The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1917-12-20

menace to a community caused by the
neighborhood of a large camp. 1t is
u~nhappily true. The %purveyors and
practitioners of organized vice are
on the alert for such opportunities.
But that danger is not the greatest.
Conscious and intentional lawlessness
may be met and fought with the weap-
ons OF law but there is a subtler and
therefore a greater danger that re-
quires more imagination to meet and
more delicacy to combat, because il
is dealing with an evil which has its
roots in a virtue.
A large camp was eSta liShed near
a New England city. OF course, it
became the central point of interest
fer all the neighborhood, and on visit
ing days the young girls Of high school
age focked 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
joyous young feet tottering in their
gay silly shoes upon the eternal
quest. one of the girls. on a summer
evening, saw a handsome officer stand
ing alone and summoned all her dar-
ing.
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 III feelings"
Don't you want to walk with me?'
Are you going home?" She nod
ded. Then | will take you there"
They walked together to her home,
she in great triumph at having secured
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 a decided sur
prise to the girl.
For Gods sake, take care of your
daughter. ! am trying to keep my
boys straight-but girls like this make
it difficult"
A cruel saying? Yes, cruel as a
surgeons knife. True? Yes, true as
the story itself, which ends here; |
do not know the sequel. The condi-
ton exists, and We must face it.
There are many boys in the army well
schooled against open vice. but de-
fenseless against the most insidious of
temptations-the temptation that does
not advertise itself as one.
Do you believe that child for a mo-
ment 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
50 easily have been a tragedy-that
so often has. The soldiers calling has
always been invested with a glamour
of omance in feminine eyes; and the
present world condition, while expos
ing the horror and evil of war as
never before, has p~aradoxically rath-
er augmented than lessened the admi-
ration for the individual soldier. The
mantle of the crusader is upon him
each of these boys in khaki is a young
st. George, arrayed against the dragon
in a supreme wal against war. With
our minds resolutely fixed upon right
eousness and enduring peace, today in
America the soldier is a hero more
than ever before. What is more nat
ural as a result than a heightened in
terest and a generous desire to max
the last days of our boys on this soil
as happy as possible?
Youth is SO sure of the integrity of
strength; and the youth Of our day
is so sure OF its own wisdom. Not
without excuse. Ignorance has no
armor 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. Fa-
miliarity has its usual fruit of con
temptuous confidence, and added to
all this is, outwardly, the relaxing Of
former conventions, and below the
surface the more violent and radical
readjustment of mind hat is one of
the most striking phenomena of our
day.
The German troops r%etreating 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 stand
ing neal these c~raters, and with the
debris 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. 1t is a time of
destruction upon destruction, of a be