Nurses at the front live under a strict military
regime, and opportunities for social relaxation
are practically nil. When nerves have become
somewhat overstrung, and work, in spite of its
unremitting nature, runs ever upon the same

221



Women War Workers

lines, it is difficult to maintain one's efior^
continually at their best without some sort
of inspiration from without. Music supplies
this inspiration as nothing else can, and the
nurses are as grateful as their patients for the
help that the woman Comforteer is able to
afford them in this regard ; for, acting upon
the knowledge that, in order to achieve the
best results, the psychical needs must be
satisfied as generously as the material, she
has provided refreshment for the soul and
stimulus for the tired brain. ^



The Unofficial Comforteer

And now to turn from what may be termed
the ' official ' side of comforteering, since it
is dioly recognized and encouraged by the

1 Editor's Note.— I think it may conduce to a fuller
appreciation of the adaptability which women have shown
in taking up various types of war work if I mention an
individual instance of this adaptability. One of the ladies
who has since travelled widely with these concert-parties
was for many months doing good work in one of the war
departments. She was readily released to take up this good
work, not because she could easily be spared, for the pressure
of work was great and she was taking a fair share of it, but

222



The Comforteers
authorities, to the less regularized, but in many
cases scarcely less valuable, ministrations of
independent workers. The unofficial Comfor-
teers may roughly be divided into two classes
— those whose aim is to entertain the soldiers,
and those whose object is to divert themselves.
