The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-06-08
|MIDSHIPMEN Can
not MARRY
Secretary Meyer Forblds the Marriage
Of Young Naval Officers Until
They Finish Years
q seq
IS.
SHOULD : AIN WIVES
SHOULD : AIN WIVES
The Heart .'eakins Hardshlps the
Dear Young Things Have to
Endure as Wives Of Army
and Navy Officers.

WASHINGTON. June s.-secre.
tary Meyers recent order to the ca.
dets OF the naval academy forbiddine
them the joys Of matrimony until
they have had two years sea duty and
are in position to take to themselves
the troubles as well, is not the first
bit OF official advice that has been
uttered on this problem.
General Bell, chief Of STAFF Of the
army, has said repeatedly that the de.
partment wants no young married SOL
diers, and the aspiring second lieu.
tenants who come out OF West Point
with their commissions and the idea
that the world is at their feet are
usually taken aside by their grave and
elderly superior officers, who have
gone through hard fought domestic as
well as military campaigns, and told
that they should not be SO cocksure
OF their careers as to add wife to
their encumbrances without mature.
consideration of the trials and tribu-
lations such an acquisition involves.
But It Is not really the fault Of the
young officers. It's the latter day girls
who are to blame. From the military
point Of view the beautiful young
things who flutter so coyly about our
embryo admira1s and major generals
and cling SO demurely to the brawny
right arms of the middies and cadets
don't measure up to the requirements
OF an army or naval officers wife
General Elliott, who is in command
OF the marines, has an expressive way
lof putting it. "There isn't one mod
ern girl out Of hundred" he says,
who is fit to take up the duties of
military life."
They are very beautiful and charm
ing at commencements and balls and
teas, and they make perfectly entranc.
Ing brides at military wedding in an
environment of orange blossoms and
smilax and gold braid. But when the
young hero-husband is ordered to sea
/ for three years or sent to forlorn
post at the tail end of Mindenao in
the Philippines, the pretty things
collapse like Mary Garden hat in a
thunder shower. And If they don't
happen to have an experienced mater
nal bosom at hand to collapse upon
heavens knows what's to become of
them. AS a rule they cling to their
military better halves up to the mo-
ment the last launch puts out, and he
tears himself away ruthlessly because
orders is orders" and he has been
| bred up to this sort of thing.
The brief moment of triumph and
romance for the young military bride
is over. She comes back to face the
| problems of life alone. She begins
! to realize for the first time in her
happy career that the loathsome prac-
| tice of keeping an eye on the bank
balance is necessary constraint of
| married life. She has to mind the
pots and kettles or the cook will get
away with them, She has to squabble
with the landlord who takes advantage
of her ignorance.
If her husband is in the army she
may be obliged to live in officers
quarters where the chairs and book
cases are not whit better than Mrs
/ Jones' who was quite below her set
at home and whose pa was a green
1 grocer. Or she has to put up with
brown servants who speak Ta-
galog and defy her efforts to
make them cover their choco-
late colored bodies with the decent
4 habiliments of civilization.
Then the babies come and it's worse
than ever. There is the question of
IIubert's health. The climate doesn't
agree with him. II he survive the ill.,
\ ness of tropical childhood and attains
the age of educational susceptibility
what school is there to send him to?
Likely as not when the boy is in the
+ midst of the mumps, papa is ordered
off on an expedition of three months
4 where the tse flies are thickest,
and fever germs run riot And about
the time she gets the problem worked
out and has reconciled herself to
homemade gowns and the simple mil.
litary life. there comes an order from
Washington General Whats-his-
name always did dislike John, who is,
perhaps, first lieutenant by this
time--and the family is shunted back
to Arizona or Alaska.
& So it is easy to see that what is
needed is coed military school. a
| sort OF Annapolis or West Point sem