Norwich bulletin., 1917-12-11
Views of the Vigilantes
TAKE CARE OF
YOUR DAUGHTER"
By Amelia Josephine Burr of The
 Vigiisntes.


 We hear, much about the moral neighborhood of a large camp. It is
 lnhappily- true. The purveyors and prac titioners of organized vice are on the alert for such opportunities. But that danger is not the greatest. Con scious and intentional lawiessness may be met and fought with the weapons of law; but there, is a sub tier and therefore a greater danger meet and more delicacy to combat, be- cause it is dealing with an evil which has its roots ln a virtue.
 A large camp was established near a New England city. Of course it be- came the central point of interest for a1l the neighborhood, and on visiting days the young girls of high school age f1ocked there with especial zest- such girls as one knows well, with the warm, selfish, ignorant, curious heart of youth beating high under the all- but -absent blouse and the eager jay ous young feet tottering in their gay silly shoes upon the eternal quest.
 One of tine girls, on. a summer evez ing alone, and summoned all her dar-
 "Aren't you awful lonesome?" she asked.
 Thank you. we should be if we
 pleasa ntly. "but we are usually to busy to think much about our feel ings."
 Don't you want to walk with me?'
 Are you going home? She nod They walked together to her home. she in great triumph at having se- cured so impressive an escort. When they reached the house, the officer ex- mother. What he had to say to them was very brief and was decided sur rrise to the girl. For Gods sake, take care of your daughter. I am trying to keep my boys straight-but girls like this make it dififcult.'
 A cruel saying? Yes, cruel as a surgeons knife. True? Yes, true as the etory itself-which ends here; ton exists, and we must face it. There are many boys in the army wel-schooled against open vice but defenceless against the most insidfous
 of temptations-the temptation that does. not advertise itself as one. Do you believe that child was for a moment guilty in thought when she spoke to the officer. though she used the street- girls formula? Try to get her side of the little drama that might so easily have been a tragedy-that so often has. The soldiers calling has always been invested with a glamour Of romance in feminipe eyes: and the
 
 ing ths horror and evil of war az never before has paradoxica1ly rather augI1nented than 1essened the ad- miratfen for the individual soldier. The mantle of the Crusader is upon 1inn--aaph of these boys in khaki is . young St. George, arrayed against the dragon in a supreme war against war. With cur minds resolutely fixed upon righteous anG enduring peace, today in America the soldier IS g hero more than ever before. What is more nat urai as a result thar heightened in- terest and @ generous desire to make the last days of our boys on tlfis soil as happy aS possible
 Youth is so sure of the integrity of It's oIn motives. so sure Of it own strength; and the youth of our day is so sure of it's own wisdom. Not with out excuse. Ignorance has no arnor so invincibie- as half-knowfedge. Our young girls, through a score of chan nels, know ali ths wickedness of the world by sight aiid by name. Tamil iarity has it's usual fruit of contempt uoes confidence, and added to all this conventions, and below the surface the more violent ai1 radical readjust- rnent of mind that is one of the most striking phenomena of our day. The German troops retreating from Arras blew up the main roads as. they went. to check the Allied pursuit. The British engineers blew up in their turn the houses that remained standing nears these craters, and with the de- bris filled in the new roadbed. This Is hardly an exaggerated figure for what has happened in so many minds that the experience may almost be reckoned universal It is a time oi wildering shift of long-established raiiiAs. nAsnitA tho fastian nf daer4