The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1917-12-15
Take Care of Your Daughter"

that danger is not the greatest. Con-
solous and intentional lawlessness may
bc met and fought with the weapons
OF law; but there is subtler and
therefore Il greater danger that re-
quires more imagination to meet and
more dclicacy to combat, because il
is dealing with an evil which has its
roots i'm virtue.
n large camp was established near
L New England city. OF course it be-
came the central point of interest for
ali the neighborhood, and on visiting
days the young girls of high school
age ilocked there with especial zest
such girls as one knows well, with
tie warm, selfish, ignorant, curious
heart of youth beating high under
the all-but-absent blouse and the
eager joyous young feet tottering in
their gay silly shoes upon the eternal
quest. one of the girls, on summer
evening, saw a handsome officer
standing alone, and summoned all her
daring.
Aren't you awfully lonesome ."
she asked.
THANK you, we would be if we had
time, no doubt" he answered, pleas.
antly, but we are usually too busy to
think much about our feelings"
Don't YOU want TO walk with me?"
Are you going home?" She nod
cd. Then 1 will take you there"
They walked together to her home,
she i'm great triumph at having secur-
cd so impressive an escort. When
they reached the house the officer ex-
pressed a wish to meet her father and
mother. What he had to say to them
was very brief and was a decided sur.
prise to the girl.
For Gods stake. take care of your
daughter. l am trying to keep my
boys straight-but girls like this make
il difficult"
~ cruel saying? Yes. cruel as II
surgeons knife. True? Yes. true rs
he story itself-which ends here;
10 not know the sequel. The cond,-
lion exists. and we must face it. There
are many boys in the army we'll
schooled against open vice, but de-
fenceless against the most insidious
Of temptations-the temptation that
does not advertise itself as one.
DO you believe that child was for
? moment guilty in thought when
she spoke to the officer, though she
lsed the street girls formula? Try to
set her side of the little drama that
might so easily have been tragedy
that so often has. The soldiers
calling has always been invested with
4 glamour of romance in femme eyes;
md the present world condition, while
exposing the horror and evil of war
as never before has paradoxically
rather augmented than lessened the
admiration for the individual soldier
The mantle of the Crusader is upon
of these boys in khaki is a
Young st. George, arrayed against the
dragon I'm a supreme war against war
With our minds resolutely fixed upon
righteous and enduring peace, today
In America the soldier is a hero more
than ever before. What is more nat
ural as q result than a heightened in
terest and a generous desire to mako
the last days of our boys on this soil
as happy as possible?
Youth is SO sure of the integrity ~
us own motives. so sure of it's ov,
S'rehgtn; and the youth of our day
is so sure of its own wisdom. Not
without excuse. Ignorance has no ar.
NOR SO invincible as half-knowledge.
our young girls, through a score of
channels, know all the wickedness of
the world by sight and by name T.,
miii&rity has its usual fruit of CON
temptuous confidence, and added 20
all this is, outwardly, the relaxing of
former conventions, and below tbo
surface, the more violent and radico,
1eadjustment of mind that is ono ~
the most striking phenomena Of o,,.
day.
The German troops retreating from,
.Nrras blew up the main roads as thev
went, to check the allied pursuit. Tbo
British engineers blew up i'm thei,
turn the houses that remained stand
ing near these cratcrs, and with the
debris filed i'm the new roadbed. This
j." hardly an exaggerated figure for
what has happened in so many mind.
that the experience may almost -
reckonod universal. 1t is a time of
destruction upon destruction, of a be-
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