Sixteen Happy Wivas

Horowhenua Chronicle, 4 December 1916, Page 3

Sixteen Happy Wivas

1 (TWELLS BREX, in "Daily Mail.") Paris, Oct. 3. Sixteen wives and one of the betrothed of the disabled British war prisoners interned in Switzerland arrivedl in Paris at midday, and were driven to the British Red Cross headquarters at the Hotel d'lena for a few hours' rest and sleep before the long night train journey to Chateau d'Oex The tale of Ulysses has been reversed and seventeen Penelopes have bedra delayed by the gods on their .journey to th© island of Calypso; seventeen Penelopes were "held up somewhere at sea" by the exigiencies of war. They are two days late in Paris.

Noddling: ami drowsy! the seventeen Penelopes were driven to their hotel. Their sight-seeing day in Paris is postponed until the return journey. They have no mind for anything for anything now, hut the men who are waiting for them. But, tired though they were, the women have already formulated their opinions of France. They are loud in praise and wonder of French farming and gardening. "The tidiest people I reckon in the worldl," said one of them. "I reckon one of their farmers would get up in the night if a dead leaf blew on his land." The 'beautff.ful palrallelogHams of French market culture drew exclamation from the seventeen Penelopes all the wayi from the landing ports to Paris. And more than anything else the women noticed this year's great apple crop of France. Paris has wot yet magnetized the pilgrims; they were too Sleepy. "Not so very different from London." said one of them, "excepting for the outdoor tables." It was only when a Red Cross vehicle swooped up the splendid stretch of the Champ Ely.sees that the seventeen Penelopes broke into the cries of admiration at the •finest thoroughfare in the world "Ave, it wed be even better than Sauchieball Street," admitted ia Glasgow Penelope "if it wasna' for the awful "English these Frenchies talk o't, and ye dinna ken wether they're makin' fun o' ye or no." That is the only complaint of the seventeen Penelopes against our gallant Allies. "Some of t"he men aire awl'u' guid-lookiin'." 'admitted the Glas gow critic. The lied Cross escorts are full of praise of the (seventeen pliigrims. Hope dieferred makes the heart sick, and' the English Channel on a blowy night is a sharp test for women who have never been in a ship. The soldiers' wives gave no sign of heart-sickness or any other tronble. Theair pilgrimage lnas , had unexpected real trials and endurances. They have kept cheery throughout. And they have been tended and shepherded throughout with devotion and care. That is another gem in the glittering crown of the British Red Cross.