Taiban Valley News

SALVAGE FROM AMERICAN
RAG BAGS CLOTHES
DESTITUTE EUROPE

Great-hearted women all over the
United States are busy salvaging the
waste of this country to clothe the
destitute of America and the war-
stricken children of Europe. All sorts
of comfortable and, in many cases,
really beautiful garments are made
from the contents of the rag bags of
America.

In the Red Cross workshops through
out the Southwestern Division women
with clever brains and skilled hands
fashion children's stockings from the
legs of the worn-out stockings of the
grown-ups. Warm caps are made from
the tops of men's woolen socks. Little
shirts come from the unworn sections
of discarded underwear of men and
women. Old coats and trousers form
new suits for boys, and women's
dresses are cut down into the smaller
garments of children. Odds and ends
of carpet and heavy woolen material
become slippers for invalids. Bits of
ribbons grow into hat trimmings for
children, and even the pocket flaps and
collars of women's coats, past wear-
ing in their original form, can be used
for hats and caps for children.

An exhibition of the salvage from
the rag bags of some American cities
was one of the interesting features
of the recent Red Cross Convention
in Columbus, Ohio. Everything shown
had come from some garment which
had literally been thrown away by its
original owner because it was in too
bad a state of dilapidation for further
use, and the ingenuity displayed in the
process of making something wearable
and good out of what appeared to be
nothing, was remarkable. These gar-
ments were made by the volunteer
workers of the various Red Cross
workshops in America. Many of them
came from sections in the Southwest,
where such work is being done.