The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1917-03-23

must bully someone when he himself
Is subject to wife. All the week the
farmer talked to his horse and tried
to turn deaf ear to his wife; on
Sundays he acted as the cures right
hand man In church and found con,
ISOLATION for many things In the i'm
portance Of his Office. But since the
war, common anxiety has drawn the
farmer and his wife closer together
Their only son Is In the trenches an0
his letters are his parents daily
solance. Every night the farmer reads
the last one aloud to his wife, who, on
chair overrun by her ample proper
tons, listens with fearful eyes, while
near her hangs the little farm servant,
girl Of fourteen, soft-eyed and slen
der, with old-fashioned turns Of speech
gathered from her elders, and sever
brothers called to the colors.
Memories Of the Aged.
Every household has Its load OF
sorrow and anxiety, lightened or
dulled by the daily routine Of hard
work which life demands from those
who have not been called on to fight.
The children are being clothed and
fed and educated as in normal times !;
the old men and women have grown
retrospective and talk often Of rannee
terrible, 46 years ago, when they had
the Germans In the village. Ten of
them were billeted with the old wood
mans wife. She made bread for them
and they said 1t was the best they
had ever eaten. The memory Of 1t
makes the old woman chuckle, but her
daughter-in-law, whose home is In the
Invaded districts, grinds her teeth and
declares that no power on earth would
persuade her to make bread for the
Germans.
The hero of the village is the last
man home on leave, and the hand Of
the White House president Is not more
ardently asked for on his accession to
office than Is that Of the permission
aire" when he returns to his native
village. His stained tunic, his medals,
the trench trophies he brings, and his
personal opinion as to when the war
Is going to end, are oil Of thrilling in
terest to the village people, and his
way down the village street Is slow,
triumphant parade. His family wear
his reflected glory with more obvious
pride than he himself wears the orig
inal thing. for he Is modest man.
They are all people Of humble sta
ton in this particular village, with 4
maire chosen from their midst, a
schoolmaster Of strong republican
sentiments, and cure who Is satisfied
to do that which his hand findeth to do
and leave the rest with higher pow
ers. There Is no hospital for wound
ed. no relief work OF any kind, and an
extraordinary aloofness from the rest
lessness Of war marks the entire neigh
borhoOd. Yet war means to each one
OF these village people personal
sacrifice. Beyond that 1t does not
mean very much. The enemy, the al
lies, the refugees, are the things they
read about in the daily paper when
they read at all. Life to them is al.
ways laborious, for they work to savc,
not to spend. and the stocking" is
only emptied in the national cause
when the call Is for loan.
To keep things going" Is French
characteristic of great value, espe-
cially among the people" and their
practical common sense keeps them
from worrying about the far horizons.
Their resourcefulness under difficult
conditions is beyond all praise. Moth
ing is wasted. and substitutes for al
most everything seem to be forthcom-
ing. Oxen snd mules are used on the
land where horses are not to be had,
homemade tools. homemade clothes,
homemade food and homemade medi-
cfnes help to save a penny here a
penny there. Sometimes the work may
suffer from their primitive way Of
dealing with 1t, and IL wider, more up
to-date efforts were made the results
would probably be more satisfactory
economically.