, which called for a cake with inscriptions on
top. There were the dances, both officers' and privates', which
must have refreshments. There was the special and proper food to
be prepared for the soldier prize fighters when they were in train-
ing. There were the cocoa and cookies to be sent over once a
week to the men at the Evacuation Hospital. There was the offi-
cial entertaining, a dinner for General Graves and another for
Admiral Rodgers. And there were the picnics and all that they
meant for enjoying the out-of-doors in wholesome frolics as long
as the summer weather lasted. But the greatest occasions were
Thanksgiving and Christmas which became homelike for the
Americans, with dinners and dances amid the proper decorations.
Into these celebrations the soldiers and sailors, Y. M. C. A., Red
Cross, and Knights of Columbus, entered with real American zest
which meant success to the festivities.
On the other side of the program, the Y. W. C. A. was attempt-
ing some work for women and girls. To be of service to the
American women wherever they are found is the first duty of the
American Y. W. C. A. The nurses of the Red Cross working
near Vladivostok and living in barracks found delightful recrea-
tion in the swimming parties, picnics, and other aflfairs arranged
by the secretaries and in their turn extended the secretaries the
hospitality of their comfortable living quarters for occasional
shampoos and baths. Some of the nurses were stationed at the
Russian Island Hospital six miles by water from Vladivostok and
therefore, somewhat isolated. The assistance of the secretaries in
doing shopping was a contribution much needed and appreciated
by these nurses. All the American women worked together for the
special occasions of the Thanksgiving and Christmas parties, and
as far as work would permit joined in the recreation activities.
By special request a gymnasium class was started for the Red
Cross nurses and their Russian aides in training, to whom special
credit was given for the course.
To be of service to Russian women and girls in Vladivostok,
the Y. W. C. A. found the avenues of approach through class
work fitted to their needs. In October, 1919, there were four
groups of subjects:
1. English classes with social and other educational features in-
cluding a class in business training, with the definite aim of devel-
oping a permanent club group. About 200 were in these classes.
2. Sewing classes looking toward vocational work with a Rus-
isian woman in charge of the drafting and advanced dressmaking.
About seventy-five were enrolled.
3. Classes in physical training. 'Difiiculty in securing the use of
a gymnasium delayed the opening but failed to detract from the
ardor of the girls who entered into the spirit of the work and
frolicked and played with the enthusiasm of girlhood.
n
4. Special work on embroidered articles of characteristic Rus-
sian design and other typical needlework with a view to finding a
sale for these and thus helping to solve the acutej financial prob-
lems of many girls. This department flourished, as it served two
purposes : to make known the possibilities of securing such work,
and to encourage the creation of lovely Russian articles.
On November 14, 1919, the girls of all the classes were brought
together to hear something about the movement that was thus
serving them, how the Y. W. C. A. happened to come to Vladi-
vostok and some possibilities for the future. Besides the Ameri-
can secretaries who spoke and who showed pictures of how Ameri-
can girls used the Y. W. C. A., a Russian woman who was present
to act as interpreter, told what the Y. W. C. A. had meant to her
in America. A discussion in true Russian fashion finished the
meeting, the questions showing the eagerness of the girls to "be-
long" .and thus to be contributing to the project. It was ar-
ranged that each class appoint one member as their representa-
tive on a central committee to help plan other evening gatherings
and make suggestions for furthering the work.
Progress lay along this line. To watch the development of
unified action through this "Get Together" movement was to see
growth not only in the work but in individuals ; while to know
the girls as individuals was the ever increasing privilege of the
secretaries who made opportunities for At Home days and Sun-
day afternoon teas. On the first Sunday afternoon twenty-two
members of classes came.
Interest in class work was maintained. For the month of
November there were 1,247 in total attendance at classes averag-
ing a little more than sixty-two for every day of class work. Then
came a revolution and two days' interruption, for even in Russia
revolutions are not common enough to avoid interruptions. The
end of the year 1919, however, found the Russian girls of Vladi-
vostok more interested than ever in the work of the Y. W. C. A.,
constantly demanding greater things in their class work and
making steady program. "It is a real pleasure," wrote one of the
secretaries, "to see the responsiveness and enthusiasm of the girls,
and makes one feel that there are great possibilities ahead."
y The work continued into 1920 and then was necessarily stopped
by the enforced evacuation of Vladivostok. The American secre-
taries left their Russian girl friends withj regret for the brevity
of the work, but great hopes that some seeds had been planted
which would spring up in future developments of Y. W. C. A.
work among Russian girls.
Side by side with this work--/or Russian girls the Y. W. C. A.
had found one of its greatest fields of service among the Russian
children who were living in a colony on Russian Island. Eight
hundred children, aged seven to twenty, had come as refugees
from all parts of Russia. Most of them were sent by their parents
in charge of teachers from Petrograd and the environs to stay till
the war was over. But the war went on and the children stayed
98
on. The travel had been by box car and necessarily attended by
hardships and yet there had been few deaths among them. Two
children had drifted in from South Russia having traveled all
alone from Odessa and not knowing exactly who they were or
how they had reached Vladivostok.
The American Red Cross had agreed to look after the children.
But they arrived before Russian Island was ready to receive them.
This made a difficult situation, with barracks not clean, no water
system provided, frozen pipes useless, children jammed into one
end of the barracks and baggage at the other. Moreover, the
matter of entertaining the children was serious. The little boys
and girls were kept together; the older boys and girls were sep-
arated at the island, although they had been together en route.
About half were girls. Big bearded boys with nothing to do but
to sit around on the bed and smoke, made the problem of morale
a serious one. The separation from all contact with home was
unavoidably pathetic. One letter received from a parent had
been posted on the bulletin board for all the children to read, so
rare was this occurrence.
The program at the Island consisted of a school run in double
shifts morning and afternoon. The older girls had to do their
own sewing and also to sew together in clubs for the smaller
children. It was in the program of club and recreation work that
the Y. W. C. A. came in to help. One secretary was sent to live
at the Island. Four clubs were organized. Through some classes
in gymnastics, and organized play, hikes, picnics, and general
good times together, many of the children were kept helpfully
busy and out of mischief. Great variety was seen in the colony,
some of them having had many advantages. There were some
beautiful dancers among them, from the best Russian schools.
Others knew music.
One pathetic incident cross-sections the life. A child died.
Since there was no Russian priest available, it became the duty
of the Y. W. C. A. secretary to attend the funeral service. Tak-
ing with her some of the playmates of the dead child, they went
to the grave. The children, without books or coaching, sang the
Russian burial service through to the end. They knew it as they
had known their dead 'comrade, like a familiar friend. In another
instance the secretary herself with the help of two children, put
up the headstone to mark the grave of a child.
Two years spent in a box car are not conducive to the develop-
ment, mental, spiritual or social, of a growing child; and yet that
is the length of time some of these children had been on the road.
The little niceties of life were in danger of disappearing along with
the little vanities. When little chips of mirrors were all they
possessed, how could the girls be careful about their appearances?
One teacher possessed a square hand glass which was loaned about
among the girls continually as a special privilege. When at
Christmas time a group was brought in to the Y. W. C. A. House
to sing Christmas carols, the thing that amazed them was not so
99
much the size of the rooms but the huge mirrors that decorated
the walls. Bewildered at such luxury and caught by so many re-
flections, they turned and turned as they gazed and wondered.
So tremendous a problem as that which the Red Cross was
working out on Russian Island necessarily takes time. To house
and feed the children as well as to provide what educational ad-
vantages were available under the conditions, was a courageous
undertaking. The Y. W. C. A. in taking charge of the recreation,
made a contribution which counted in the work, as a touch, no
matter how small, upon the lives of children, must always count.
It was with regret on both sides that the Y. W. C. A. work was
brought to an end by the secretary's enforced leaving of Vladi-
vostok. As a result of contacts formed, however, two teachers in
charge of the Russian Island group came later to the National
Training School in New York for preparation to do Y. W. C. A.
work.
One other contribution which the Y. W. C. A. was able to make
in Vladivostok was in helping the Army to care for the wives of
American soldiers who had been married since coming to Siberia.
Brides are always a problem in a military situation. In Vladi-
vostok they were housed in barracks at the end of the bay not
far from the Y. W. C. A. Hostess House. It was natural, there-
fore, to have the brides cared for at the Hostess House. Meals
were served them there. And all the numerous little things which
needed to be done, the secretaries gladly undertook. In some cases
they kept the wedding certificates and the passports of the brides.
The soldiers themselves often asked these favors.
Reports had it that there were 1,400 marriages of American
men to Russian girls. Although this was grossly exaggerated, it
showed the condition of affairs in Siberia. There were cases of
girls married to two men at the same time: There were cases of
girls with no wedding certificates. There were some brides with
several children who preferred keeping house in a box car to living
in barracks. The problem of dealing with brides was more dififi-
cult for the Army in this remote corner of the world than in
France and many were the situations which added entanglements
and made the work more difficult. The Y. W. C. A. helped where
they could and won the gratitude of the A. E. F. in Siberia.
Seventy-five wives of American soldiers were actually in Vladi-
vostok. There was a move on the part of the Army to send them
to Manila. After thirty-two had sailed, no more could be sent.
The Y. W. C. A., when forced to evacuate on account of military
conditions, regretted exceedingly having to leave a few brides
still in Vladivostok.
Early in 1920 the military situation caused by the revolution
was such that the American Army ordered all American women
out of Vladivostok. The work done in Siberia had made its con-
tribution, however. Hundreds of American soldiers, quartered in
that corner of the world, are grateful to the Y. W. C. A. for com-
ing to Vladivostok and for paying occasional visits "down the
100
line" where the boys were quartered in out of the way places.
Moreover, 500 girls who had been enrolled in classes in Vladivos-
tok, Russian, Jewish, Polish and other nationalities, were glad the
Y. W. C. A. had come, and put fresh vigor into their lives. The
work for the brides and the Russian refugee children had also
brought its reward in grateful reception. To the secretaries
themselves who went to Siberia, the year 1919-1920 will be re-
membered as one of the great years of their life, great in sacrifice
but also great in service.
lOI
f>^i9i^^'^^^^''
Italy
ITALY, always as full of picturesque diversity as of variegated
charm, presented variety in her war needs. While only a
small part of the actual territory of Italy was fought over, yet
the great expanse of her coast, the strategic position of her port
cities as well as the natural war-seething of her entire population,
brought the war crisis to Italy in a peculiar way.
The restlessness of the people, whole families leaving the coun-
try places and migrating to the cities, the consequent congestion
of population in the cities, at a time when the natural inflow of
refugees had already crowded them; the peculiar situation which
brought into the port cities returning emigrant families, the
women and children stranded until they could find a place to live
after long absence, and outgoing emigrants, awaiting sailings for
distant lands free from war perils; the new war industries, which
gathered up workers by the thousands and concentrated them in
camps and factories — all of these things produced a situation in
which women and girls, always the sensitive element in society,
bore the brunt of the social strain.
The position of women in Italy has always been a conservative
one. In Naples and the South, the complex populations mingling
Normans, Arabs, Negroes, Moors, Spaniards and French, fit sub-
jects of years of terrorized exploitation, superstition, even vices,
tend toward orientalization in these same vices and therefore in
the condition of women. Women are regarded as inferior. A
beclusion almost equal to that prevailing in Mohammedan coun-
tries has been the rule. Eighty-five per cent of the women of
Calabria are said to be illiterate. In the upper classes, the suspi-
ciously jealous guarding of women narrows them to the interests
of their own household, and in the lower classes, a worse condi-
tion shunts them to the side lines of drudgery or immorality. These
are the people found huddled in groups at the steamship offices
by day, and quartered in damp clammy cellars by night awaiting
the chance to emigrate to America.
The north had always viewed women with more liberality.
The natural softness of Italian climate and topography had built
into Italian womanhood, the subtleties of its charm which made
her more reticent in initiative and less vigorous in leadership, con-
102
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CENTERS IN ITALY
103
scious of a differentiation due to her sex. A wide distinction in
classes is inevitable.
The war in Italy, as in every other European country, has
forced women into the arena industrially, economically, politi-
cally. This has brought new liberties and therefore, new tempta-
tions. In the midst of the crisis, wages were inflated to the di-
mensions of war prices. At the close of the war, the sudden drop
in wages, the closing of many factories making war materials, but
the continued high prices, meant economic readjustment for hun-
dreds of girls. Readjustment periods are always times of diffi-
culty. Many of these girls needed as never before in their lives
a big hearted, impartial, sane minded, friend and advisor to whom
they could turn in their hour of crisis.
The Unione Christiana Delle Giovani, for twenty-five years the
national organization working under the World's Committee of
the Y. W. C. A., realized the situation and out of its long expe-
rience of serving girls, prepared to meet it. Eager not to fail the
girls of Italy, yet somewhat restricted by war conditions, its lead-
ers felt in the present crisis the need of outside help.
The American Y. W. C. A. was already at work in France meet-
ing war situations not only for American women but for French
girls as well. In June, 1918, a request was made that the Ameri-
can Y. W. C. A. come to Italy also. This request was repeated
in a number of forms and for independent reasons. In the first
place, the American women war workers needed the same friend-
ly hospitality in Italy as had been so gratefully received in France.
This was evidently the province of the American Y. W. C. A.
In the second place, the girls of Italy engaged in specific war indus-
tries or greatly affected by specific war conditions, needed the
particular contribution in fresh personalities and adequate equip-
ment which the American Y. W. C. A., through its war work
program, was prepared to make. The Unione Christiana Delle
Giovani finding itself hampered by war conditions even in carry-
ing on its pre-war activities, cordially urged the American Y. W.
