The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1917-07-18
LEAVE SOLDIERS
ALONE, GLENN
ADVISES women
Chill Thrown on Social Eff
forts at Fort-Mushy Let
ters Received.

from West Virginia, Ohio. Kentucky
and Indiana, and soldiers at Fort Ben
jamin Harrison, near here, have been
given a more or less chilly reception
by the army officers in charge of the
camp, and Brig. Gen. Edwin F. Glenn,
in command Of the 1900 men at the
Fort In three words has told the WON.
en- what to do. He said, leave them
alone"
The advice was given to the women
at meeting held to discuss what to
do to entertain the candidates and sol
diers. Gen. Glenn was invited to give
suggestions. His advice was unex.
pected.
Gen. Glenn also has been conducting
for some time campaign to keep
young women and girls without chap.
erons from the camp.
Women Will Write.
Although the efforts of the com.
manding officers along that line have
met with some success, as yet no ways
have been devised to keep women and
girls from writing to the student of.
fires. Every day hundreds Of letters
are received by the young men from
women they never heard of before.
Most of the letters are of the so-called
romantic type, but occasionally one
of the different kind is received.
The objection to letter writing to
soldiers at the training camps, in the
opinion of the commanding officers,
is confined to missives from emotional,
sentimental women and girls and not
all OF the offenders against propriety
are young women.
Little or no objection is made to
clean wholesome letters devoid of SEN
timentality or reference to the per-
sonality of the writer and her wish
to meet the soldier recipient of the
letter.
The young women writer's evidently
do not know what the men do with
tie letters. One of the favorite pas
times of the candidates, and one which
provides them much amusement, is
reading the letters they consider es-
pecially soft" to their comrades, and
comparing them. Following are some
of the types of letters:
Saw Name in Newspaper.
Dear Mr. -: / saw your name
in newspaper and picked it out be-
cause liked 1t. We girls in this town
are so lonesome, and l do want to be
a real friend with some fine, big man
who is a soldier There aren't any
soldiers here. ! am 90 years old, five
feet, four inches tall and a brunette,
and my friends tell me am, at least,
not ugly. Are you married or en-
gagged? / am not. If you are, or if
you do not want to write to me, will
you give this letter to some other
man? / will send you my picture if
you write to me. Yours hopefully,
-"
The letter was from girl in small
Indiana town.
All of the letters, however, are not
from Indiana girls. Many come from
far distant states. How the names
of the students become known to the
writer's has been more or less of
mystery.
One letter received by one of the
young men from an unidentified writer
recently read:
Il love manly soldiers, I Just think
they are grand But we don't see
many here. Maybe sometime I could
come to Fort Harrison on a Sunday.
I've been told I look like-(naming a
well known motion picture star)-and
! got curls that come around my
shoulders. Are you tall? like either
blondes or brunettes. Do you? l am
blonde.
chum Is Writing Too.
II have girl chum that is writing
to another fellow -, maybe you
know him. Wouldn't it be nice if we
could all meet at FIT. Harrison some
Sunday? Are you going with any girl
steady? l am sending you small pic
A.,r~ 50 - L.,N 4
of me. Please write to me right away.
because / am so lonesome, and l want
some soldier to think of me when he
Is fighting for his country"
Some of the letters are of different
tone, and evidently are from girls of
refinemen and dignity. What candi-
dates call the romance stuff is lack
ing. One man at the camp has each
week been receiving a letter and a
pack of cigarettes. or some other little
gift from a girl in Texas. After the
first gift he wrote her telling her he
did not wish the gifts. She replied:
II am not sending them to you, Mr..
-, | am sending them to one of
Uncle Sans soldiers. 1t gives me
pleasure to do this, and / am sending
similar packs to one man in each of
the training camps. WQen the war is
over, or when you. for any reason,
take off your uniform, you will, in your
own proper person, receive no more
cigarettes from, -"
In speaking to women who have ask
ed him what can we do for the sol |
diers, Gen. Glenn said. MY answer is
here at home-let him alone. The |
American soldier when let alone, is !
the most peaceful and accomplishing
animal in the world You don't think
much of him in time of peace, but in |
time Of war you fall over yourselves |
to do something for him-you don't |
know what it is, but it is pretty certain |
to be bad for him.
Send Nothing to Eat.
1--we got 1900 of them out there |
at the camp-enlisted men and stu |
dent officers, as we'll as 5000 work
men. Please, please, don't send them
things to eat-they have all they want
We are doing the very best we can for
these boys. and we are going to give /
them. and your boys-the boys these
student officers will commando
sporting chance. and that is all any
body can ask"
49,