The Martian, journal publié par les soldats américains de l'Hôpital de Mars-sur-Allier , item 22
Transcription
Transcription history
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THE MARTIAN
Hommes - 36-40
Chevaux - 8
Vol. 1. - No. 30. SUNDAY, March 16, 1919. Price: 30 centimes
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Illustrations of people hanging laundry on lines, a woman beating a garment in a stream, and a woman transporting a bag of laundry in a wheelbarrow, with two children trailing behind her.
THE DEMOCRACY OF THE CLOTHES LINES
The rivers of France, - what untold uses they serve! They give food to multitudes, and cleanliness to the nation. To the American fresh from the land of soapstone washtubs and steam laundries, France scarcely offers a more interesting sight than the swarms of women who seem forever washing in stream or river. Rhythmically they beat the offending garments and the short staccato of the stroke mingles with the caressing purl of the water, like the metre of some lowly epic of woman's unending labor.
It is a natural thought while observing these women on the banks of the Loire, that the process is not unlike our own experiences in the army. Coming from the homes of rich and poor alike, both men and garments, meet in the regiment or washbasket, achieving at last, through a ceaseless pounding, the democracy of the washline or of khaki.
But idle thoughts are quickly dispelled by the strident voices of the washers. Through the long years of this public washing of linen, they acquire a skill in repartee and a disposition to subject scandal to the same process, that has made them proverbial. You are able merely to watch them and form your own conclusions concerning the relative merits of the mysterious alchemy of steam cleansing and the wide freedom of the open river. Probably the scientists of sanitation disagree with the findings, and could discover in the Loire a bewildering array of germs and microbes. Still there seems to be a wholesome quality in this open air method that laughs at science.
The peasant of France is at no expense for washtubs or other plumbing. A bucket, a basket, and a battoir, the latter a whittled utensil for beating the clothes, completes the equipment. A chunk of soap is used nowadays, but often during the war, a lye obtained from wood ashes had to serve the purpose of soap. In the cities, however, other arrangements must be made, for there are not enough places where the banks slope properly, for the entire population. So, Nevers maintains in the Loire, a number of lavoirs, hulks of ancient river vessels, where several hundred persons can be accommodated daily. Doubtless, these vessels, now weighted firmly in the river silt a few feet from the bank, have a proud history for several still display figureheads bearing ducal coronets. The sides of the hull have been cut away, affording free access to the water. On the deck which is only a foot above the water, small stands have been built, with fronts sloping into the river. In these the women kneel and wash.
(Continued on page 2.)
-
THE MARTIAN
Hommes - 36-40
Chevaux - 8
Vol. 1. - No. 30. SUNDAY, March 16, 1919. Price: 30 centimes
----
Illustrations of people hanging laundry on lines, a woman beating a garment in a stream, and a woman transporting a bag of laundry in a wheelbarrow, with two children trailing behind her.
The rivers of France, - what untold uses they serve! They give food to multitudes, and cleanliness to the nation. To the American fresh from the land of soapstone washtubs and steam laundries, France scarcely offers a more interesting sight than the swarms of women who seem forever washing in stream or river. Rhythmically they beat the offending garments and the short staccato of the stroke mingles with the caressing purl of the water, like the metre of some lowly epic of woman's unending labor.
It is a natural thought while observing these women on the banks of the Loire, that the process is not unlike our own experiences in the army. Coming from the homes of rich and poor alike, both men and garments, meet in the regiment or washbasket, achieving at last, through a ceaseless pounding, the democracy of the washline or of khaki.
But idle thoughts are quickly dispelled by the strident voices of the washers. Through the long years of this public washing of linen, they acquire a skill in repartee and a disposition to subject scandal to the same process, that has made them proverbial. You are able merely to watch them and form your own conclusions concerning the relative merits of the mysterious alchemy of steam cleansing and the wide freedom of the open river. Probably the scientists of sanitation disagree with the findings, and could discover in the Loire a bewildering array of germs and microbes. Still there seems to be a wholesome quality in this open air method that laughs at science.
The peasant of France is at no expense for washtubs or other plumbing. A bucket, a basket, and a battoir, the latter a whittled utensil for beating the clothes, completes the equipment. A chunk of soap is used nowadays, but often during the war, a lye obtained from wood ashes had to serve the purpose of soap. In the cities, however, other arrangements must be made, for there are not enough places where the banks slope properly, for the entire population. So, Nevers maintains in the Loire, a number of lavoirs, hulks of ancient river vessels, where several hundred persons can be accommodated daily. Doubtless, these vessels, now weighted firmly in the river silt a few feet from the bank, have a proud history for several still display figureheads bearing ducal coronets. The sides of the hull have been cut away, affording free access to the water. On the deck which is only a foot above the water, small stands have been built, with fronts sloping into the river. In these the women kneel and wash.
(Continued on page 2.)
-
THE MARTIAN
Hommes - 36-40
Chevaux - 8
Vol. 1. - No. 30. SUNDAY, March 16, 1919. Price: 30 centimes
----
Illustrations of people hanging laundry on lines, a woman beating a garment in a stream, and a woman transporting a bag of laundry in a wheelbarrow, with two children trailing behind her.
The rivers of France, - what untold uses they serve! They give food to multitudes, and cleanliness to the nation. To the American fresh from the land of soapstone washtubs and steam laundries, France scarcely offers a more interesting sight than the swarms of women who seem forever washing in stream or river. Rhythmically they beat the offending garments and the short staccato of the stroke mingles with the caressing purl of the water, like the metre of some lowly epic of woman's unending labor.
It is a natural thought while observing these women on the banks of the Loire, that the process is not unlike our own experiences in the army. Coming from the homes of rich and poor alike, both men and garments, meet
Description
Save description- 46.85599792463026||3.0879743000000417||||1
Mars-sur-Allier
Location(s)
Story location Mars-sur-Allier
- ID
- 13708 / 140122
- Contributor
- Médiathèque municipale Jean Jaurès de Nevers
March 16, 1919
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