C. A. to undertake this work. In the third place, the request came
through personal invitations and information sent both to the
American Y. W. C. A. in France and to the War Work Council
of the Y. W. C. A. in New York. Miss Charlotte T. Niven, an
American who had spent many years in Italy in the service of
the Unione Christiana Delle Giovani, went to France as a special
messenger to set before the representatives of the American Y. W.
C. A. there, the needs in Italy. The work proposed by her in Oc-
tober, 1918, was as follows:
1. For American women in Italy:
(a) A club in Rome with full time secretary,
i (b) A Nurses' Club at American Base Hospital.
\ (c) A Hostess House at Genoa to become after the war a
hostel and center for general work.
',_ (d) A Hostess House at Naples with same program as
Genoa.
104
2. For Italian women munition workers:
(a) Foyers in munition centers.
3. For the Unione Christiana Delle Giovani:
(a) One organized center (possibly Genoa) with two
American secretaries (physical and recreational) to
serve as a training center ; also a Hostess House to be
used later for girls employed and for transients.
(b) Similar work for Naples.
(c) Financial support for new Italian secretary (3-5 years).
(d) Financial help in a Hostel in Florence (2 years).
With the signing of the Armistice in November, some of these
items were naturally eliminated, such as the Nurses' Club at the
American Base Hospital. Other items, such as the proposed
Foyers in munition centers, were changed in aspect from military
situations in need of intensive work with industrial units them-
selves, to social situations in which hundreds of girls freed simul-
taneously from war industries and war restraints, presented anew
a problem in social reassimilation and occupation. If war needs
were more intensive, the post-war needs, as they presented them-
selves to the Y. W. C. A., were extensive to a degree outreaching
precedent or calculation.
After personal visits to Italy by members of the War Work
Council who were in Europe and after consultation with the
World's Committee in London, a small staff was sent early in 1919
to open a hostel for students, and club rooms for American wom-
en war workers.
In Rome a house at 4 Via Balbo given for students twelve years
before by Miss Gould to the Unione Christiana Delle Giovani, was
transferred for temporary operation to the Overseas Committee
of the American Y. W. C. A. This house, the well-known "Casa
Internazionale," the shelter successively of many student groups
within Roman walls, was to expand its usefulness to the full in
these war days which were stirring the life even of ancient Rome,
inured to wars. The house after twelve years of service needed a
bit of renovation. With fresh decorations, bright cretonnes,
furniture put in repair, bathroom fixtures renewed and laundry
facilities added, the rooms took on the well-known Hostess
House appearance, cheerful and busy, and became the meeting
ground of a variety of organizations and of nations.
The Hostel opened as an American Y. W. C. A. center October
6, 1919. Twenty-four were at dinner the first night; there were
eight students, five Y. W. C. A. secretaries, ten women for rooms
and the housekeeper. By nationalities there were two Bulgarians,
four British, three French, three Americans, twelve Italians.
Thirty students became permanent residents. Six to eight beds
were kept for transients. For lack of rooms 100 girls who applied
had to be turned away. It was not an uncommon occurrence to
105
tiave ten nationalities represented at dinner. To sit together at
table is to take the emphasis off differences.
A secretary describes one evening when eight nationalities hap-
pened in at the Hostel: "After dinner I saw an Italian mother
and two daughters, who were leaving, say goodbye to a young
Bulgarian girl. The girl had brought down a picture of her
father to show, a Bulgarian general killed in the war. The Italian
woman opened a locket and showed a picture of her son killed in
the war. Tears streamed down the faces of both. Then the two
women of enemy nations put their arms around each other and
kissed. Tt is sad,' said the Italian, 'but you will be safe here.
This is a beautiful home.' "
In Florence a recreation center was asked for, where girls de-
mobilized from war industries might have a little relief from the
social unrest of a situation complicated by the presence of a large
Italian garrison. The Unione Christiana Delle Giovani had a
small hostel in Florence. A larger place was needed. It was
thought that a joint British-American center could be made self-
supporting, since many British and American girls, released from
war services at home, expected to take up special studies in Flor-
ence with a view to earning a livelihood. The replacing of the
former German teachers, often in the pay of the German govern-
ment, was a trend to be encouraged for the good of Italy.
Housing conditions which in all Italy were the same, owing
not only to congestion of population, but to the law by which build-
ing had been forbidden for the past five years, made the process
of finding facilities for Y. W. C. A. work long and difficult. But
diligent search was rewarded by some splendid locations.
In Florence a fine historic old palace was secured for the Amer-
ican Y. W. C. A. hostel, the Palazzo Dufour Berte in the Piazzo
San Spirito. Many girls of many nationalities have been cared for
in many styles by the Y. W. C. A., but never in a grander setting
than this. The magnificent reception room in which eighty people
were lost on a Sunday afternoon, the myriad corridors in
mediaeval Tuscan style, off which opened twenty-two rooms on
one floor, echoed no longer to the stately tread of royal autocracy,
but to the merry laughter of aspiring democracy. It symbolized
the meeting of old and new in the Y. W. C. A., the old which
from pioneer days had crept along the expanding- way toward full-
fledged opportunity — the new, abreast of modern need, with small
houses as well as small ideals out-grown. Not every branch of
the Association can be housed in a palace, but all the thought
given to Association plans and policies is palatial in its scope. To
make rich the lives of girls, in whatever specific need met, is to
ennoble while it provides.
In the opening of the house in Florence, the! girls of the old
hostel were asked to be the hostesses : "to share what they had en-
joyed in the past with the many girls in Florence who would come
to them and needed what they had to give." With excellent
zo6
cuisine, under the management of an Italian directrice, the first
month found food and service expense met, the winter's supply
of wood bought, the house full and the girls happy.
For the summer of 1919 "Villa Pesenti" in the Tuscan hills
near Florence had been taken for a girls' camp. Back from war
years to normal days, from crowded city existence to the spacious
country life — and the reconstruction would progress the more rap-
idly. Between seventy and eighty girls went out to "Casa Estiva"
in the summer of 1919. The first group to arrive had hardly set-
tled before there came an earthquake on June 29th. But nothing
daunted (one must become used to earthquakes in Italy) they
moved out into the driveway and spent at least one night in the
open. Nineteen cracks in the walls of the house, the earthquake's
souvenir to the camp, made something to talk about and one
more sight to show visitors. Nevertheless the happy life went on
with the usual camp activities, few rules, much confidence and a
freedom that brought laughter and song. It was good to see the
color come into the pale cheeks of some little sewing girls who
had not had a country vacation since 1914. A secretary describes
the activities : "The girls gave two comedies which were splen-
did. We had then our largest number of visitors, peasants com-
ing from every direction. The talent will be of great help in form-
ing a dramatic club for the coming winter in Florence. Too much
cannot be said of the spirit of the girls, their courtesy, not only to
us but to each other and they seemed bubbling over with the de-
>:ire to be always doing something for somebody. The days have
literally been golden, with only two days of rain. We were for-
tunate in having all our days out of doors. A victrola loaned by
the Y. M. C. A. amused many peasant visitors who asked, Ts he
singing in the box?' Recovering from their astonishment they
would join in."
Cilnder the blue of Italian skies the Blue of the Y. W. C. A. Tri-
angle was finding itself matched against three sided needs of
girls who physically were tired and wanted building up, mentally
were in a war rut of abnormal thinking, and spiritually were "run-
down" and needed the toning up that would come from a body
rebuilt and-a^mind renewed. Thus the Triangle was at work in
the normal wayV i
The hostel in Florence had thirty-six girls as residents by the
middle of winter, 1920, and many more who came and went using
the Palace as a club center. In the old Italian Y. W. C .A. rooms
at 11 Lung Arno Giucciordini, a tea room was opened to serve the
needs of many lonely English-speaking women in Florence. Gov-
ernesses, artists and women living in uncomfortable pensions —
literally homeless people — filled the big room every afternoon and
enjoyed the open fire, as they rested in the easy chairs under the
soft shaded lights. There were now three centers in Florence:
the hostel which was a student center, the sunjmer camp, and
the tea room.
It had seemed advisable to open headquarters for the Italian
IQ7
work of the American Y. W. C. A. at Genoa, a city easily accessi-
ble in transcontinental travel and likely to be a center for Ameri-
cans. Genoa, always a problem to the woman traveling alone, be-
cause of a lack of pension or moderate respectable hotels, needed
some provision for American women war workers. In addition to
this, club work for Italian girls was asked for. After some delay
a location was found : two floors of a large handsome house in a
central square of the city. Here were beds for twenty-five wom-
en, a large room for clubs and classes and a delightful restaurant
with a glass verandah where the sun could pour in. From twenty-
five to thirty women of four nationalities interested themselves in
the new venture, and by November first all the available bedrooms
were taken, most of the buildings put in order and the restaurant
ready to be opened within a few days. The house exemplified its
usefulness as a meeting place for many groups by the number of
events scheduled weekly. The tea room, open from 4 to 6, was
popular with both men and women. The Foyer met a need ex-
pressed by many girls : *'We are so glad to have a place to come
to. There never has been a place in Genoa where we girls could
go. We feel as if this were our home."
Classes in English were started and also a class in recreational
work for a group of girls willing to volunteer as assistants. A
number of young students from the Technical Institute across the
street began coming in for lunch and to study between classes.
This paved the way for some student teas, to the first of which
about thirty-five students and teachers came. On November 22nd
the girls of the Italian Unione were invited to tea and accepted
unanimously. Games were played with great enthusiasm. On
Thanksgiving 'Day there was a tea for all the Americans in Genoa,
to which about forty came, glad to know more about this particu-
lar work of the Y. W. C. A. and its reason for being in Italy.
The month of December, 1919, found the house running to its
capacity with an average of thirty-five for lunch and from fifteen
to forty served in the tea room. From these two sources of in-
come, enough was gained under the efficient culinary manage-
ment of Signorina Adeline Marauda, to pay all the running ex-
penses of the house, including the hospitality fund, with 2,000 lira
to apply on the rent.
As Christmas approached, the spirit of the season pervaded the
house. Although reduced in number over the holidays, the family
of six (two Italians, one French, one Norwegian and two Ameri-
cans) celebrated with a Christmas tree and presents, a little serv-
ice in French (the language best understood by the whole group)
and an afternoon "at home" for Americans.
The first week in December, 1919, a club room, bright with
flowers, was opened at Sampierdarena on the ground floor of the
Waldensian Church and grew from a number of four to thirty-
eight in membership, with sixty-two for the Christmas festa.
Another need in Genoa was for emigration work. Ten refu-
io8
gee families -rom Asia Minor, were found sleeping at the Ques-
tura. The n^pn were sent out at five in the morning and the
women at six vith no place to go and nothing to do except sit in
the corridors. They were given a little food by the municipal
authorities but vere badly in need of clothes. The city seemed
uninclined to hep them find work, one difficulty being the lack
of a recommendaion of good character. Such a thing is not given
to the people driven out of Asia Minor. In order to help the
women, the Y. W. C. A. took four of them to sew on sheets, pil-
low cases and othr plain household linen, while the Salvation
Army cared for tie children. Clothing for the families was
solicited. ^^ v^r^
\ ~ — ''; ,. , ; ■•, -rr r.
I In Naples, the ne»d for port work was greater. Naples had
16»g been a gateway for the emigrant. An average of 600 women
and five times as many children always on hand awaiting sailings,
found great use for a combination rest room, sewing room and
dormitory. Thus the lays of waiting were made more comfort-
able ; sometimes the co's in this Y. W.jC. A. room provided the
only possible sleeping place for the wpmei¥^ In addition to giving
food to the most needy, stout cloth suitable for making children's
garments was provided and the women invited to come and sew,
under instruction, on some new outfits for their children whose
clothes showed the great and unrelieved strain of wear. Some of
them were taught Englis'n and instructed in American ways, so
that they would be able more quickly to feel at home when they
reached their new land. Another result of this thoughtfulness in
their behalf wa.^ to inspire them with confidence in America and
Americans. Inasmuch as about 100 families a week were touched
in this way it may well be called a link inihe chain by which
the foreign born are helped to become AmericansTj
The conservatism of Naples, which frowhed upon any congre-
gating of girls in the streets, even in the daytime, provided an
opportunity for noonday club work for girls from the big depart-
ment stores. Two large factories asked for this work, but many
difficulties and some doubts in ^.he minds of the directors of the
factories have been in the way ot its execution. It presents a pos-
sibility for future work.
In November, 1919, a Foyer was opened. Although it is only
a tiny room, its simple, white furniture and dainty, fresh hangings
make it a little spot so homelike as to attract. Since it is near the
University, it has become a natural gathering place for students
who come for t^a and a social time. Employed girls come too, as
well as older members of the Unione Christiana Delle Giovani.
A Sunday afternoon gathering is a time for music and some kind
of program as well. Christmas was duly celebrated at the Foyer,
which was the natural place to turn if one happened to be alone
in Naples. There was a party for students and another for 140
children of waiting emigrants.
The situation in Trieste is that of "occupied territory." Trieste,
109
being new to Italy, is still in a state of social instab/ity. Such a
state always means neglect of girls. Many girls sp^ak only Ger-
man. They work in shops and stores and have ma^ of the stolid
characteristics of the Germans. The schools forr/erly taught by
Germans now have Italian teachers. A Foyer Jas been opened
for them to help them, in what must be new /nd strange sur-
roundings, with tasks which are not conducive t/home feelings.
A Foyer for working girls was run by two gfls who had taken
training in the Y. W. C. A. Emergency Traini/g School in Paris.
