Sentinel which may be introduced here in prose garb a la Walt Mason.

"There's a place in old Archangel,
That we never will forget,
And of all the cozy places,
It's the soldier's one best bet.
It's the place where lonely Sammies
Hit the trail for on the run,
There they serve you cake and coffee,
'Till the cake and coffee's done.
And they know that after eating,
There's another pleasure yet,--
So to show how they are thoughtful,
They include a cigarette.
There's a place back in the corner,
Where you get your clothing checked,
And the place is yours, They tell you,
--well--Or words to that effect.
There are magazines a-plenty,
From the good old U. S. A.
There's a cheery home-like welcome
for you any time of day.
Will we, can we e'er forget them,
In the future golden years,
And the kindness that was rendered,
By these Lady Volunteers?
Just as soon as work is finished,
Don't you brush your hair and blouse,
And go double-double timing,
To the cordial Hostess House?"

One of the pretty weddings in Archangel that winter was that celebrated
by the boys when Miss Childs became home-maker for Bryant Ryal, the "Y"
man who was later taken prisoner by the Bolsheviki. She was within
twelve miles of him the day he was captured. Doughboys were quick to
offer her comforting assurances that he would be treated well because
American "Y" men had done so much in Russia for the Russian soldiers
before the Bolshevik debacle. And when they heard that he was actually
on his way to Moscow with fair chance of liberation, they crowded the
taplooska Ryal home and made it shine radiantly with their
congratulations.

But it was not the institutional service such as the Hostess House or
the Huts or the box car canteen, such as it was, which endeared the "Y"
girls to the doughboys as a lot. It was the genuine womanly friendliness
of those girls.

The writer will never forget the scene at Archangel when the American
soldiers left for Economia where the ship was to take them to America.
Genuine were the affectionate farewells of the people--men, women and
children; and genuine were the responses of the soldiers to those
pitiable people. Our Miss Dickerson, of the Y. W. C. A. Hostess House,
was surrounded by a tearful group of Russian High School girls who had
been receiving instruction in health, sanitation and other social
betterments and catching the American Young Women's Christian
Association vision of usefulness to the sick, ignora