The Washington herald., 1917-10-22
WRITE TO MOTHER
BY DOROTHY.
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.

The officers with our army some
where in France" and those in charge
Of the various training camps in this
country, report that they are flooded
with anxious and pathetic letters
from mothers asking what had be-
| come of their sons and begging them
| to please tell my boy to write to
me-"
1t is a pitiful little side light on
| war-and life-isn't it The young
| who forgot-the old who remember.
The young who go marching away
to a new existence, full OF new sights,
and sounds; new experiences, new
duties; new acquaintances; every
minute brimming over with new in
| terests and thoughts and expectations,
so that in a few days, almost, the
! old life lies behind them, dim and
| far away as a dream.
But the old mother sits Mt home
with nothing new to distract her
| thoughts except the new sorrow of
being parted from her boy and her
fears of the dread unknown into
| which he is going She cannot touch
that even with her ina Sination, and
| so she longs with a poignancy of
yearning, Of which the boy cannot
| even conceive, for some word from
him that will tell her # his daily
life-how his time is spent. what he
has to eat. IL he remembers to tuck
his blankets in at night the way she
| always tucked them.
So she waits day after day, hoping
| watching, waiting for the letter that
never comes. Each passing of the
| postman Is a tragedy that blurs the
! patient old eyes with tears. For this
| Is the tragedy of motherhood-that
children can forget their mothers
but mothers never forget their chill
dreR
The officers are doing all that they
| can to induce the soldiers boys to
write home letters. Perhaps their
efforts are not any too successful.
for here We strike upon the strange
\ and inexplicabIe vagary of the mas
| culine temperament that makes the
| average man hate ink as the devil is
said TO hate holy water.
And especially does he hate pen and
ink and IT applies to the members of
his own family. The very thought of
| inditing letter to those of his own
household brings on a case of total
| pen paralysis. so that it is a common
thing for brothers not even to Cor
respond.
Worse still ther are many men who
| never even write to their mothers.
They keep up a cold, vague and fiabby
| communication with her through their
wives. or through their children. Per-
hays IL they consider themselves good
sons. they send the old lady a little
check at Christmas or on her BIRTH
| day. with a few formal lines that
they dictate to their stenographers.
But they never sit down and take
pen In hand and write their mothers
long, intimate. personal letters, telling
her all the dear details of their lives
that she would like to know, or saying
| to her the words OF love and ap-
probation that would be honey on her
| lips as she read them. As for writ
ing. they would be appalled, at the
| very thought Of SUCH thing.
They have never written to mother
When they left home when they were
boys and came to the city TO seek
their fortunes they were too much
glamoured with the stir and hustle
| and bright lights at first to write O
her. Then during the years in which
they were struggling they had Won
success SO many new interests en-
crossed their attention that they had
ceased to even think about writing TO
her.
None of these men are Intentionally
selfish or deliberately cruel. Not one
OF them would torture his mother or
darken her life with sorrow and
anxiety by an overt act of his.
Yet that Is exactly what his silence
does. 1t is a stab in the heart as
deep as the black hand of ingrati-
tude and neglect can thrust. II is
the ceaseless gnawing at her mother
love of thousand needless anxieties
that a letter would have slain.
The average mothers world Is