One of them had gone to Paris ''merely for th/lark of it" and be-
come genuinely interested in the great moverrcnt which prompted
that school and made necessary some sucly plan for providing
leaders. '
S^ The position of Trieste makes it a place :or transients. Many
vR^d Cross workers pass through to the Bilkan countries. And
the town affords no accommodations for those who must wait
for train or steamer. A Y. W. C. A. hostel was necessaryj The
Simplon Express from Paris arrives afte^ midnight. f&eTore the
hostel was opened, seven girls were conpelled to spend a night
in the stationT^Another group of nine fron Serbia had to go to the
Italian Military authorities to have voons requisitioned. Fifteen
British workers who had missed their steamer connection, were
found huddled in the station by a Y. \A. C. A. secretary and pro-
vided for.
Spezia is another strategic point br girls. From being the
quiet little village which Shelly loved :or its proximity to the blue
waters, and where he lost his life in those same blue waters, it
has grown to be a town of 90,000. ft is the chief naval base of
Italy, the population having doubled in the war, due not only
to the navy personnel but to the munition factories in the suburbs.
Hundreds of girls w^re thrown out of employment when these
factories closed. 'C^fheir high waa:es had been spent on high-
heeled shoes and siTC stockings in which they now paraded the
streets, subject to the social and moral influence oi a port city.
To the skeptical it seemed a situation impossible to cope with —
what form of amusement could liopgto distract girls from so ex-
citing a game as pursuing sailor boysp To the Blue Triangle the
situation was merely a challenge to be taken up. Girls are the
same the world over. A real interest in their welfare can bring
a very genuine response. In Spezia a portable hut was bought
from the British Church Armj. This furnished a meeting place.
The Y. M. C. A. cooperated in some joint parties. At least there
was provided an alternative to the streets, a safeguard against
danger.
In Milan the Unione Christiana Delle Giovani who had a hostel
for students and working girls, accommodating about twenty-five,
after careful consideration, turned this over to the American
Y. W. C. A. for temporary operation. On October 1st the home,
which had been freshened by new paper and enlarged by emer-
gency cots, was opened with every room taken and the door bell
no
proclaiming new applicants. From four to six a day were turned
away, sometimes more, and many nights found 'the corridors
filled with cots. The home feeling about the place was the main
attraction but there were also classes in English, a chorus, a gym-
nasium class and Sunday afternoon teas.
A noon hour Foyer has been opened for 500 girls in a button
factory. Most of the space is used as a lunch room, where 200
women (between the ages of twelve and sixty) file past the soup
counter and then sit at the twelve long tables freshened with
green things to enjoy a noon lunch hour in a great room flooded
with sunshine and high enough above the "buttons" to
breathe in fresh air and inspiration. Besides the dififerences in
ages, there are great dififerences in the personal appearance of
these girls. Some of them are a type new to Italy, a product of
the war, "terribly brazen, showing the effect of the cinema in a
sort of imitation of cowboy clothes and manner." After the lunch-
eon, there is the piano at the end of the long room, or if they pre-
fer, a table, for letter writing. There is even a carefully screened
bed for a few moments' relaxation.
Milan presented an interesting problem. A new center had to
be opened and here there was a restaurant just off the principal
street in the business section, and not five minutes from the
Cathedral. This was the first women's restaurant in Italy.
Nowhere was the Blue Triangle and all it stood for received
more cordially than in Palermo. Palermo welcomed the idea of
a student hostel — a bright attractive place where students might
freely gather, live and feel at home. The city was eager to help,
from the Waldensian minister and his wife who entertained the
secretary while she was superintending the refurnishing of a
building for the hostel, to the General of all the forces in Sicily
who offered personal aid in facilitating travel. The building
secured — the only thing to be had in Palermo — was in condition
to cause despair at first sight. Two top rooms roofless, kitchen
and dining room knee deep in plaster from the old ceilings, win-
dows broken — with strikes the order of the day and stocks in all
shops greatly reduced — any sort of repair and refurnishing was
difficult. But difficulties are never insurmountable where the
Blue Triangle is concerned. Patience and perseverance accom-
plished the transformation. By the first of January, 1920. there
began to emerge a renewed house clean with paint, full of air and
light, surrounded by garden and terrace. Without waiting for
the completion of all details, the house extended its welcome in
anticipation of the day when it would open its doors formally as
"La Casa Internazionale" and invite students, professors and
other professional women obliged to live far from their families,
to make it their home. The response was as whole hearted as it
had Been in Rome, Florence, Genoa, Naples, Trieste and Milan.
In Turin a house was bought for a student hostel and teadhers*
preparatory school, and in the district of the chcfcolate factories,
near office centers, a Foyer was opened on March 11, 1920. The
III
Foyer consisted of an apartment furnished in lovely colors with
simplicity of style, surrounded by a garden and open air tea room.
There was room for twelve girls to live here. In these two cen-
ters in Turin, the student hostel and the Foyer, the Y. W. C. A.
was prepared to serve two specific groups of girls: the students
living away from their families and in need of home life, and the
girls from the factory who needed noon hour recreation.
Turin had been the headquarters of the Italian organization
under the World's Committee. In the heart of the Waldensian
valley, eager-hearted people had long realized the importance of
this work for girls; and Turin, industrial, socialistic, moral and
progressive, had become the natural center for the Unione Chri-
tiana Delle Giovani. The fall of 1919 found the national organ-
ization celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary by a conference in
Turin with essential aims unchanged, but a more modern ap-
proach made necessary by different conditions.
The girls of Italy were different. To quote from the report of
a secretary: "The girls of Italy are going through a difficult
period of adjustment to new conditions, new liberties, new temp-
tations. The inflated war wages have dropped, but war prices are
unchanged, creating an economic problem too difficult for many
girls to solve honestly. The Y. W. C. A. is urgently needed. If
we do not do our share in pointing the young working women of
Italy to sane and Christian ideals, and away from class hatred or
the attractions of luxury and vice, we shall be failing in our
duty."
The natural conservatism, coupled in many instances with an-
tagonism to anything new, is another obstacle in the way of a
sane, free life for girls. What was the use of providing physical
education and recreation ? Girls had always grown up to get
married. At the age of twelve the customary beginning was made
on the "corredo" (trousseau) of the necessary 100 pieces. Young
apprentices, novices in the trades of dressmaking and millinery,
became members of a Corredo Class and by dint of labor and the
payment of a small weekly fee, a respectable trousseau was ready
at the end of nine years to be taken away finished. Or, if the
happy day came sooner, they could take what was finished.
Thus passed away the youth of Italy's girlhood. At the age
when American children would be reveling in games, these young
Italian girls were taking up the burdens of adult life. The ques-
tion is sometimes asked, ''What does the ItaUan girl play?" The
answer is, "She doesn't play. She thinks only of getting mar-
ried." "But if she doesn't marry?" "Well, she is just an old
maid. That's all!"
"The thing about you Americans which amazes me," said one
Italian woman, "is that you are all so young. Here in Italy we
wouldn't expect women to do the kind of work you are doing un-
less they were older!"
"Maybe we are not so young as we look," came the answer.
112
"Well, it must be because you always seem to be enjoying your
work so much. It is just like a game to you, isn't it?"
Programs of physical education in Italy had always been limit-
ed to a few minutes of calisthenics once or twice a week or to pri-
vate gymnasium schools, splendidly equipped, to which the
wealthy could send their children. For the masses there was
nothing. That they would respond to organized play was demon-
strated in Florence where every evening before dinner a play hour
was conducted by an American secretary with only six or seven
Italian words but plenty of pantomine at her command. Such
games as Dodge Ball, Touch Ball, Center Ball, Three Deep,
Whirlwind, and many others popular in America, met with so
great a response that she finally asked : "But have you never
played any of these games or danced any of these dances before?"
"Never, never," they said. Then up spoke a little lass with the
face of a Del Sarto Madonna, who had been sent to Florence be-
cause of the political disturbance of her native town : "Never
have we played these games in Fiume, but now when I go home
I shall teach them to all my friends." At that there was a torrent
of words from all the girls, unintelligible to the secretary but from
which she understood that wonderful things were going to hap-
pen when they went home in the summer.
This class in Florence was typical of what might be done with
physical education in Italy. With such interests the class grew
that on Thanksgiving Day a demonstration was given to the
Italian, English and American friends of the Association in Flor-
ence who gathered to inspect the Foyer and have tea. It was a
demonstration in true American style — bloomers, middies and all.
The one class soon expanded to three with enrollment increasing
every week. Special emphasis was placed on developing recreation
and correcting posture. The work was supplemented by a class
in First Aid and Home Nursing.
Such classes as these serve to demonstrate the usefulness of at-
tention to the physical well being of women who work in Italy.
Other prejudices must just as surely pass. The conservatism of
public opinion where women are concerned is illustrated by num-
erous incidents related by secretaries. In Milan, the search for
a location for the restaurant was met by these questions : "How
many girls will come to eat? Will there be more than fifteen
girls? Will you know each one of them? Are they responsible
girls? The portress will not like so many strange people coming
into the building. Why should so many girls wish to come to-
gether?" In Turin a locale was refused by a man who said he did
not believe in girls meeting for any purpose, that they should be
in their homes at all times. A cultured South Italian said to an
American Y. W. C. A. secretary: "Senorita, did you know that
our people worship the Madonna because they despise woman?
They could not give her any suitable place in their respect unless
they deified her." Yet in spite of these prejudices, the work for
the girls of Italy goes on.
113
The outstanding features of the work in Italy have been the
cooperation between the national Italian organization, the Unione
Christiana Delle Giovani, and the American Y. W. C. A. ; the ex-
traordinary difficulties in the way of getting buildings that have
been met and, in most cases, overcome; thej variety of situations
that the Y. W. C. A. has met; illustrated by the many kinds of
work; port work, recreation, housing, restaurant and Foyer. Each
city has presented a different set of problems. But all have been
ready to work out solutions in the same spirit of helpfulness and
gratitude. One girl at a festa at the 'Foyer of Sampierdarena
(Genoa) expressed this very aptly : ''This room is an oasis where
we can come to love and help each other."
"4
Poland
IT takes more than war to crush the spirit of Poland. Poland has
become used to wars, having borne the brunt of many people's
fightings, even to the extent of losing her identity and of suffering
partition to satisfy the desire of rapacious warrior-nations for prey.
It was not strange, therefore, that, in 1914, the Great War found her
in its path. Furrowed with trenches, fought over backwards and
forwards by ruthless armies, ravaged of life and the means of life,
Poland sank crushed beneath the wheels of destruction, only to strug-
gle up again to a new and freer existence.
Poland contains a spark of life too vital to be snuffed out. In spite
of a century and a half of partition, the soul of Poland has maintained
its entity in the heart of her people. Their faith in 'her innate national
qualities has been her greatest national asset. Poles everywhere,
whether the politically divided groups subject to the dominating rule
of Germany, the nationalizing influence of Russia, the restive yoke of
Austria, or the liberty-seeking wayfarers, who found opportune relief
in free America, held fast their Polish ideals and traditions and trans-
mitted Polish loyalty down through the generations. Thus the fires
of patriotism continued to glow, if not on Polish hearths, at least in
Polish hearts, and needed but the wind of war to fan the glow into
a flame. The free Poland, emerging out of the ashes of war, rose not
only to new national consciousness, but to new national responsibilities.
The people now facing the remaking of the government have been
artifici aUy trained in outward conformity to a government not their
own.'vfj^ them loyalty to Poland has meant disloyalty to government.
The assembling of masses of people had been cause for secrecy
for fear of spies. To face the new situation required an "about face'*
in the process of thinking. Added to the political difficulties are the
economic and industrial deterioration incident to war, and the social
disintegration inevitable to the war grind. Who can help Poland now ?
Who but those who themselves hav^'^'^t the cause of freedom to be
the road toward a goal of self-reliance r7j
To America had come Poles to a number estimated at 4.500,000.
The majority of these as unskilled laborers found work in factories,
slaughter houses and on farms, rising in many cases to farm owners,
while the second generation were educated in parochial schools, learned
English, and were rapidly Americanized. In the small minority
were some of the most skilled artists that America has known, par-
115
ii6
I
ticularly in music and drama. In the hearts of these Poles resounded
the call to serve a resurrected Poland. Whether as premier or as
nurse, the desire to be of use was paramount in the minds of potential
Polish citizens. But what could the average person do? Was this a
call simply to extraordinary talent ? What could the young women do ?
An answer to this question was happily found in a suggestion of
Madame Laura de G. Turczynowicz, who urged that selected Polish
girls in America be trained for social service to work either in their
own communities or overseas in Poland, according to their ability.
Through the cooperation of the committee assisting Madame Turczy-
nowicz in her relief work, known as the Polish Reconstruction Asso-
ciation on the one hand, and the Overseas Committee and the Com-
mittee on Work for Foreign-Born Women in America, of the War
Work Council of the Y. W. C. A., on the other hand, a training course
for young Polish women was planned, with two objects in view. The
training would fit these Polish-speaking Americans either for work
as nurses' aids with the Polish army in France and later for recon-
struction work in Poland if the opportunity came to go overseas, or.
for real service to Polish communities in American cities if duty kept
them in America. The plan, greeted with enthusiasm by Polish leaders
and American social workers, was rapidly put into execution. Where
could be found a better means of lining up American efficiency with
Polish idealism?
