CAMP WELFARE COMMITTEE
chair or a comfortable couch; again it was a water cooler, or again a spray of flowers. Each appealed to a different need.
In one of the rooms a soldier sat writing a letter home. When he had finished he came over to the attendant, saying, “Would you like to see what I have written home about these rooms?” He had drawn an elaborate plan, showing every piece of furniture, and had covered two pages with praise of the attractiveness of the room. Every detail was mentioned, the soft shaded lights, the flowers, especially the hyacinth plant “which gives the room a delightfully scented atmosphere,” the “grand comfortable chairs” and the “hand-painted Italian lamp shade.” The “very cozy look” and the air of “quiet seclusion” were commented upon and the description concluded, “Both rooms are charming—so restful and helpful for reading and for writing.”
To these bronzed and hardened soldiers, the beautiful meant more than one might suspect. On the day before Easter an exquisite white lily was placed in one of our rooms and shortly after it arrived a soldier came in. As soon as he saw the lily, a look of satisfaction came into his face and he exclaimed: “I just knew you would have one. I kept thinking about it this morning when I was working and could hardly wait to get down. I knew I would not be disappointed.” A Worker in Washington state writes:
“Beauty and order in the Welfare room in the Seamen's Barracks (Bremerton, Washington) brought fruitage today. A fine looking sailor lad came in just as the Worker arrived and said he had started to come into the room because it was the only place where he saw any flowers and he liked to write there on that account, but now wanted to read the literature,
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