Onward, Dear Boys by Philippe Bieler

Author:Philippe Bieler
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780773596719
Publisher: MQUP
Published: 2014-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

Oncle Charles

To organize these tours without publicity, without a manager, without the backing of a local committee, it was necessary to have everything at hand: correspondence, timetables, finances, and a multitude of other details. In a matter of weeks, she had a schedule, which began in May 1915 with two tours organized by her new friends at the McAll Mission. Her tours usually lasted about three weeks, and sometimes up to three months. She went from town to town, aiming at very large auditoriums, and collecting just enough to send to Europe: about 4,000 francs per month. On a world scale, it wasn’t a great success, but what a joy it was for her to regularly fund “good works,” where every cent counted. Best of all, perhaps, was her privilege of making lifelong friends in just about every home she stayed in. Not once was she allowed to sleep in a hotel or eat in a restaurant!

Blanche always started with “The Soul of France,” keeping in reserve for other meetings her chats about the “good works” of her sister and her illustrated lecture on Belgium. The money destined for the Belgian orphans was sent via the underground. It was only near the end of the war that their Belgian friends learned about the origins of the miraculous manna that had prevented so many children from dying of hunger.

“The Soul of France” became quite famous, and it wasn’t unusual for her to be asked to deliver it a second time on the same day. It opened many doors and many purses from both the educated and the less-educated, at large and small auditoriums, from the north to the south of the United States, and the east to the west of Canada. Basically, the Americans wanted to collaborate, as they hoped that they were helping to ensure that France wouldn’t collapse. They were saturated with newspaper articles, and welcomed the rhythmical beat of a poem. Under the varnish of materialism, the Americans had an emotional and idealistic side, easy to touch in this dramatic era. Often before she started to speak, someone would get up, “Please don’t forget to tell us about the ‘Soul of France.’” Her fifth trip, in April and May 1917, brought her to Washington, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. The news from the Front, however, was a constant worry, and often made it difficult to concentrate.

Philadelphia, 22 April 1917

My dear boys,

I can hardly believe that, having left Montreal almost three weeks ago, I haven’t been able until today to find the half day necessary to write my circular letter about my travels, and that I had to resort to sending postcards. You know better than me about the difficulties one faces when away from normal life, and in my case better organized at my writing table than you in your trenches. It is leisure time that is missing, and not the enthusiasm, between the meetings, dinners, and notes to be written. I often don’t have a minute from morning till night.

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