New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-19

! When | lived at the front the thought of
! life behind the lines" seemed dull There
would be no guns, no aeroplane fights or
! fghts TO watch.
! But choose a chance spot on the south coas;
hof, ENGLAND, The sun is hltering through
] shower-clouds in quite ordinary way into
this ordinary little street Of ours. The sand
/ crunches on bricks beneath the feet of a
/ passerby, just as sand always crunches when
il is there to crunch. II is warm enough TO
have windows open so that the persistent
drummer on-the piano can be heard her bass
more monotonous and as unchanginS as tt
! Sioux m-tom, always the same bass, key
/ rote and tonic chord, to any variety Of trebles
: but don't think because all this is so, just
( like a hundred other streets, that you have
this street for you haven't. You can't get
this street on one look any more than you
can win an Englishman on one visit.
/ | grant you we look all alike; we are just
I two rows of small gray cement houses staring
at each other, side walls clapped together
I tight. clusters Of chimney-pots marking roof
divisions, and low cement walls with hedges
ncosing a postage stamp square of front
garden at each entrance all the same except
for the lifted eyebrow expression Of the
three-story houses for US with two stories.
/ The meagre trees arc inclosed in iron trellis-
protectors and the windows are hung in con-
ventiona long starched coarse lace curtains
an abominaton they are, germ collectors and
uglyl. But that isn't our street either That
is only surface We are without beauty. but
we are as various as jewel We are Swift
: erland. East Side New York, coast Of France,
convent. onal England and work-a-day pro-
vincial England, and the East, in one We
are humor, pride, bitterness, poverty, spright-
| illness and a song.
With Husband at the Front
Ny neighbor on the right is an able woman.
Her husband is at the front, Of course. She
washes, scrubs, cleans and runs her young
daughter with amazing energy. The child
goes to school and practisos on the piano a
Turkish Patrol, "The Soldiers Chorus, -
Drink to Ne Only" Coming Through the
Rye" and God Save the King" This often
takes place while we are at breakfast can
hear the mother call, Now, Grille, do that
over again or -ou shall not go out to play"
So over goes the little tune, same speed, same
halt and hitch in the same measure until az
last "God Save the King" pumps in and out
and Girie IS off to play. like her mother.
Probably because she can do the necessary
things of life so ably, and because she does
them SO well she always has leisure time.
And like her neat look and her good taste
in dress We talk over ne back garden wall
sometimes and she advises ne how and when
to plant vegetables or gives hint at her
loneliness and her impotence with the war.
Then she turns to planting or rug-shaking.
Ny neghbor on the left has had her only
son invaded home and discharged from the
army. She is small and has been very pretty.
But took tiny dislike to her because sue
seemed harassed and furtive, not much like
the American slap-you-on-the-back manner,
and | misjudsed her Then enc day we had
TO speak because OF our kittens fussing, and
suddenly | found her 10 be radical, be-
lever in the woman's movement, the labor
movement. and. more interesting still. to have
rich background or the East with fluent
| Hindustani and memories c!ose-packed from
twenty-five years in India. Her father WAS
gifted lri5hman and she has the Irish love Of
talk and mixlngi,but her husband ia an Eng
lishman Of the Old school. He is conven-
| tonal, conservative (will allow no radical
papers in the house,. stern, and has his own
way about most things. That accounts. Of
course, for my first impression of her. but It
was not the real woman. She Is intelligent,