The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1917-07-23
Give the Boys a Cheer.
ny DOROTHY DIX,
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman
Writer.

how she can do her DIT In THIS Ter
riole war into which We nave oeen
plunged. Here Is one concrete thing
she can do. She can give tne men
VINO are going 70 the Aront . ~
Sne oAn ueoA 1ns ~. - -
49, ,-,1a.ttIa
sI
Pernaps u Is because tne sacflios ~
tnat ID asked OF tnem u % new az
strange ana unexpected mat ths Moi a.
en- OF Amerlca nave no. yet tISSn 70
the supreme neignt OF peing aDie 70
cheertuily oner UP that Mnch
dearer 70 tnem InAn NE itssh On 0iie
alter OF tneir country. Fnaps -
because women themselves hno suSn
comfort IN tears that theS can neNet
unoerstano now weeping "eoAehs
man
However, that may be. II Is q fact
that the wives and mothers who have
been able to turn . brave face on their
husbands apd sons who have started
forth on that fearsome journey 20
somewhere in France" have been
few and far between. Most OF the
men who have gone, and who are
about TO start to answer their coun-
try's call, are having to night a more
dangerous and demoralizing Zoe tnan
any they will ever confront In bat
tle-the despair and heartbreak OF the
dear women they are leaving behlno
them.
Thu ofncer In commend of one Of
the training camps declared the other
day that the hardest thing he had 10
contend against was the letters the
hoys got from home. These letters,
filled with dark forebodings for the
future and telling a man how he
was missed and about the vacant
chair at the table, and his empty room,
and how the baby cried for papa at
night, or how his old dog wandered
about the house like a restless ghost
looking for him, and how she wept
every time she saw his old hat on the
rack. and how she thought she would
ever do IL he never came back, and
how she could neither eat nor sleep
nor work nor do anything but think
Of the terrible things that might nap
pen to him-why." said the omcer;
"a letter like that, and It's the klho
OF letter that nine women out OF yen
write to their men In camP-Drea ne
a man all up 80 that ne no sooo ITr
hours after he gets II. IL conhPIeUeI'
destroys his morale.
The women who write these SOY
letters do 1t in all love anu UeLiuS
ness. and without q thougnt Oh thS
torture they are innictns on lnos. ms.
who are nerving themselves
they may, to face the horrors Oh lns
most terrible ordeal thar hurnal
beings have ever been caIeo upon
to endure. For our men are not solns
ignorantly. gaily' bllthey 10 uht
trenches. They know all that II mean means
of danger and death, ana they aLe
not answering the lure OF mao az
venture, but the trumpet call OF
solemn duty.
They need all the courage that theS
can possibly summon up. ana LOT Iht
women at home TO weaken TINS, vi
to add one feathers weight 10 tnell
burden, Is nothing snort OF cruelty
1t is a turning Of the knife IN sore
wound 1t is stab in the heart from
which a man bleeds white or reso'
luton and determination
How can a man go FORWARD "hen
his wife or his mother writes MIN
that every step he takes away IRON
her Is breaking her heart! "ha'
strength can he give to the grim
work he has IN hand when her every
letter is sodden with tears over ms
loss? What courage can he nave WIN
his mind filled with the picture she
paints for him Of his home draped In
mourning?
OF course the women who write
these doleful letters do not realize
the harm that they are doing' nor &c
they mean everything that they say
Nor II they were in the mems places
would they be as much depressed oy
the melancholy missives as the mer
are. Women are comforted py tears
and It consoles them to know tha'
they are wept over and so they are
never able TO understand that man
simply disintegrates under a woman
tears. and that they sap the last oil
OF courage that Is in him Therefore
when q woman writes a man that
she is weeping over his loss day and
night 1t is just an assurance Of her
love and tenderness-the highest trib'
ute she can pay him-and she doesn't
sense that she is tearing the heart
out Of his bosom and making him ut
terly miserable.
Women also like to be pitied and
they fnd a morbid pleasure in al
ways anticipating the worst that can
possibly happen. They know so little
of men, even of the men nearest to
them, that they do not realize that
every fibre of manhood in a mar
revolts at compassion. that men can
only struggle and achieve as long
as they have hope, and so the women
are Literally aiding the enemy and
defeating their own, when they pass
on their own gloomy forebodings tc
those who are gfrding themselves VI
to strike q great blow for the worlds
freedom,
Nobody undertakes the sacrifice Of
the woman who sends her husband
and son forth to war. No one mini.
ooizea bar suYario1s nor daDreciates