Recruiting brought three hundred girls to join the probation courses
which were to serve as a test of individual adaptability, perseverance
and devotion, leading to a scholarship for further training. These
probation courses, made possible by the cooperation of Polish and
American physicians, were given in Cleveland. Trenton, Rochester,
Milwaukee, Detroit, St. Louis and Pittsburgh, all cities of large Polish
population. Of the three hundred who entered the training, two hun-
dred went back to work in American cities, forming Polish Grey Sa-
maritan Leagues in some cities, ninety qualified for scholarships. The
Polish Grey Samaritan School was opened in October, 1918, on Fifty-
third Street, New York, for the intensive course, including .hospital
and community work. The students were grouped according to lan-
guage (English or Polish), individual needs and previous training
or experience. Two separate courses of study were given :
Course 1. included Health Education and Physiology, Industrial His-
tory, Social Problems, Institutional Visiting, Systematized House-
keeping, Bookkeeping, Cookery, Arts and Crafts, English, Polish,
Gymnastics.
Course II. included Lecture Work under the auspices of the School
of Philanthropy, Field Work with the Charity Organization Society,
Child Training with the Froebel League, Health Education, Polish,
English, Systematized Housekeeping, Bookkeeping, Cooking, Gym-
nastics.
When the school closed in June, 1919, seventy-five students were
graduated. They are known as Polish Grey Samaritans. Like their
fellow-students of the earlier courses already at work in the cities,
they had come from the ranks, with a preparation in many cases less
117
than a high school education, through training necessarily brief but
enhanced by a great ideal, into positions of leadership among their
people, with one objective — to serve.
In April, 1919, the War Work Council had appointed a Commis-
sion, headed by Miss Sarah S. Lyon, Executive of the Overseas
Committee, to arrange for establishing the Polish Grey Samaritans in
Poland. The Commission was composed of Miss Lois Downs, of the
Y. W. C. A. International Institute of Pittsburgh; Mrs. Thyrza Bar-
ton Dean of the American Y. W. C. A. in France, and Mrs. Josef a
Kudlicka, a Polish- American librarian of Buffalo. In Paris they
saw Premier Paderewski and Madame Paderewski, who had greatly
interested herself in the enterprise, so that Miss Lyon was able to re-
turn to New York with the assurance that the Polish Grey Samaritans
were not only needed, but very much wanted in Poland, and that the
Commission proceeding into Poland would be facilitated in completing
arrangements for them.
To make the journey from Paris to Warsaw in these early days of
June, before the signing of peace, was an affair of moment. The
departure of the Orient Express with its caravan of baggage, its
momentous diplomatic pouches, its various important emissaries,
equalled in prestige a steamer's sailing and was equally attended by
friends of the departing. The Y. W. C. A. Commission now under
Miss Downs' leadership was sped on their journey not only by the
smiles and good wishes of the Paris representatives of the Blue Tri-
angle, but also by the flowers and candy sent by Madame Paderewski.
This enterprise on which the Y. W. C. A., backed all along the line by
the Polish Government, was now embarking, meant one more thread
in the inter- weaving of American and Polish sympathy.
The going of the Commission was made possible by the Polish
Typhus Relief Expedition of the American Expeditionary Forces, and
their hospitable reception in Poland, prepared by the forethought of
the Government authorities. The Commission was afforded every
fadility for looking over the ground and taking account of the
needs for such help as the Y. W\ C. A and its Polish Grey Samaritans
could render. If there had been any doubt on the part of the Com-
mission of the ability of the Y. W, C. A. to help, it was dispelled now
that they were actually in Poland, with calls coming from every estab-
lished agency and mute but desperate appeals in the very bareness of
necessities in evidence on every hand.
The situation in Poland was conditioned not only by the devastation
>of thq-ifour long, hard years of war that are past, but also by the
present state of war under terrific circumstances, where the Polish
army was holding against the Bolsheviki on the East, a front longer
than the front the Allies held in France. With very little coal, a
shortage of clothing, a shortage of food and another winter to be
faced, while industry remained crippled and hand-tied, it was a case
of life or death to the new republic — life if the country could be
helped through another winter of disease and hunger, otherwise no
crops, no prospects — death!
ii8
It was thought best at first to have the PoHsh Grey Samaritans
speciaHze in one kind of work only. Calls were coming from the
canteens, the epidemic hospitals, the military hospitals, but the great
call seemed to be for children's work, inasmuch as the need was the
greatest. With the advice of the American Minister, the Polish
Grey Samaritans were therefore scheduled for children's work.
Through the Minister of War, a house was commandeered preparatory
to their arrival.
[n the meantime, in America the Polish- Grey Samaritans were
making their last preparations for sailing in the spirit of true soldiers.
Their pledge to service was simple enough : 'T do hereby signify my
desire to give one year of service to the cause of Poland with the
unit about to be sent by the Y. W. C. A." And yet it was made
from their hearts. It was arranged that they were to be financed
(training, transportation, equipment and maintenance) four and
a half months by the Y. W. C. A., with the help of $10,000 from the
Polish Reconstruction Fund. After four and a half months the
Polish Government, through the Central Children's Committee of the
American Relief Administration, assumed responsibility for this chil-
dren's welfare project. On July 31, 1919, the first unit of twenty
Polish Grey Samaritans sailed, in charge of four Y. W. C. A. secre-
taries as counselors — Miss Martha Chickering, Miss Frances West,
Miss Emily Graves, Miss Stephanie Kozlowska. In these young Polish-
Americans, as they set sail from the land they owned as home, for the
land they idealized in story and song as the home of their ancestors,
there seemed to mingle the spirit of Kosciuszko and the spirit of Wash-
ington, the thirst to aid the physically downtrodden in their supreme
fight for life, the faith to believe overwhelmingly in the triumphant
integrity of liberty.
The vicissitudes of the journey were many, the difficulties being
multiplied by the size of the group. Delays were the order of the
day. A month's wait in Paris, another stop in Coblenz, and then
again, by the help of the Polish Typhus Mission and the American
Y. M. C. A., the caravan moved. Straight across Germany at the
end of a freight train of fifty-four cars traveled ,the Polish Gray
Samaritans. But getting out of Germany into Poland was another
matter. The German republic had inherited the German empire's red
tape, and the fact that the Polish border had been moved eighteen
kilometers east of what the schedule called for, was very upsetting to
any straightforward plans. Five days and nights it took to settle
the aflfair of those eighteen kilometers — five days of camping in Ger-
man freight yards, five nights of anxiety lest the small American
guard might prove inadequate in a strange country, so recently a
hostile one. But over the border at last and into the land of their
dreams, the very fields seemed to welcome these travelers who for
love of Poland had braved difficulty and danger.
It was September 19, 1919, that the first unit of Polish Grey Sa-
maritans reached Warsaw. The Warsaw of history in Polish mem-
ory, cherished for loyalty unquenchable through years of mechanical
conformity to the government of the Czar, with treaty interruptions
"9
by the Kaiser, was transformed into a city struggling to master all
the machinery of government at once, a city striving to be found
worthy as the capital of the new Republic of Poland. For the many
years of restraint, in which she had kept herself true, this was the
reward, a day for which the bravest had long prepared. The streets
of Warsaw were a-riot with evidence of the strangeness of the new
situation — strange indeed to the little group, who had come from
distant America to a Poland known to many of them only through the
tales of earlier generations, tales of knightly years and years of sup-
pression, of treasured hopes and secret meetings. Were the dreams
of their ancestors at last being fulfilled? Was Poland daring to own
an army? The grays, blues, greens, reds, browns, of the Russian,
German, Austrian, French and American armies still decked the men
who ralHed to the Polish eagle, now spreading his long-folded wings
to the sunlight of Liberty. From the ends of the earth had gathered
the sons of Poland — and the daughters. The twenty Polish Grey
Samaritans seemed a tiny drop in the great ocean of need, but what
they lacked in numbers they made up in adaptability, as they threw
themselves into the work of child welfare.
As far as children are concerned, Poland is said to be the neediest
country in the world. today. With disease in every form rampant,
with food scare and clothing lacking, it is no wonder that children
in their under-nourished state are suffering most. Even in Warsaw,
which is the nearest to normal of any spot in Poland, there came
from one church seventy-five funerals in one day. It was impossible
to move through the streets without seeing the corteges, and in many
of them the open wagon which serves as a hearse bears a baby coffin.
The death rate of children in Warsaw is said to have been 25 per cent.
In other districts. the general death rate has been 50 per cent. A re-
lief worker was struck bv the absence of birds, and upon inquiring
about it was told ''We've killed them to eat them." When ordinary food
is not procurable necessity must resort to strange measures. One family
came to a relief station to ask why they had not been reached. "We
gave that family something six weeks ago," was the sad answer.
In the Department of the East, where the fighting was, conditions
were at their worst. Relief workers and government officials who
visited this region say it is impossible to describe in writing the terrible
situation. Men, women and children, with horses and cows, if they were
lucky enough to have them, all living together in dugouts, in box-
cars, in wagons, or along the road in the open with no covering from
the heavy rains ; refuge camps for people from Eastern Europe, with
a bare wooden platform for each family, had been filled to over-
flowing with the sick — typhus, smallpox, cholera, dysentery, tuber-
culosis, added to alli the wounds from battle, and no proper facilities
to help the doctors in their work, no anaesthetics for the surgeons,
nothing — but unmitigated pain. And through pain Poland has learned
her lesson of patience. Partly through the weakness of hunger and
sickness, but partly through the discipline of want, even the children
are acquiring the spirit of not complaining. Out of a great assortment
of them in all conditions, one worker counted only six crying.
120
To come to the relief of the children, the American Relief Admin-
istration had organized the Central Children's Committee, which was
operating under the Ministry of Public Health of Poland. It was to
this Committee that the Polish Grey Samaritans were assigned. As
nurses' aids, they could help in hospital and nursery. As trained
social workers they could assist in home visiting, investigation of cases
and distribution of food and clothing. There were two objects in
view: 1. To set a standard for child welfare. 2. To build up scientific
social service based on case work. In connection with the district
visiting, calls were made on the families of soldiers in the Polish army
to report acute cases of distress. The gffey-uni formed girls were
becoming familiar figures in Warsaw. They had been given the of-
ficial armband of the Central Committee and the right to wear the
Polish Military Eagle on their caps, thus making them governmeni
representatives. The fact that they spoke English, even though witl
an American accent, put them ahead of other workers.
In three weeks of actual work the girls had visited 150 cases, had
sequred relief for about 52, clothes for 30, and had sent 10 to hos-
pitals. With a knack of finding their way about and of holding on
with true American perseverance to any case they had once under-
taken until results were obtained, these Polish-American girls were
fulfilling their mission as good Samaritans in deed as well as in name.
To cite one case : A girl found a woman who had fainted on the stairs,
and took her home. Learning later that the woman had stood in the
bread-line for several days without getting any bread, and that the
husband had been in prison for some time, for what reason the woman
did not know, this young Samaritan went to the magistrate, inquired
what prison the man was in, appeared at the prison office, walked past
two guards, and finding a "No Admittance" sign but no door, asked
where the door was. The guard at first looked surprised, but ans-
wered, "You must ring the bell ; the door is around the corner." She
found out when the trial was to be, conducted the wife to the hearing,
and later was pleased to know of the man's release and happy return
to his wife and his home. This is only one out of many stories of
queer complicated cases to which the Polish Grey Samaritans were
constantly giving their attention.
Their devotion produced an ability greater than might be expected
from their training. The challenge was in the death rate. To save
the lives of the babies, little creatures who had never known a normal
world, but must suffer for crimes in which they had no part — that was
the work in which thePolish Grey Samaritans used every inch of their
training and poured every ounce of their strength. They had learned
that dire consequences may follow small neglects, and that prevention
was the best cure. Nothing was too small to be watched. One girl
who had been put in charge of a nursery discovered in two days that
the milk supply was diluted, a fact that had escaped the notice of
the graduate nurse. If a case was desperate, a Gray Samarttan some
how found the strength to stay up day and night to fight for the life
of a sick baby. It is no wonder, therefore, that in three weeks the
death rate in these nurseries had fallen 50 per cent.
In addition to the nurseries and hospitals, the Central Children's
121
Committee opened soup kitchens and milk depots in Warsaw as food '
centers for the children in the ten districts of the city. One Polish
Grey Samaritan was assigned to this work as supervisor. By paying
regular visits to the various centers, she was able to keep up a certain
standard and to make suggestions for needed improvements. The
fact that she represented a link in the chain between the donors who
gave the food and the children who received it added value to her
position.
Calls were coming from many other cities and towns for at least
one Polish Grey Samaritan to come and help organize welfare work.
Besides the work of the Polish Grey Samaritans, there were on every
hand opportunities for other service which the Y. W. C. A. could
render. The American Legation in Warsaw urged the concentration
in Poland of as much effort and expenditure during the coming winter
as the Association felt to be possible. To quote from a letter: "This
should be the pivot of their activity in Eastern Europe. No matter
how much we put in, Poland is faced with a very terrible winter, the
worst since the beginning of the war. People at home can have no
conception of the suffering that is inevitable in spite of all that we
can do. This suffering it would be hard to exaggerate, and our prob-
lem is merely to reduce the sum total of misery to a point where it j
can be borne for a few months longer by this pathetically patient peo- '
pie . . . If they can be helped through the next six months, I
am confident of the future."
In October, Miss Downs cabled for ten more Polish Grey Samari- ^
tans. After the necessary preliminaries, these sailed in December |
and reached Warsaw in January. Looking forward to these rein-
forcements, the Polish Grey Samaritans could scatter into more places
and thus respond to some of the many requests for them.
Until January 1, 1920, the Polish Grey Samaritans were distributed
as follows : Four in creches, one supervising soup kitchen and milk
depots, one managing a sewing room, thirteen case workers under
supervision of a trained Y. W. C. A. social worker, one office worker.
