s the race is naturally musical and most of them sing well. Noted
singers were sent to sing for the boys, but it is said that frequently
the plan of the entertainment was reversed, as they requested the
privilege of listening to the boys sing.

A wonderful work was done by "Y" secretaries among the illiterates. Its
fruits are already apparent and will continue to multiply. They found
men who hardly knew their right hand from their left. Others who could
not write their names are said to have wept with joy when taught to
master the simple accomplishment. Many a poor illiterate was given the
rudiments of an education and started on the way to higher attainments.

Headquarters of the overseas work was at Paris, France, and was in
charge of E.C. Carter, formerly Senior Student secretary in America, and
when war was declared, held the position of National Secretary of India.
Much of the credit for the splendid performance of the "Y" workers
abroad belonged to him and to his able aid, Dr. John Hope, president of
Morehouse college, Atlanta, Ga. The latter went over in August, 1918, as
a special overseer of the Negro Y.M.C.A.

Three distinguished Negro women were sent over as "Y" hostesses, with a
secretarial rating, during the war. Their work was so successful that
twenty additional women to serve in the same capacities were sent over
after the close of hostilities. They were to serve as hostesses, social
secretaries and general welfare workers among the thousands of Negro
soldiers who had been retained there with the Army of Occupation and the
Service of Supply.

The first Negro woman to go abroad in the Y.M.C.A. service was Mrs.
Helen Curtis of 208 134th Street, New York, in May, 1918. For a number
of years she had been a member of the committee of management of the
Colored Women's Branch of the Y.M.C.A., and had assisted at the Camp
Upton hostess house. Her late husband, James L. Curtis, was minister
resident and consul general for the United States to Liberia. Mrs.
Curtis lived in Monrovia, Liberia, until her husband's death there. She
had also lived in France, where she studied domestic art for two years.
Being a fluent speaker of the French language, her appointment was
highly appropriate.

So successful was the appointment of Mrs. Curtis that another Negro
secretary in the person of Mrs. Addie Hunton of 575 Greene Avenue,
Brooklyn, N.Y., followed the next month. Her husband was for many years
senior secretary of th