The Washington herald., 1917-09-24
Action and Reaction Of War.
By DOROTHY DIX.
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer

the woman philosopher. "and the
way II affects the people you know
makes you want to laugh and cheer
when 1t doesn't make you want to
hide your head and weep. The call
10 arms brings out the best and the
worst that is in humanity, as a hot
poultice brings out the measles.
And the results certainly do give
you the surprise OF your life. Men
and women before whom you have
been kowtowning-they were so slosh-
ing over with noble, patriotic senti-
ment-have taken to the cyclone
cellar and shut up like CLANS as soon
as they were called upon to back up
their words with a few sacrifices and
a little fighting.
"And other men and women, who
have never pipped about their feelings
about their country and who couldn't
sing two lines of the star-Spangled
Banner to save their lives. have risen
quietly up. put away their own per
sonal affairs and grabbed a gun OF put
on a nurses uniform and have gone
out to do the work Of saving their
native land.
Funny, isn't II, how in war some
give their all to their country, and
others hold up their country for all
they can get out of it. and you never
can tell beforehand which is going
to do which. Some people cash in
their patriotism and get TO be million
aires, and other people. who were
nothing but millionaires before the
war. turn out TO be patriots. There's
nothing like war TO give you the real
number of your friends and show you
where they get off.
Now there's Mrs. Robinson. For
years and years l have worshipped at
that woman's shrine as at an altar
OF Perfect Patriotism. She is presi-
dent of a chapter of the ID. A RS,
and a Colonial Dame. and a charter
member OF every patriotic society
from Maine to California, and they
simply couldn't hold a convention I'M
less she was present
"1'll wager she has been on a mill
Hon committees. more or less. to mark
The graves of Revolutionary and civil
war heroes. and put up tablets TO
show where great battles were fought
and historic marches made. and she's
scattered tons Of flowers on Decora-
ton Day, and been a living reproach
to US slackers who have been so busy
with present day affairs we have left
the glorious past to look after it.
self.
Why. I don't remember that ever
saw Mrs. Robinson when she didn't
have a little American flag pinned
somewhere on her person, and Just
TO hear her discourse about my coun-
try was nothing short Of a sacred
privilege. 1 never listened to her as
she talked with shining eyes and
rapt voice about the glory of being
an American citizen and the blessings
OF being able to live in this land of
liberty, without getting chokey in the
throat and feeling like getting up and
waving the Stars and Stripes. Oh, she
was the Mrs. George Cohan, all right.
so, of course, when the President
called for soldiers to defend the coun-
try against Germany, I naturally
thought that Mrs. Robinson would be
the first woman to set an inspiring
example by Offering up her son to
fight for freedom and his native land.
But nothing of the kind happened.
Mrs. Robinson loved her country and
gloried in its freedom, and she was
perfectly willing to offer up every
other woman's son on the altar OF her
country, but not her own. She was
wild with fear until the draft was
drawn. and her Sam escaped con-
scription-
at would kill me-" she said, to
think of my darling boy being in those
dreadful! trenches and perhaps getting
MANNED or killed. Besides he has
gotten a splendid situation now that
so many men in his office have gone
to the war and 1 don't want him to
give 1t up"
You have property" said to
her, "'you have beautiful tenderly-
reared young daughters. How would
You like to see everything you possess
in ruins as the Belgians have seen
their property? How would you like
your daughters to be treated as the
mothers in France have seen their
girls treated?'"
~ didn't raise my son to be sol
dier,'" she repeated, "and 1 am do
ing my bit. / roll bandages at the
Red Cross every day."
Yes" I said, "'you roll band
ages for some other woman's son
whom you expect to defend you and
yours"
"A little further down the street
met Ann Stebbins who was simply
drolling with joy because the exami-
ners had declared her son to be eX-
empt because he had a weak heart,
incipient Bright's disease and bad
I lungs.
Il sho uld think anybody that ba Ily
off would be as safe in a first-line
trench as anywhere else and that il
would have been a comfort to his
mother to have thought he died de-
/ Tending his country instead of merely
| helping out the undertaken. but she
didn't see it that way. She would
rather know he had seven deadly dis
eases than that he was exposed to a
| bullet.
That night little Mamie Jones came
| to see me. You know Mamie-a thin
cowed. scrawny little thing who has
| been stenographer to a big bullying
brute of an employer until she looks
as IL she was so scared she couldn't
say boo" to a goose. o course had
heard that Mamie had been married
| very suddenly to Bob Thomas-that
| she was one of those war brides who
would never have been brides at all II
big husky man hadn't been hunting