The four creches in Warsaw under the Children's Committee were
like day nurseries, children being cared for and fed for a small fee, i
In some cases three meals a day, in other only the noon meal, were |
given. Until January 1, 1920, two of these had each two Gray Sa-
maritans working as supplementary aides with the Polish women in
charge.
The case workers were used for investigation of /those who ap-
plied for help. It entailed visiting in districts, covering great distances,
with transportation facilities limited and dire distress in evidence on
every hand. Every phase of social welfare work was involved. Rec-
ords were kept in Polish for the benefit of the Central Children's
Committee.
The sewing room had been organized jointly by Mrs. McBride, of
the American Red Cross, and Lady Rumble, of the British Red Cross,
with the twofold purpose of furnishing employment for needy and
worthy women and of making clothes for children up to ten years of j
122
age, out of material furnished by the two societies. The Grey Samari-
tan in charge had the responsibility of planning how the go6ds might
be used to best advantage and of supervising the actual work. This
required ingenuity, a knowledge of plain sewing, the ability to get
best results from a group of women, and the systematizing of the work.
The sewing room was more than a place of employment. It fur-
nished constantly cases for social work. One incident illustrates this :
One day a sewing woman told the Grey Samaritan about one of her
neighbors whose baby had died several days before, but had not yet
been buried. The mother was very ill, there were two small children,
no one to attend to the burial, and no money. The Grey Samaritan
went down that evening to the woman's home, found the dead baby
lying on a bureau, where it had lain nearly a week, covered with a
newspaper. The mother was in bed, and the two children were play-
ing in the cold room, as there was no fire. Immediately the Grey
Samaritan went through the regular procedure of registering the
baby's death, secured a permit for the burial, bought the cofifin with
her own money, and as soon as possible the baby was decently buried.
This sewing room was the only work still being carried on by the
Polish Grey Samaritans in Warsaw after January, 1920.
The arrival of the new group of Grey Samaritans from America
gave opportunity for spreading out in their work under the Ameri-
can Relief Administration. Some had left Warsaw before. Early
in December six of them, directed by Miss Stephanie Kozlowska, went
under the American Relief Administration to help in the distribution
of clothing at Lwow (Lemberg). This picturesque city, with its
musty churches towering above the war-shattered buildings, was facing
the same poverty as Warsaw, and the same unreachable prices, but
with less of the unemployment problem. Four were sent to Pinsk.
At Cracow. Miss Clara T. Dockum, an addition from the workers in
France to the staff in Poland, was working out with a group a plan
of field supervision. Other groups went to Wilna, Lubin and Lodz.
The journey to Lodz was a fair sample of modern travel in Poland.
With practically no trains running, the only way to cover the sixty
odd miles was by water. Two small Fords, adorned with the Red
Cross of the Ministry of Health, were tightly packed with the four
passengers and baggage for a two months' stay. The country is flat
and uninteresting, but with superb roads and little villages like a stage
setting, the trip was full of an interest which was doubtless mutual
to villager and tourist. If the tourists gazed with delight at the
wonderful dress of the village women — orange, yellow and purple
striped material, with either shawls over their heads or yellow capes —
and at its exact reproduction in miniature in the dress of little girls
of four ; at the black striped orange knickerbockers, short black coats,
high boots and high Russian hats of the men ; the villagers gazed back
in wonder at the queer, bulky, padded figures in somber uniforms, the
machines distorted by strapped-on duffle bags, the fierce fur-lined
Russian drivers, all apparently living for one thing only — speed. To
add other attractions, the villagers staged a dance and a wedding party
with high head-dresses of tinsel and little bells, and the tourists staged
123
a turn-over. Fortunately, no lives were lost in either case. The
wedding party went on its way, and the Grey Samaritans, bruised and
battered,* crawled out from under the disabled Ford and into the
accommodating other Ford, and in another three hours had reported
for duty in Lodz.
Lodz is the Manchester of Poland.. As the great industrial center,
it is nearly all Jewish, since for generations the Jews have been the
industrial workers of Poland. Even the villages around Lodz are
Jewish — wretched hovels clustered around bare cobbled squares, and
in the center of the towri always a pump, with women drawing water
as of old.
In all these centers — Lodz, Lwow, Vilna, Lubin, Kielce, Pinsk and
Cracow — the Polish Gray Samaritans were under the auspices of the
American Relief Administration's European Children's Fund, which
was bringing into Poland 700.000 outfits for children, and in January,
1920, was furnishing L200,000 Polish children the American sup-
plementary ration. As accredited agents of this Fund, in charge of
all distributions outside Warsaw, they were to investigate every re-
quest for clothing and work in concentric circles from central ship-
ping points, from which distribution is made.
This, like all the other work of these Polish-American girls, was
carried on with the spirit of true soldiers. At all times they were
ready to obey orders,. putting duty above personal pleasure, even above
comfort and safety. Certain of them scheduled to go to the front
were asked if they knew what they had to face up there — perhaps no
food, no shelter. They said, ''Never mind, we will go wherever you
want to send us." It has been remarked that they are the only group
of relief workers in Poland who are not working for a regular salary.
To them there is compensation in the fund that maintains them in
their beloved Poland and in this privilege of working for the land
of their ancestors. A certain dignity of bearing in keeping with these
high ideals has made them respected and honored.
Yet whatever may be said about them, to the girls themselves their
work seems to amount to little in the face of the great needs. When
a girl next door dies of starvation, and people in the district are frozen
to death, it is hard to keep normal and continue doing the small every-
day services. Yet under such circumstances the Polish Gray Samari-
tans do their work.
All the Americans in Poland, deeply sensitive to the needs, have
been contributng to this relief work for children or to the clothing
supply for girls. Some of them, feeling the necessity for doing more
constructive^wprk for the girls of Poland, have sent in an appeal for
club work. [The women of Poland, nerved to the crisis for five years,
are reachingtRe point of breakdown and mental unbalance. Not only
have they lived through five years of war, but they are continuing to
face what all the rest of Europe has been facing for the last four
years: the giving up of their men to the army and the living through
winters of want, they have nearly reached the stage where feelings are
numb, or to use a war term, they are shell-shocked as a nation. They
x«4
need at least a semblance of normality in their lives — a little healthy
recreation and a little mental stipiulus. In fact, they need just what
the Y. W. C. A. can give ttiBn.\
In response to an appeal that the American Y. W. C. A. should do
for Poland what it had done for France in establishing nurses' clubs,
foyers, etc., some club work was planned in Warsaw. With a staff
of eight American secretaries it was possible to undertake this work,
which would perhaps be the Association's best contribution to war-
stricken Poland.
That Polish women, at the time of their greatest opportunity, when
they themselves might take a hand in the government and help to
mold politically, economically, morally and socially the new Poland,
should find themselves so paralyzed by war conditions, so lowered in
physical vitality as scarcely to be equal to their personal duties, much
less to national responsibilities, was one more tragedy in the circum-
stances of the nation. To relieve their minds, if only for an hour or
two at a time, from war and its horrors was the purpose of the club
work. To help them back to normal was the ultimate aim.. For
Polish women are splendid. From the women land owners, interested
in every discussion of the agrarian question, to the humble working
girl willing to do hard labor if only she may work, and from the
small but sturdy middle classes to the noble ladies of the aristocracy —
all have sufifered and sacrificed. All are ready to serve. Women who
have never worked before are giving time to all the care and drudgery
of hospital work for wounded soldiers. Many of these women of the
nobility, from having taken a hand in pre-war activities for less for-
tunate women, are eager now to help those who must sufifer the most.
Many of them are more understanding of the needs of working girls
because they themselves are now having to work. In Warsaw some
refugee women of nobility have started a restaurant, conspicuous for
its personnel.
[To the inconspicuous daughter of the poor, alone and unemployed,
lifeT^ unmitigated hardness. From the few overcrowded houses that
take transients she must be turned away, to go — where? It is small
wonder thatjmany girls in Poland are becoming unbalanced and taking
to the stre^ts^''
It was the opening of the club, on October 19, 1919, to which the
girls in Warsaw looked forward with largest interest. Great prepara-
tions were made. American and Polish officials were invited. The
girls themselves prepared a welcoming address. An interesting com-
ment on the occasion is the remark of two American officers present,
who, though they could not understand a word of the speech that was
made by a Polish girl, yet said they had never been more moved by a
speech in their lives. The program of work was to follow the general
scheme of Association war work, bringing the much-needed recreation,
the mental stimulus of classes, and the health-building foundation in
physical education. The girls had forgotten how to play, and the
natural thing was for them to plan a serious program for each meet-
ing of the club; but some American secretaries, with the spirit of
youth which makes Americans all seem young to Europeans, would be
125
126
sure to brighten up the evening with a little play. Thus the girls have
their recreation.
The club occupies three rooms in a building owned by a wealthy
banker, who gives them free of rent. One room serves for general
club purposes — recreation, suppers, classes, dances, etc. A smaller
is used for such classes and meetings as will fit into it. The third
room has been made a kitchen. In January, 1920, the club had about
600 members, divided into three groups, who come on different even-
ings. Sunday is kept for an open-house day, with general recreation
evening. The girls are mainly of two types, industrial and clerical.
The clerical workers are eager for French lessons, since in Warsaw
French is a great asset in business or social relationships. Volunteers,
some girls from the University, teach classes in arithmetic and Polish.
A visiting secretary describes a Sunday evening call at the club :
"Driving along the very dark street in what seemed to me a very inac-
cessible part of the city, I had the feelling of being completely lost.
Suddenly I heard the sound of voices and laughter and saw a crowd
of young people in front of an open archway. I realized immediately
that this was the Girls' Club. The contrast between the dark and
lonely street and the very cheery, home-like atmosphere inside the
club was very marked, the same contrast doubtless between the girls'
homes and work and the club. Music, dancing and a general atmo-
sphere of a good time characterized the Sunday evening gathering.
There were about 150 people enjoying it on that special Sunday even-
ing. A number of soldiers from Haller's army. Polish- Americans
were there, furnishing the main entertainment. They sang singly and
in groups. Someone recited, and then they danced the whirling Polish
dances which make you breathless even to watch. The Y. W. C. A.
secretary of the club was in the background, not apparently doing
anything more than joining in the general enjoyment, but really guid-
ing the evening's recreation."
The regular club supper was a simple repast of chocolate and bread,
with jam occasionally as a special treat. After supper came business,
and then the group divided into classes. The attitude of the girls
toward the club was one of ownership. Nothing was being forced
on them. The club was rather evolving as requests and needs required.
It represented a real relaxation from relief work, something perman-
ent and constructive, amid surroundings suggesting debility. There
is through the club life a training for leadership, specifically in re-
creation and generally in club direction and responsibility.
The problem of employment in Warsaw is a serious one. Most of
the factories have been crippled by the invading armies. In one
factory the Germans took all the leather; in another parts of the ma-
chinery were taken, so that only one machine had all its parts for
working, yet that factory was running with the one machine. There
is much war devastation in the cities. Buildings are in ruins, and the
largest work is the clearing away of debris. Many girls were seen
doing this heavy work, side by side with the men. Considering the
fact that they had never done this before, that they were barefooted
and lacking in warm clothing, it is a wonder that they could stand
127
the strain in which they Hved. Yet their spirit was admirable. It is
to girls such as these that the club has meant most.. A place that
offered refuge and recreation, a chance to dream, and a chance to
forget must inevitably be popular.
Summer Work, 1920.
During the months from June to October, the Polish Grey Samari-
tans, working with the American Relief Administration, on the child
feeding program, spent a great deal of time in the distribution of
refugee food and the inspection of the Intelligencia Kitchens. In this
work many were able to put into practice some of the things they had
learned in their preparatory course, such as helping in the organization
of recreation, housing, etc., and much individual class work.
The Industrial Girls' Club, which was begun in Warsaw in Septem-
ber, 1919, as a small demonstration, by its very being demanded ex-
pansion. New clubs were formed, and membership in the clubs in-
creased as much as was possible in the limited space provided. Efforts
were made to find another center, with more and larger rooms, to
accommodate the many girls who wanted to come to the club, but
owing to the very acute housing situation in Poland, this was im-
possible.
Relief was found in June in the establishment of a Summer Camp
for Industrial Girls in Henrykow, about two miles outside of Warsaw.
For two months various groups of the club girls could go to the camp
for a period not longer than two weeks, as the house could accommo-
date only fifty girls. - The girls had saved their money all the spring
in order that they might go to the camp, as only few of them received
a vacation with pay. This camp life, though far from a model camp
as we understand it in the United States, was a real treat and great
joy to the young Polish girls who formed a part of it. Outdoor sports
had to be limited to hikes, baseball, basketball and field hockey, as
there were no resources for swimming, boating, mountain climbing,
etc., that make the American camp so popular. Campfires, however,
were introduced, and the spontaneous artistic genius that seems born
in every Pole, made the "stunt nights," arranged extemporaneously
by these girls who had had so little opportunity for the development
of their talents, stand out as superior or at least equal to the labori-
ously planned and practical '"stunts" that the American college girls
are so proud of achieving. The joy of the girls in their new form of
comradeship and brief periods of carefree life in Poland's fascinating
out-of-doors could be constantly discerned in the charming songs into
which they would burst at all hours of the day, but especially at meal
time and on the terrace after supper. As the Bolshevists were ap-
proaching Warsaw, life in camp, as everywhere else, was becoming
more and more tense. The 'camp was therefore closed in! the last
week of July. In September the club, left open during the summer,
was reorganized on a firmly self-governing basis, with an enlarged
program, with educational classes, recreation and gymnasium.
