The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-10-03
SO Many Men Of England VIII DO
Killed In This War That
Women Will Pre-
dominate.
PoLYGAMY is NO JOKE
iGirls Used to Speak Of It In Fun,
But tho Topic Is Now Being
Considered Most
Seriously.
BY William G. Shepherd, United

by William G. Shepherd, United
PRESS STAFF Correspondent
London. Sept. 1. (By mail)-"It
won't be very comfortable for bach
elor in Eangland after the war. will
lit?"
Here are all the women Of England,
speaking. 1t is the voice of gentle.
pretty little London manicYrist, but
under her Japanesy couture is busy
little brain that is constantly muffins
over the big questions of the war.
You say 1t won't be comfortable for
bachelors. as matter OF fact, it real
ly won't. You answer her seriously
because there's no more nonsense
about her than there is about any 9th
Ter English person in these war days;
Ishe's talking very seriously.
You know there weren't enoug 1
men to go around in England, even
before the war. A girl was awfully
lucky, even then, to be engaged. Bu.
II don't know what it will be like after
the war;
Poor men"
why poor?"
well. there won't be any more love.
then. Suppose chap loves only one
girl and then along comes the govern
lment and makes him marry one or
two more?"
This is all serious, remember. Wiser
and grander ladies than this gentle IL.
tie person who Is polishing your nails
lspeak as seriously OF the possibilities
Of polygamy, as she does. 1t Is no
longer a joke In England
| But would the girls marry him, II
| he already had one wife he loved"
We'll, England must 60 on, you
know. I know lots Of girls who have
lost their sweethearts. They haven't
any chance Of being married--now.
And England will die, II Englishmen
aren't born. Why, there must be
thousands Of girls in England today
who were engaged a year ago and
were getting ready to start homes and
who know now that they will never
be married"
do the girls you know talk about
lpolygamy?"
"They used to Joke about It. They
don't even do that. now. They say 1t
might become an English girls duty,
just like fighting is duty for an Eng.
lish boy A girl couldn't be happy,
married that way. We know that.
well enough. But neither are the chaps
who are fighting. happy. You can't
be happy in war times, can your"
you know, they're wonderful, our
boys" she says suddenly with a bright
smile. as If determined to find ray
Of brightness somewhere in the war
fog. ''T belong to a girls bicycle club
and last Saturday we gave a little
picnic for some of the soldiers from
a hospital. Oh, we did have a good
time"
II suppose they told you lots of
things about the fighting"
"Oh, not word. They never talk
about It. They don't like to, you
know. And we girls never mention 1t
It's taboo And still we did SO want
to hear about It!
There was one Irishman who start
ed to tell a war story but the other
chaps all sat on him and made him
stop Oh. It was FUN" t
Have any Of your relatives been
hurt?'
II have got a brother in the OAR
danelles and we watch the paper every
morning to gee whether he's been
hurt. But nothing has happened to
him yet And Cnere's an awfnlly un-
hapPJ tuiiS hopPonnH IA A&s So'"
home. He's been wounded and sent
home three times. His mother nurses
him and gets him all well and whole
again and then the army takes him
away from her back to the front. It's
awful, you know, for his mother to
patch him up and get him back to his
feet and then see him start off again
to be wounded or killed. Why, 1t
isn't one-tenth as hard for him as 1t
is for his mother and for US women.
His mother never says anything
about it to him, but the last time he
came home hurt; she said to me. L
wish he'd stay just little weak, 81
II could keep him here with me-
But he always wants to go back
again-how long do you think the war
will last?"