can, French--where the men are supplied
at any time with cocoa, coffee, milk, lemonade, cakes; and the little
building itself is gaily decorated to please the color-loving French
eye.

Mlle. Javal took me out to the environs of Paris to visit one of the
largest of these depots, and there the men in hospital were nursed by
Sisters of Charity. There was a set of well-filled bookshelves and a
stage in the great refectory, where the men could sit on rainy days,
read, write letters, sing, smoke, recite, and get up little plays. I
saw a group of very contented looking poilus in the yard playing cards
and smoking under a large tree.

The surroundings were hideous--a railroad yard if I am not
mistaken--but the little "town" itself was very pleasing to the eye,
and certainly a haven of refuge for soldiers whose bodies and minds
needed only repose, care, and kind words to send them back to the
Front sounder by far than they had been in their unsanitary days
before the war.

Here they are forced to sleep with their windows open, to bathe, eat
good food, instead of mortifying the body for the sake of filling the
family stocking; and they are doctored intelligently, their teeth
filled, their tonsils and adenoids taken out, their chronic
indigestion cured. Those who survive the war will never forget the
lesson and will do missionary work when they are at home once more.

All that was dormant in Mlle. Javal's fine brain seemed to awake under
the horrifying stimulus of that first visit to the wretches herded
like animals outside of Paris, where every man thought he was drafted
for death and did not care whether he was or not; where, in short,
morale, so precious an asset to any nation in time of war, was
practically nil.

The first step was to get a powerful committee together. Mlle. Javal,
although wealthy, could not carry through this gigantic task alone.
The moratorium had stopped the payment of rents, factories were
closed, tenants mobilized. Besides, she had already given right and
left, as everybody else had done who had anything to give. It was
growing increasingly difficult to raise money.

But nothing could daunt Mlle. Javal. She managed to get together with
the least possible delay a committee of three hundred, and she
obtained subscriptions in money from one thousand five hundred firms,
besides donations of food and clothing from eight hundred others,
headed by the King of Spain.

Her subscription list was opened b