The emphasis of the Nurses' Club, which was organized in March,
1920, was shifted from constructive work toi serve the great emer-
gency brought on with the invasion of the Bolshevists. As the
Bolshevist advance became a serious question, new calls were sent out
for nurses. Girls began to leave the university, the factory, the office
and the home to go to the front. But the Bolshevist advance was
more rapid than the Poles had expected. With the enemy moving at
a rate of thirty kilometers per day, hospital upon hospital was evac-
uated and nurses came flying back to Warsaw in wild confusion,
among retreating armies and thousands of refugees. During the
month of July an average of one hundred per day arrived in Warsaw,
desolate and destitute. Many were ill — victims of typhus or the dysen-
tary epidemic then raging through Poland. Some had escaped from
capture by the Bolshevists. Almost all had lost whatever small bundle
of clothes they had, their papers, their documents — and almost their
wits.
Warsaw at the time was more congested than ever, soldiers and
thousands of refugees coming in daily. There was no place for these
people excepting the railroad station, and hundreds of women and
children, including the nurses, slept on its floors night after night.
The Polish Red Cross was, as might be expected, still so feeble in its
organization that it but helplessly looked on, without the ability or
the resources to take care of its people. New hospitals were being
organized as those along the front were evacuated, but it was some
time before things cleaned up in the mad confusion and nurses could
be reassigned to their hospitals.
It was at this time that the Y. W. C. A. opened an emergency hotel
for nurses. A floor in the Polytechnique School was secured and
equipped with eighty beds. The Nurses' Club was open from early
morning until ten o'clock at night — with a canteen serving three meals
a day at normal prices.. A sum that had been given the Y. W. C. A.
for relief purjx)ses was put into the canteen during the period of the
emergency. An additional relief fund was given to the neediest
nurses for food, tickets, boots and the most necessary items of cloth-
ing, to enable them to resume their duties in the hospitals.. However
destitute these women were, many of them were too proud to accept
the few marks as gifts, and by October at least one-third of the money
had been returned to the club.
As conditions became normal again, and nurses were becoming de-
mobilized or returning for more permanent work in hospitals to dif-
ferent parts of Poland, the hospital was closed, October 1st, and the
club reorganized. The club program was taken over almost entirely
by the nurses themselves, classes arranged, and instructors found and
paid by them, themselves, through a promising self-governing organ-
ization. They are working now to organize a cooperative to lighten
their economic difficulties, and toward the organizing of classes to
give nurses opportunity to learn something by which they might earn
their living when demobilized..
There are two legions of women soldiers in Poland, one in
Wilno, the other in Lwow (Lemberg). In response to an urgent
appeal from the Commandant of the Woman's Battalion, the
Y. M. C. A. had already established a hut and canteen at Lemberg
129
(Lwow) similar to those conducted for the men soldiers. The
Y. M. C. A. felt strongly that this particular hut and canteen
should be in charge of the Y. W. C. A. since it was a work for
women. The visit of a Y. W. C. A. secretary was invited for in-
vestigation and every facility afforded her, to look over the situa-
tion. Since the Y. M. C. A. is an actual unit of the Polish army,
the privileges accorded were those of a Polish officers and thus
made possible the travel, commutation, quarters, telegraph and
courier service and whatever exigencies the case might require.
As a result of this visit the Y. W. C. A. was later facilitated in
adding its touch to the comfort and welfare of the women sol-
diers standing stern to duty in the increasing urge and stress of
war.
The Lwow Legion came into being in November, 1918, during
the siege of Lwow which lasted twenty-eight days within the city
and three months outside. The Austrians evacuating the city had
treacherously turned it over to the Ukraines and the Poles had
awakened one morning to find the Ukrainian flag flying over their
buildings. With the fighting men away in the Army and the few
old men ready to surrender, there remained only the boys, the
girls and the women. The women and girls were made into
couriers. The boys took up arms. Thus was the city defended
through the twenty-eight days and the Ukraines driven out. In
the three months fighting that followed, the Woman's Battalion
was organized from the women and girls who had been couriers;
four companies of 150 women each, 600 in all. Their duties in-
cluded everything that soldiers do — standing guard in garrisons,
acting as couriers and convoys in charge of transportation, arrest-
ing suspicious persons, tracking down deserters from the regular
army and working in military offices.
The original Battalion of 600 was made up largely of the edu-
cated, intellegencia, girls from private schools and universities,
daughters of professional men, doctors, lawyers, etc. Their serv-
ice was voluntary, actuated by patriotic fervor. The exposure and
hardships have caused a number to break down. Demobilization
has also brought down the number until there were in January,
1920, less than half of the 600 left. Replacements were expected,
however, the new soldiers coming mostly from the peasant class.
The women soldiers live in barracks, do their own sentry duty,
follow a regular soldier's schedule from 6 :30 reveille to 10 tap's,
with a discipline rigid and punctiliously kept.
The Woman's Battalion of Wilno was formed in May, 1919,
entirely separate from the Lwow organization. It is similar in
many respects, being composed of both an intelligent educated
group and a non-skilled illiterate group. Girls of the industrial
classes found the Army a solution to economic problems — lack of
employment and high cost of living.
With the increase of hospitals the ranks of the women soldiers
in Poland also became swelled. During July and August little could
be done excepting in already existing canteens. During this time sev-
130
eral companies of women went to the front and almost all that had been
stationed in Wilno met death in battle. Centers were taken over or
established by the Y. W. C. A. in the barracks in Agricola and Praga,
Warsaw, and in Lwow (Lemberg). Aside from the much needed can-
teen, these centers included the usual foyer and educational and recrea-
tional work. In Lwow a group of interested women wanted to organize
industrial work among the soldiers, so that they might learn a
trade, in view of the prospect of sudden demobilization of the
women's battalions and the consequent unemployment situation.
The Y. W. C. A. was asked to lend its support to this work and
help in the organizational end of such courses. In October there
were about 4,000 women soldiers in Poland. The Y. W. C. A.
was requested to take up work with the new battalions in Wilno,
but could not act on that suggestion immediately, owing to the
uncertain conditions in that section.
The Women's Battalions are expected to be permanent as long
as war continues. Their general military status is the same as
that of the men. The morale of the women is high and has a
favorable reaction on the men. As soldiers they have proved
themselves capable and highly trustworthy. Although the idea
of women soldiers is looked upon with disfavor by some of the
conservatives of the country, the honesty and moral character of
the women soldiers cannot be questioned. They have proved that
they are a necessity and are worthy of respect. Such are the in-
nate qualities of women in Poland. Such is their contribution,
made not less through their courage than through their culture,
to the spTrit of women everywhere.
In the terrible stress of conditions which prevailed in August,
the Y. W. C. A. felt called upon to give such relief as it could
wherever it was most needed, so it turned its attention to the
72,000 refugees who were moving westwards before and during
the "Siege of Warsaw." A canteen was organized in one of the
railroad yards of Vienna station, Warsaw. Food supplies — flour,
cocoa, sugar, milk, etc. — were given by the American Relief Ad-
ministration from their "Refugee Supplies," a small house was
turned over to the organization by a Polish refugee organization,
and with the help of the latter, two Bolshevist prisoners, two
Wilno refugee girls as cooks, four boy scouts, and a directing per-
sonnel of University women students, all too eager to serve their
unfortunate compatriots, as many as 6,000 distressed men, women
and children were fed daily.
It was not a novel experience for these* poor human beings to find
themselves compactly crowded into box cars, for days and days
at a time — women, girls and children in the same car with sol-
diers, broken bits of useless furniture that had been rescued the
last moment without thought for its use, crude cooking contri-
vances — usually with nothing to cook — and now and then a pig or
two, the families' most precious possessions — in the heat of sum-
mer, typhus and cholera prevalent, and a violent dysentary epi-
demic raging among them — ^people; war- weary, undernourished,
131
bordering on starvation. It was not the first time they had left
their homes, nor the second — but for many the fifth and sixth —
merely the same old story. And for the fifth and sixth time they
would go back to devastation, and would have to begin all over
again, building up their homes — if, indeed, they would ever get
back! It was no wonder their faces were stolid, and that they
were almost apathetic to the conditions about them — at least,
taking things for granted. One wondered at their endurance,
and it is this endurance of the Poles in Poland that must be re-
spected, regardless of all conjectures, theories and opinions as to
how or whether Poland as a nation can or will or has the right
to exist.
In October the Y. W. C. A. began work in Cracow,
chiefly among the girls working in the uniform factories there —
the three Intendentura Factories — employing about 800 girls.
Request for this work came from the military authorities, and in
agreeing to undertake it the Y. W. C. A. automatically received
military privileges and responsibilities in all branches of its work
in Poland. A building was turned over to the organization for
club rooms, which it, in turn, undertook to renovate and equip.
A committee organized and offered its assistance to the organiza-
tion for the work. Recent reports tell of the clubs organized in
the buildings not only for the industrial girls, but also for busi-
ness girls and nurses.
So far the Y. W. C. A. has done practically no emigration work, but
considerable time was spent in the fall in cooperation with other
organizations and agencies, to work out a method by which Polish
emigrants might find the help and assistance they need. In Octo-
ber conferences were being held by the Y. W. C. A., the American
Consulate, the Polish-American Organization, and the Polish
Emigration Society, at the call of the Y. W. C. A. The proposal
was made that the necessary machinery be set up and developed
by the Polish Emigration Society, that financial assistance be
given by the Polish-American Organization, help and suggestions
by the American Consulate, and that the personnel be trained by
the Y. W. C. A.
In every branch of work undertaken by the Y. W. C. A. in
Poland, case work in some form or other holds a prominent place.
A great deal of time and thought and, recently, personnel was
given to this work, so that it might be brought together and
organized as a special branch of the Y. W. C. A. work.
The small staff of American secretaries now in Poland, in the
spirit of the Polish Grey Samaritans counting their limitations as
nothing in the face of their responsibilties, are planning the broad-
er program with confidence in the future of Poland. They have
seen the knightly spirit of her men exemplified in the soldiers, in
the statesmen, the chivalrous gentleman kissing a noble lady's
hand, even though that lady be now a waitress in the restaurant
of which he is a patron. They have admired the patriotic fervor
of her women, women who in some cases have scarcely been
132
alone in the streets before, giving themselves to menial tasks in
the hospitals or in the economic life of Poland or to the work of
defense under the banner of the Polish eagle. They have known
and loved the eager response of young girls to the needs in Poland,
girls, whether of American Polish, or native Polish families, equal-
ly proud of their heritage. The ancient chivalry still shines
through beautiful deeds. Not even the war can shatter it. The
artist giving up his art for his country, the first lady of Poland
supervising relief for women and children, exemplify in one family
these aspects of the spirit of Poland.
Poland has been called* a knight among nations. Through years
of vicissitudes she has kept true to her highest ideals. To-day she
is facing new problems. Whatever help can be given now must
be of permanent value, pet when the day of relief work has
passed and Poland is once^tnore a nation of art and music and
splendor, there will be added to b«r nobleness the more demo-
cratic virtues of sacrifice and service./^
133
Czecho-Slovakia
THE new republic of Czecho-Slovakia, rising out of the con-
fusion of the war into national consciousness, rose also to
new social vision. The amalgamation of its hitherto separate
parts, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slovakia into national unity,
required political genius. But the new heads of government real-
ized far-sightedly! that the firmest unity must build upon social
consciousness and the highest nationality must interpret itself in
terms of service.
The people who now make up the new nation, had long stood
for some of the finest things in European culture, learning, music
and the other arts. If they had been misinterpreted by other
Europeans and by Americans with interpretation varying from
the picturesque Bohemian of the Latin Quarter of Paris to the
broadest conception of the Slav in America, it was due to the
fact that never before had they presented to the world a national
and united front. The interest with which developments in the
new republic are being followed is, therefore, compounded of the
varied interests in the several peoples.
Czecho-Slovakia came into being under leadership well-equipped
for its task. The new president had long been a student of social
problems. It was through his daughter that the American Y. W.
C. A. received an invitation to help in a piece of social work for
the new republic. Miss Alice Masaryk had been much in America
and had lived for eighteen months in the University of Chicago
Settlement, working and studying in the midst of social conditions
which furnish an intensive laboratory for experience. When the
new republic came into being. Miss Masaryk, as president of the
Czecho-Slovak Red Cross, felt the great immediate need of wel-
fare work in Prague. With her trained social consciousness she
recognized as the first step the need for a survey of Prague.
Turning back to her friends in America, she asked Miss Mary Mc-
Dowell, head of the University of Chicago Settlement, to send a
trained expert worker and staff to compile a Survey of Social In-
stitutions in Greater Prague. Miss McDowell recommended that
this should be undertaken by Miss Ruth Crawford under the War
Work Council of the Young Women's Christian Association. The
Association had already had experience in European work during
134
the war and Miss Crawford was trained in the special line needed
for Czecho-Slovakia. Miss Crawford, heading a unit of three, left
America in April, 1919. After a short stay in London and Paris
they reached Prague about the first of June, 1919. The immedi-
ate task in hand was the making of the social Survey of Prague.
In Dr. Masaryk's own words, "The Revolution forms the bound-
ary line between the period of philanthropy and the social politics
founded on sociology." Her realization of the need of making the
survey, was but an expression of her desire to take account of
stock. There was also the incentive it would give to existing* in-
stitutions. "I am convinced the survey will lead to thinking,"
said Dr. Masaryk. "I believe it will convince those already par-
tially convinced of the necessity of dividing social work and of
training social workers professionally. We have much talent and
ability for social work ; much has already been accomplished. All
of us, who carry about our little straw, like ants, wish to fit our
work into a carefully prepared working plan, based on sociology.
