The Palatka news and advertiser., 1917-11-16
Woman and War


And yet our women. 81 could not love thee, dear
much loved not honor more" This, through all the
ages to our sons brothers, sweethears What ar
my would ever have been recruited what battle line formed
what campaign carried to its boodstaned ending if the
woman at home had refused the sacrifice?
What old Rebel of the COS but will tell you: 81 had
rather have faced Yankee bullets any day than the sco
of the girl left behind me. had no choice out to fight;
there chance for me to stay at home The women
would never have allowed 1t!
That fifty years ago, and marvellous and new Won
ders in the of humanites ours. And yet once
do thousands, Millions of women send out to the un-
speakabe harshps of march and siege and carnage their
sons their brothers, and their sweethearts
And further, it is a strange thing among the many
mysteries of this turmoil that shakes our solid earth,
that for the most part the who have protested Of
tene against sharing the burdens and the sorrows
of the giant strife not bound by the closest ties
the who the ones to go when the call to battle
We who have no sons to give stand helpless before the
anguish which cries out to its best beloved 81 would not
have you stay Fall If you must but let 1t be IN the 1ar
thest 'front.'
American women in London who watched the English
lads they marched wept with the pity OF It, They
oerared 1--WE give only tears for these boys but were we
home and these own boys, we would not let
them go We would throw ourselves before their march
ing feet would cling to them hold them, would not
let them 60 They arc the flower OF the land-t IS too
much to give.
needs defence and it is indeed boys who must
bone bone and flesh of eshthen do these
women like all the countless wives and mothers and sweet
hearts in all the countless wartimes gone before out
again the old hearbroen plea with shield or on it,
81 could not love thee, DEAR much loved not honor
more
When it is the men of other nations the sons of other
mothers who die for this ancient code of honor
feel torurng question as to the reasonabeness of the
sacrifice, but when the suffering and the sacrifice are our
the fine soul Of our martyrdom We give our
best all And what there. or has ever been,
that could long make Marches fight it's battles,
dure its wounds but for the whose whose
heartaches and whose brood like
mystic and unbelievable benedction? Women could put
end to for could not fight without their help,
but have tried to stop it. Mentally we loah and
hate it, but the scarlet thread of it's maryrdom is woven
into the fabric of souls To the child your breast
you the od-tme luabies co. hush baby, lie
still while may, for strife with manhood waking
WITH wit day 10 the chdren re at your Knee you teaen the
and siege And those big and boys and girls about
you you give the tales of whose words and deeds have
stirred the blood and fired the hearts of long centuries of
youthful zest and ardor.
the walls of Troy, Leonidas at Thermopyae,
Judas Maccabeus Horatus the BRIDGE King Arthur and
Roland Harold the Saxon Robert Bruce and the Black
Douglas Prince Hal at Agncourt DesaiX in Napoeons bat
tie front Nelson at Trafalgar and John Paul Jones on the
Bon Homme Richard Stuart with his battle song, and
Stonewa Jackson with the pfted hand of prayer these
and all the rest of the gallant deahless dauntess hero
list of them down to "Abert the Landless of
sad day. do love and honor and pass to hearts
to love and honor again. generation after generaon
after age
teach to love without honor to stand
aside and look when helpless humanity calls for aid
Through six thousand years, more, of upward
progress human beings have to the Age of Wo-
We have passed the stone the iron and the
gold have passed the dark the of rebrh the
of hero worship the of democratic awakenngs and
the age of inherited leadership We to the
Age of Woman and with the heady eagerness of
radships with men and of new liberties, falling
and then into eXaggeraons in both deeds and words For
thing being told and again that never
before has the world realized the desoaon that brings
to and and again being told too
that had the power they would put end to
These foolish sayings both of them Men have always
known that the chief sufferers by war; and
men suffering so, have cheered their into battle
throughout every that has racked the world since his
tory began.
Ideals" says Carlyle, "ever lie great way off" And
it may be that who by nature and instinct crea-
tive who chershes all things that stand for toll and labor
either of head heart hand knowing of her own pain
the sorrow and the travail OF creation and who is held
by love to spot that she calls home-it may be
that from its very remOeness its destructveness its ruth
less horrors she chooses the battlefield the heater of
her ideals For in spirit always and when God good to
her. in fact ALSO battlefield lies "a great way off"
Or it may be that because womans life whtever be
its visible abOrs at heart passionate living out of the
verb to be- she chooses the opposite ideal and worshps most
devouy the man of battle and Of the supreme ex
ponen of the verb to do what DONE what is doing
and what will be DONE" without the hndering dream of
kndshp of kindness is the soldiers perfect code of du
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