Page:Christian Science War Time Activities.djvu/136

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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE IN THE WAR

As this cottage was very soon outgrown, a larger permanent building was erected on the same piece of property at a cost of $6120, the original house serving as Worker's quarters. The new building was a beautiful one, in the bungalow style, having a large fireplace at one end of a spacious room used for a reading room and for the church services. There was also a fully equipped writing room, as well as private rooms for quiet talks with boys who came for treatment. The entire building was very tastefully furnished, and supplied the atmosphere of “home, sweet home,” as one of the boys remarked when he first entered it. This building has since been given by the War Relief Committee to the Christian Science Churches and Societies of the Northwest and is now operated by them.

Besides the buildings which have just been mentioned, the Committee maintained Welfare rooms in towns adjoining camps or training stations and in most of the larger cities. Fine, well-furnished rooms were in operation in San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Indianapolis, Des Moines, Baltimore, Boston, Minneapolis, New York, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Portland, Philadelphia, Galveston and Seattle, to mention only those in the United States.

In most cases the smaller rooms opened in towns near the camps were far from attractive to the eye, at least on the outside, but in every one the interior was transformed for our purpose. Light and cleanliness were prime essentials and to these, through the loving thought of the Workers and attendants, homey touches were added which went far toward making these little rooms the home which the hearts of the boys in service were yearning for. Sometimes it was bright cretonne curtains; sometimes an easy-

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