It is necessary to think of a working plan for social work in the
Czecho-Slovak Republic, and the survey we are publishing will
make clear thinking more possible."
The War Work Council in sending out their unit, directed that
the survey be made through the Czech people. The purpose was
not to tack down an American pattern, but only to put AmericaiL
experience and technique into the hands of Czecho-SlovaksJ
Therefore, when Miss Crawford's staff set to work, they consulted
the Advisory Council in which sat the leading workers in hygiene,
national economy, and social welfare. They deliberated with
them about conditions, and sought with their aid, the most effi-
cent working method.
Out of the complexity of social problems, five subjects were
chosen for survey :
1. Public Health.
2. Social Aspects of Schools.
3. Occupational Study of Women.
4. Recreation.
5. Social Welfare and Industry.
The American stafif was necessarily increased by the arrival of
new workers, and by enlisting volunteers from socially trained
Americans in Prague.
Lieutenant Philip S. Piatt of the U. S. Sanitary Corps, working
in Czecho-Slovakia with the American Relief Administration, be-
came so interested in the survey that he agreed to head the de-
partment of Public Health. His services were of the greatest
value, because of his special equipment for this part of the work.
The general plan was for each department of the survey to have
at it$ head an American expert who would propose the methods
and study the field side-by-side with a Czech worker. The survey
was carried on in pleasant relationship with the various American
135
organizations at work in the city and with the cooperation of ex-
isting^ Czech organizations.
ffiny organization at work in Czecho-Slovakia would be im-
pressed with the earnestness of purpose of the new nation. The
group representing the Young Women's Christian Association
saw that purpose center around the word "Christian." The land
that had been so deep in religious convictions as to produce some
of the great leaders of the Reformation, was ready with newly re-
leased energies to give active expression^, to its long pent-up reli-
gious feelings. The greatest need was for leadership. It was
natural, therefore, for young women of Czecho-Slovakia to turn to
this Christian organization from America for help^ Jlonld they
be helped in some training that would fit for leadership^
This question soon found its way to the members of the unit.
It seemed to them that their presence in Czecho-Slovakia sh(ml^
count for the utmost during the time that they were there, fin
casting about for some means of meeting the situation, they d^* — '
termined to take up the matter of training leadership. Along
with the work of the survey could be carried on a school for
training. (Accordingly, in the summer of 1919, the summer school
for training under the Y. W. C. A. opened its doors with the
heads of the survey acting as facultyj^ When the news was spread
that there would be such a school for the admission of thirty
scholarship students, the clamor to be among the thirty which
was selected, showed pathetic eagerness on the part of young
women to avail themselves of such an opportunity. Such inci-
dents as the arrival of a girl from a distant town saying she had
been chosen by the Mayor as their representative at the school,
made more difficult the choice of those students having potential
qualifications for leadership. Nevertheless, the choice was made
and the school under way iqJulyC^ 7
The school was housed in an old palace formerly used as resi-
dence by the Austrian governor of Bohemia, the house itself, more
picturesque than convenient, furnishing a practical object lesson
in adapting apparently unadaptable places to existing situations.
The curriculum was planned on a basis of four general courses re-
quired of all students, and five specialized types of training. The
required courses were:
1. The Woman Citizen.
2. Methods of Social Care.
3. Social Hygiene.
4. Personal Hygiene.
The electives were the general course on Religion and courses
on:
1. Dependent Children.
2. 'Delinquency.
3. Infant Welfare.
4. Recreation.
136
The students were given opportunity for practical study of a
district with the chance of forming their own conception, through
personal observation, of a community as an organic whole.
The students came from varieties of background. One girl ex-
plained that she could not have come if her mother had not given
her some old hand-woven sheets from which she prepared her
underwear. Another little woman who had left six children be-
hind arrived in wooden sandals which she wore until she was able
proudly to replace them by a pair of brown shoes for which money
had been sent her by the Ctiy Council at home. This woman rep-
resented a large workmen's community, organized on socialistic
lines. Some of the students had emerged out of the shadows of
war misery and leaving tragedy behind, opened their minds to
these new interests in which they found the courage to live.
The school brought to light some of the chaotic problems that
lay below the surface of life in Czecho-Slovakia — problems that
concern the meaning and the mystery of existence. In the war
these people, like the people of other nations, had faced death.
They were now facing life with new questions urged by inde-
pendent thinking. This state of mind was described by one of the
leaders as "mental and spiritual' upheaval, reformation-brewing."
A student compared the state of mind of the country to the
women who have carried great coal hods on their backs until they
are crooked and wizened and until they missed the load when it
was taken off. Throughout the course there were, in the words
of a leader of Czecho-Slovakia, "constant proofs of the desire to find
out more about the source of the warm and helpful atmosphere in
their work." "Christianity," said this leader, "ethically reviewed
by our women, means to them service."
The School closed September 15, 1919. By the middle of Octo-
ber every student except one was at work in some position. One
student was reorganizing the office of the Czecho-Slovak Red
Cross according to more progressive methods. Another student,
less aggressive, spent twenty-four hours in the office of the Child
Welfare Society and returned in tears to say "I can't stand it.
It's so ugly, so dirty, and they keep all the windows shut!'* That
which had meant the most to the students at the school was
every little detail of home life which they had absorbed with great
interest. And yet they saw, too, a big need in the life of the girls
of Prague which they themselves might help to meet. Under the
leadership of Miss Olga Masaryk they made a formal request for
the establishment of a Y. W. C. A. in Czecho-Slovakia.
This request was paralleled by letters of inquiry, questions of
interest — "How long are you going to stay?" "Will you establish
the Y. W. C. A. ?" "What is the Y. W. C. A. like in America?" Pur-
posely the American unit had given no publicity to the Y. W. C. A. since
coming to Prague in order that they might concentrate all eflfort
on the survey. Now these questions must be answered. A series
of afternoon and evening meetings were planned in order that
137
(those interested might come together to hear about what the
Yv. W. C. A. was doing in other countries and how the Y. W. C. A.
nappened to come to Czecho-Slovakia. There were student
groups and meetings of representative women of the city. All
of them were equally concerned to know more of their American
faith in European women, a faith greater than that of the
European women in themselves, a faith in which these women of
the new republic of Czecho-Slovakia wished to'^areT^
A number of factors entered into the establishment of Y. W.
C. A. work in Czecho-Slovakia. One was the splendid cooperation
of the Y. M. C. A. which had already planned a program so nearly
paralleling for men what the Y. W. C. A. would do for women
that it was decided to undertake a joint policy by which the
entire work could be enlarged and broadened. Under the wise
planning of a liaison committee the joint work was most success-
ful with the students and with the department of recreation. An-
other factor was the contact through Miss Olga Masaryk with the
World Student Christian Federation. From having been before
the war one of the strongest Federation leaders in Europe^ this
younger daughter of the President was now in a position to help
greatly in laying the foundations for a Christian Student Move-
ment in Czecho-Slovakia. A third factor was the new condition
of freedom left by the war: freedom of^ thought, freedom of reli-
gious beliefs, freedom of expression. LA deeper interest in things
Christian led to an emphasis on the C in the Y. W. C. A. Never
had the need for Christian work among women been greater.
The sudden woman consciousness springing out of the war had
done its part toward recruiting women for industry, the profes-
sions and for relief work. Unprepared for the political rights be-
stowed upon them, their greatest need was for leadership. The
opportunity thus placed before the Christian organization that
answered the call was unparalleljej]
The permanent work of the Y. W. C. A. in Czecho-Slovakia was
divided into departments : among them the City Department, the
Student Department, the Recreation Department, Household
Economics Department, the Emigration Department. Each de-
partment was headed by an executive secretary with her staff of
workers and her committee of women, and each was developing
along its own lines.
City Department. The offices which had served to house the
busy hive of survey workers underwent a transformation from a
place where social activities were outlined on paper to a place
where social atmosphere radiated in active demonstration. Blue
curtains at windows of sunshine, yellow daffodils against dull blue
upholstery, stately old chairs and a round table crowned by a
gold lampshade — all of these, together with a piano, some writing
tables and a few good pictures, had displaced the clicking type-
writers of the survey and gathered a restfulness of home. Nor
was it strange that into such surroundings came the girls of the
city. Domestic servants, clerks, high school girls, girls from gov-
138
ernment offices, were among the number. Group meetings,
classes, conferences, games, hikes, talks, whatever the girls
wanted, if it could be included in the schedule, was included
in the program. By May 1, 1920, the enrollment had reached 500
and no more members could be received because of lack of places
in the classes and of accommodation in the building. Every day
from two o'clock till evening the rooms were full of girls coming
and going. Some liked to sit and read. Others waited for a
friend. But the largest number were in classes. After classes
were over, the evening was often given over to general recreation,
sometimes to the enjoyment of the cinema presented by the Y. M.
C. A. Saturday afternoons the lovely rooms formed the starting
place for a hike over the hills surrounding Prague. What could
be more thrilHng to these girls than a "Hare and Hound Chase"
with their new found friends through their newly appreciated
countryside? Large general gatherings furnished occasion to
hear such speakers as Dr. Masaryk or Mis^ Julia Lathrop, a vis-
itor from Washington, on the Responsibilities of Woman in a
'Democracj^p Thus was carried on the all-around program of the
City Association with its eager response forthcoming.
Student Department. In December, 1919, a group of women
students came together in mass meeting and elected a committee
of twelve to plan for the women's wing of the joint student build-
ing of the Y. M. and Y. W. C. A. This committee formed the
nucleus of the first week-end student conference. A series of con-
ferences were held for different groups representing scholastically
medical, law, philosophical and technical schools and, geographi-
cally, Slovakia, Moravia, Bohemia and Jugo-Slavia. A visit from
some of the World secretaries helped by bringing these students
in touch with what other students were doing. A secretary wrote :
*'The students are wide-eyed with enthusiasm and come every day
to the office with suggestions for the development of the work."
In such a spirit the work grew. On its practical side it furnished
the women's wing of the joint student building with all the facili-
ties of foyer, club rooms, rest room, bathrooms and study rooms.
In the basement of the building the Y. W. C. A. ran a cafeteria
with a capacity for serving 2,000. Some provision was made for
student relief work through nursing services, sick diet, conval-
escing rooms, etc.
Recreation Department. The joint program planned originally
for the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. with the survey recommenda-
tions in view, developed into the national program of recreation
for the Czecho-Slovak government. Xhis included a training
course for leaders of playground work,! the establishment of play-
grounds as illustrations of the American type and the develop-
ment of interest in sports: football, basketball, tennis, running,
and the more juvenile see-saws, sandpiles, wading pools, etc. —
whatever would give freedom of play and teach good sportsman-
ship?] Smaller playgrounds were established in four or five other
cities outside of Prague.
139
With these Departments running, the joint work with the Y. M.
C. A. making history in cooperation, with the survey finished and
permanent results already demonstrated, the Y. W. C. A. in
Czecho-Slovakia was not only established in name but was build-
ing upon the sure foundation of fulfilling a need in the lives of
girls and therefore of gaining loyalty tq a Christian movement.
The secretaries who had come to make a survey, remained to start
an Association. Adapting themselves equally to a palace home
or to poverty conditions they made the blue of the Triangle stand
for hospitality as it had stood everywhere else in Europe. Palace
or hut, the Blue Triangle meant that American women were at
home. The palace home of the secretaries in Prague was no ex-
ception to this rule, as almost every week saw some Hostess
House activity under the palace roof, whether in offering shelter
and rest to an overtired American woman worker, or in furnishing
the setting for an all-American party and "get-together." On all
great occasions, such as Christmas, the home of the Y. W. C. A.
was the gathering place where the other Americans were sure to
find the appropriate "trimmings." To the other activities of the
Y. W. C. A. in Czecho-Slovakia might therefore be added that of
Hostess House, but after all, this bit of America in Czecho-
slovakia but furnished another tie to bind together two kindred
republics. Alike in ideals, they blended their aims in a com-
panionship of purpose.
Summer Work, 1920
In the month of June the Sokols, the huge Gymnastic Associa-
tion of Czecho-Slovakia, held a large Slet in Prague. Members
of other Associations from all over the Czecho-Slovakia Re-
public participated in this fete and Prague had six hundred thous-
and visitors. The Slet of the Sokols, which means the gathering
of the Falcons, meets every five years. At this time huge
pageants and performances are given, showing the physical\ edu-
cation program and activities of the association. At the different
performances ten, fifteen and twenty thousand people perform at
one time — men and women in separate groups. This meant that
thousands of women from all over the Czecho-Slovakia republic
participated in these exhibitions. Large dressing rooms were es-
tablished on the Slet grounds and were put aside for men and
women, and the Y. W. C. A. was asked to participate by having
a rest house for the women taking part in the program of the
Sokols. The Association had two tents in different parts of the
ground. These tents were fitted comfortably with camp chairs,
writing tables and writing material, and proved to be a great
source of comfort to the Sokol women. It also gave the secre-
taries a chance to know women from all over the Republic. Four
different groups participated each day. The weather was ex-
tremely warn, and there were many cases of fainting among the
women. The Czech Red Cross took care of emergency cases but
the Association tents proved to be the preventive source, and the
140
141
workers were told by the women that they would never forget
what the Y. W. C. A. had done for them.
Another temporary center opened at this time was the rest
rooms and information bureau at Alesovice. This Hostess House
was carried on in cooperation with the Y. M. C. A. and was for
the benefit of the eleven hundred Czech-Americans attending the
Slet. Three large rooms in one of the schools were given for
this purpose and were fitted up most attractively with furniture
secured from the Red Cross and borrowed from local stores.
