Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-23
WHEN ORDERS COME
Fall Hardest on the Wives of Army
and Navy Officers.
OFTEN ENTAIL GREAT SACRIFICES
As a Rule the Women Act Like
II
True Heroines.
SEPARATED FOR YEARS
Written for The Evening Star.

| Written for The Evening Star.
| The other afternoon, shortly before the
| departure of train for the west, a strap
| ping military-looking man Of thirty-five or
| Whereabouts walked into the Pennsylvania
station. He was accompanied by pair of
! modishly appareled ladies. The military
| looking man was a naval officer. He was
about to take the train for San Francisco,
| where he was to embark on a steamer for
| China. He had been ordered to the Asia tic
| station for cruise of two or three years.
One of the ladies with him was his wife.
| The other was one of his wife's friends in
Washington visit.
"All aboard" called out the man at the
gate.
well. goodbye, Patsy" said the naval
officer, stopping and kissing his wife. See
you in 1902, maybe
Goodbye, Jack-I'H count the hours
| said his wife. Then he kissed her again.
There were some pretty affectionate looks
between them. but no tears The naval
officer picked up his bag, walked through
the gate to the train, the train pulled out
| and the two or three years separation be-
tween one of the most devoted naval
| couples "in the service was over.
well, Of all things"' exclaimed the
friend Of the naval officers wife, when the
train had pulled out. How could you let
him go SO easily?"
That is a question that is often put won
deringly to the wives of naval officers by
their women friends 'in civil life" The
wives of officers in the regular army are also
frequently required to give some sort of an
answer to the same query. The civilian
woman does not understand how the ser
vice woman can "let her husband CO.
without at least some little rain of tears,
some little parting tableau bordering on
the pathetic. The service woman doesn't
understand why anything OF the sort should
be expected or her.
1--WE must obey orders, mustn't WEI" she
replies, wonderingly.
The Meaning of Orders.
Orders is the word. 1t is we'll I'M
derstood by the service women by the
service men. The inf1exibility of orders
teaches them abnegation. They know the
meaning of orders as well as their hus
bands. Orders. then. being a stone wall,
why they argue. should they bruise them
selves by trying to overthrow it? Why
should they be demonstrative in the face of
orders?
Last year when the war broke out, the
wives and families of officers of the army
and navy did not manifest any outward
disquiet. The GOODNESS with which they OBJ
served the trend of affairs that brought
nearer and nearer every day the parting
from their husbands. brothers, fathers. ex
cited the wonder of civilian women who
numbered service women among their
friends.
They did not bear in mind the fact that
this sort of self-restraint, which appeared
so strange to them, IS rule the fruit OF
years of training on the part of women
whose male relatives are attached TO the
land or sea forces of the United States.
Self-control is bred in the bone of army
and navy women. In no country in the
world is there much Service ntermar-
rying' as there is In the United States.
There extraordinary ramifications of
relationship bv marriage in he Ap1e rfc
army and navy. The result of this was
that most of the women whose husbands,
fathers and brothers were likely to mix in
the thick of the war for which preparations
were going forward We're thoroughly i'm
bued with the spirit Of abnegation that ami
mated the men. The service women are
subscribers to code of their own. and the
very first clause of this unwritten but COM
prehensiVe code is that it would be quite as
weakened and cowardly for them to wilt
in the face of trouble as it would be for
their men to SHOW the yellow
Need of Common Sense.
There Is, 1t may verify be believed, no
lack Of womanly feeling on the part Of the
feminine members Of the households of
American army and navy officers. But
their whole environment is such as to
bring out the strongest common sense of
which human beings are capable when the
danger to their men becomes most inlmi-
nent. Their spirit is such that they would
take shame unto themselves If they inter-
Jected any Whimperings into the prepara-
t1ons for departure of their men on any
mission whatsoever, however hazardous
The service women broke OUT their hus-
bands and fathers and brothers accouter-
ment5 with undeniably heavy hearts, but
rarely with any exterior parade of Woe
Ihere are many Mrs. Major O'Dowds
among the wives of the older officers of
the United States service-that is they re-
sembe the lovable, plucky spouse of the
redoubtable little Irish major of Thack-
cray s story in the quality Of their smiling
sen-repression in the teeth of trouble. In
cldentaily 1t should be added that in the
households of the enlisted men In the
United states service there is no lack of
brave-hearted Dlnah Shadds.
Second Godspeed.
The wives of numerous old-time officers
OF the American army and navy many of
whom were In Washington when last years
war broke out, sent their men away for
the second time in their married lives
They bade them goodbye when they were
eager, hot-headed fellows. matter Of near
~ four decades ago and last wear with
sllvered ha1r and that long gulf of peace
between, they gave them another Gcd-
speed. These older women of the service
were ma1nstays for the young wives who
had not been born. brought up and married
in the service. and therefore had not been
schooled In the wretchedness Of partings;
had not thoroughly mastered the adaman-
TINE HedlilB OF that word ''OrderS' The
young officers in the two services who had
taken girls from civil life for wives had the
most difficulty in departing for whatever
station their orders specified. and the eld-
erly wives of the od-time officers were the
comforts of these women
For example. an elderly officer of the
navy was ordered away to the Asiatic sta
ton just after the war broke out His wife
had sent him away, to battle in 1851 One
OF their sons was a lieutenant in the artil-
lery and he had to join the forces bound
for Cuba. Another of their sons was a
young ensign in the, navy, attached to one
OF the ships in Schley's squadron as soon
as the squadron was formed. This young
ensign had married-a young woman from
civil life, and she was on, the verge Of COL
lapse over the awful prospect ahead of
her young husband-they had only been
married six months.
Triple Sacrifice.
Compare your trouble with mine." said
her white-haired mother-in-law, land learn
cheerfulness. All three Of my men are
away, you know"
The young wife dried her eyes and de-
cided that there was something in her
mother-in-law's way, of putting the matter
In general 1t NAV he said that the wives