These rooms proved a source of comfort to Czecho-Americans in
town, but many visiting young Czech girls who were housed in
the school building used the rooms as reception rooms. This
helped prove to the Czechs that the Czech Y. W. C. A. was not
only needed in Czecho-Slovakia but that the work could be carried
on by Czechs as well as Americans — for many days during the
Slet season the centers were in charge of Czechs only.
During the month of July the Stvanice Playfield for girls was
opened by the Prague City Y. W. C. A. It is situated on a beau-
tiful island in the Vltava River. It is not far from the heart of
the city and is one of the coolest and most beautiful spots in
Prague. There the Association has taken one end of the island
and fenced it off for a city center. There are two tents — one very
attractively furnished with comfortable chairs, reading and writ-
ing tables, hanging baskets of flowers and everything to make a
room cozy and comfortable. The other tent houses a small cafe-
teria. There very simple dishes are served at noon hour while
coffee, cocoa and tea and sandwiches may be procured at all other
hours. The cafeteria not only proved a coriifort to many girls
but also was popular with many Americans in the city. As the
space of the cafeteria warranted more people than came, it was
decided to help out the student department by feeding the stu-
dents at low rates, for the feeding of the students in Prague is
one of the most serious emergency problems. The girls in at-
tendance at the playfield during the summer provide a nucleus for
the winter clubs of the City Association.
The camp at Prerov, under the supervision of Miss Hess and Miss
Buse, was the most successful part of the summer program. The
camp was ideally situated and an excellent spirit prevailed. This camp
cared for fifty girls at a time, each girl staying from one to two weeks,
so that within a season of practically ten weeks about three hundred
girls were taken care of. All of these girls are looking forward to the
next year's camp, and the leaders created during the summer camp
have been lof great aid to the Y. W. C. A. in carrying this winter's
work.
Plans for the emigration department were outlined during the
summer. It is hoped that the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. to-
gether can operate barracks for emigrants, finding a matron and
a social case worker. Assistance will be rendered in connection
with passports and travel matters as well. This department is only
in its begnning.
142
Near East
IN the administration of its war emergency funds the Young
Women's Christian Association felt itself responsible not
only to work in such places as were accessible and in line
with its other activities, but also to reach out regardless of dis-
tance, to the places of greatest need and to unusual forms of serv-
ice. The appeal of the Near East in 1918-19, therefore, could not
be overlooked. Where thousands of women and girls were con-
cerned in a situation involving refugees, encamped in a long, hope-
less, meager line, facing starvation, bereft of family, palsied in out-
look, with small prospect of ever reaching their former homes
and small incentive to try, in the face of unended war and ruthless
massacre — there the Y. W. C. A. could be of service. What dif-
ference had the Armistice made in the interior of Turkey? It had
meant no more to undiscriminating Turks thirsty for blood than
to weary refugees hungry for bread.
What difference had the Armistice made in the Near East? It
had intensified suffering. It had made this suffering harder to
bear because relief seemed in sight. War had driven the world
with a tight rein and when release suddenly came, the tension was
loosed only to bring collapse in helpless weakness where many
peoples were concerned. In 1919 a movement was sweeping over
Turkey by which thousands. of women and girls, Armenian Chris-
tians, were being released from Turkish homes and set adrift.
Who would offer them aid? Would they be forced to return to
their Mohammedan captors who had freed them only under pres-
sure?
It was in this crisis that the Y. W. C. A. in cooperation with
the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief (known
also as the American Committee for Relief in the Near East and
the Near East Relief) asked Miss Margaret White, under appoint-
ment of that committee for service in the Near East, to represent
the Association in looking over the ground with a view to the
possibilities for Association work in conjunction with the Near
East Relief. Miss White sailed in February, 1919, and reached
Constantinople March 8th.
Conditions in the Near East were unspeakable. In one center
68,000 refugees by actual census were being fed at relief kitchens.
143
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163
General Report
IN Service for the Girls of the World," the war-time slogan of
the American Y. W. C. A., is the expression not only of a
war-work policy, but also of a permanent purpose which has
endured for half a century. The Great War was no respecter of per-
sons nor of organizations. That organization, like that person, which
was able to stand up under the strain and stress, as under the changes
and challenges of war work, was called out to serve to the limit of its
capacity. Not solely stability of purpose, but also adaptability of
method were the requirements. Opportunities come not so much to
those who are waiting as to those who are ready. Preparedness in
terms of the Y. W. C. A. meant a background of fifty years of piling
up experiences in the service of women and girls through the pro-
motion of activities for the development of the abundant life, physic-
ally, mentally, spiritually. It meant serving young women wherever
they were gathered together in cities, towns or country places ; in
factories, schools or colleges; in Association buildings equipped with
gymnasium, swimming pool, cafeteria, or in small improvised club
room. Wherever the work was carried the idea of service was caught
up by the members. It meant, moreover, reaching out beyond the
confines of America to establish Associations in India, China, Japan
and South America.
It was to the Y. W. C. A., therefore, prepared, equipped, already in
service, with a whole world for its horizon, that the call came for the
war work not only in America, but in the countries of Europe, where
women were living and working in an atmosphere of war and danger
that produced a crisis in social problems affecting the whole world.
It was natural, therefore, that the War Work Council should include
as one of its committees a Committee on Work in Other Countries,
later known as the Overseas Committee.. To this Committee came
the appeals for assistance. The call was not so much to meet a critical
situation by extraordinary means as to help solve the problem of the
ages, made critically acute by vivid concentration in a moment of time.
Unselfish Christian service was the aim, — the method, the simple
process of meeting girls where thev^e and leading them out into the
larger place under brighter skies. U£ the war was to make the world
^Ji/safe for democracy, the Y. W. C. A. was to help in the interpretation
^yoi democracy.. The secret of success lay not in working for girls,
164
i6s
but in working zuith theni>J\Thus the spirit of the Association in
America was carried overseas^
Russia
The first calls came from Russia and France. In Russia a group
of representative women, who had known the Association in America,
saw in it the agency best adapted to meet the war need among Russian
girls through a program of activities similar to those in a modern
city Association. When in April, 1917, a secretary was sent it was
these women who welcomed her, introduced her to their problem,
served as advisers and committee members, and watched over the de-
velopment of centers in Petrograd and Moscow, and continued their
interest even after the work was formally discontinued through the
rigors of war that necessitated the withdrawal of American secretaries.
From April, 1917, to September, 1919, work was carried on intermit-
tently in Petrograd, Moscow, Samara and Archangel. The whole
Russian situation was studied. Eighty towns and villages along the
Volga River were touched lin a cooperative scheme with the Y. M.
C. A., by which a boat carrying a welfare expedition toured the river.
With a steadiness of purpose in the midst of unsteadiness of circum-
stances, varying from shell fire to random shots, and from hearty
Russian receptions to hasty military evacuations, the foundations for
Association work in Russia were laid. The American secretaries, who
in the spirit of their pioneer counted it a privilege to serve in those
days, formed friendships that became a link in a permanent bond of
American work for Russia, which, it was firmly believed, would see
results in future days. The goings and comings of the secretaries
were noted not only by the Russian girls, whose lives they had bright-
ened through club work, but also by some American soldiers in the
north, for whom they had carried on Hostess House activities in
Archangel.
France
In France the work was begun in August, 1917, with the arrival of
the first three secretaries to study the situation. The outgrowth was
a work for American women consisting* of Hostess Hiouses, Signal
Corps Houses, Nurses' Clubs and all their associated activities, and
a work for French women consisting of organization of Foyers
des Alliees, first in munition factories where women worked, and later
extended into cities and towns throughout the provinces. In its con-
tribution to the war situation the Y. W. C. A. held a unique place
among the war-working agencies. It was the only American organi-
zation overseas working strictly for women. As such, it engaged in
work which would not otherwise have been done, and through its care
for the welfare of women — war workers of all American organiza-
tions, munition workers in the French factories and other women,
transient lor permanent, whose lives were affected in greater or lesser
degree by the war — the Y. W. C. A. made possible a higher degree
of efficiency in the more direct war activities. The American army,
i66
the French government, the poilu in the trenches, felt an added se-
curity in the thought that a woman's organization was in France at
work, quietly and surely, for the welfare of women.
One direct result of the war work of the American Y. W. C. A. in
France has been the growth of a spirit of permanent cooperation and
ideals among women's organizations of France. The Foyers des Alliees
and its allied activities, from being a war emergency work, grew into
a definite peace-time social work, with activities and centers extending
iiito the reconstruction work of the devastated and liberated regions
of the n^orth of France. In Paris one large demonstration center has
developed, typifying what a modern city Association can mean in the
heart of Paris. Out of the pioneer Hostess House has grown an
American Women's Club, to bind together American women resident
in Paris in the permanent interest oi-.a_ social and social service
agency in a great cosmopolitan center. L^any indirect results of the
war work are noted in an increased loyalty among American women
served overseas by the Y. W. C. A., and in the bond of union be-
tween French and American women, working together for the wider
circles of women in Frano^.
Italy
In Italy, the American Y. W. C. A. responded to a call for work
among Italian women similar to that carried on for French women,
by sending early in 1919 some American secretaries to cooperate with
the Italian organization in centers already established, and to open
new war emergency centers where necessary. These centers consisted
of student hostels greatly enlarged in scope to meet war conditions,
club and foyer work in industrial and business communities. Hostess
House and rest room activities in certain centers of travel, programs
of recreation, and special kinds of work adapted to the emergency
found in the port cities of Italy. In the face of difficulties and changes
as great as in any country in Europe, and a consequent restlessness
among the people, the Y. W. C. A. is making a contribution by intro-
ducing at this critical time a constructive program for women and
girls. As the program is far-seeing, so the results will be far-felt.
Near East
The Near East as a field for work was not unknown to the Ameri-
can Y. W. C. A. Through secretaries sent in 1913 and continuing
after the war had started, a beginning had been made among girls in
Turkey. When there came appeals to meet the unprecedented situa-
tion among women growing out of the war, the Y. W. C. A., in co-
operation with the American Committee for Relief in the Near East,
sent a secretary in March, 1919, to investigate opportunities for the
Association to be of service. The result was a program of work in
connection with the American Committee for Relief in the Near East,
whereby the Y. W. C. A. should supplement the work of direct relief
by provding systematic recreation and a program for constructive
work in service centers with club activities, In general, two classes of
16?
women were reached; the women released from Turkish harems, and
women from the business centers and from colleges. For the women
just freed from years of conformity to the life in a harem, the Near
East Relief provided shelters called rescue homes, which met the
necessaries of existence. It remained for the Y. W. C. A., by sending a
secretary into these homes to teach the women the uses for their new-
found freedom, giving them new incentives to live. These rescue homes
were scattered through Asia Minor, Turkey and Armenia. Service
centers were organized by the Y. W. C. A. in the larger cities and
carried on club activities, with large volunteer service from students,
among girls at work in the cities.
The group of secretaries sent out for service in the Near East was
jtoined by a group known as the South Russia unit. These were
secretaries who, under appointment to Russia, with strong hope that
the way should open by the south, in the meantime put their services
at the disposal of the Y. W. C. A. in the Near East. Since there were
in the Near East, and particularly in Constantinople, large numbers
of refugees from Russia, the work of this unit was counting already
for Russia.
Czecho-Slovakia
In Czecho-Slovakia an appeal grew out of the need of the new
republic for a social service program which should not only take
account of existing agencies, but suggest a plan for a larger way of
meeting the situation. The first call was for expert workers to make
a social survey 6f Prague. The call was sent to America by the
daughter of the President of Czecho-Slovakia, who herself had
studied social service in America. Through the advice of a settle-
ment worker who had seen the Y. W. C. A. at work overseas, the call
was passed on to that organization, with special recommendations of
the person best adapted to head the work. The result was the arrival
in Czecho-Slovakia, in April, 1919, of a unit sent by the Y. W. C. A.
The immediate task was the survey of Prague. In this survey five
problems were presented:
1. Public Health.
2. Social Aspects of Schools.
3. Occupational Study of Women.
4. Recreational Survey.
5. Social Care for Individuals.
As a by-product, a welfare directory was made. In the work of
the survey large cooperation was received from such organizations
as the American Red Cross and the Rockefeller Foundation, at work
in Prague, as well as from the government officials themselves. The
presence of the Y. W. C. A. unit in Prague and its study of conditions
has resulted in the organization of work along Association lines. As
a student center, where for the first time groups of women with their
new-won freedom were breaking into the University as a great adven-
i68
ture, Prague presented large possibilities for some student work.
For the city itself, a model city Association to demonstrate possibilities
for all kinds of activities among girls was planned. The great need
was for leaders. In order to train a few women who might take the
initiative in social work in the country, a training school was con-
ducted for the small group who seemed ready for it. In this program
of work the Y. W. C. A. took into account the fact that America must
be ready not only to bring relief, but also to help this youngest republic
make plans for helping itself.
Poland
In Poland the situation left by the war was one calling for dire
relief. Relief agencies were at work, but the need was growing.
Poland had found anew her freedom, only to be faced again with
fresh wars and new responsibilities for defense. The situation was
such" as to inspire sympathy from her peoples in all parts of the world.
To Polish-American girls living in the United States a knowledge of
the facts became a challenge to service. A suggestion originating in
the heart of a woman who felt most keenly the need was carried out
by the Y. W. C. A., the organization which, through its work for
foreign-born women and its work overseas, was able to make the
necessary connections for the execution of the plan. Those Polish-
American girls, who volunteered for service and were found fit after
trai^iing in America, were sent as Polish Grey Samaritans to Poland.