Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-10-03
THE ACTIONS AND REACTIONS OF
WAR.
BY DOROTHY DIX.
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman
Writer,

<(rV VEN war has its humors," said
the Woman Philosopher, land
- the way it affects the people
you know makes you want to laugh
| and cheer when it doesn't make you
want to hide your head and weep.
The call to arms brings out the best
andthe worst that is in humanity, as
hot poultice brings out the measels.
And the results certainly do give
you the surprise of your life. Men
and women before whom you have
been kowtoWing they we're so slosh.
ing over with noble, patriotic senti-
ments have taken to the cyclone eel.
lar and shut up like clans as soon
as they were called upon to back up
their words with a few sacrifices and
little fighting.
And other men and women, who
have never pipped about their feel.
ings about their country and who
couldn't sing two lines of the Star
Spangled Banner to save their lives,
have risen quietly up, put away their
own personal affairs and grabbed a
gun or put on a nurses uniform and
have gone out to do the work of saw
ing their native land.
Funny, isn't it, how in war some
give their all to their country, and
others hold up their country for all
they GIN get out OF it. and you never
can tell beforehand which is going to
do which. Some people cash in their
patriotism and get to be millionaires,
and other people, who we're nothing
but millionaires before the war. turn
out to be patriots. There's nothing
like war to give you the real number
of your friends and show you where
they get off.
Now, there's Mrs. Robinson. For
years and years have worshipped at
the woInan's shrine as at an altar OF
Perfect Patriotism. She is president
of a chapter of the D. A. RS, and a
Colonial Dame. and a charter member
of every patriotic society from Maine
to California, and they simply couldn't
hold a convention unlSss she was
present.
"I'll wager she hes been<on mil.
lion committees, more or less, to mark
the graves of evo'Itionary and civil
war heroes, and Tut up tablet5 to
show where great battles were fought
and historic marches made, and she's
scattered tons of flowers on Decora-
{: Day, and been q living reproach
to US slackers. who lave been so
busy with pre-ent day affairs we have
left the glorious past to look after
itself. .'..>. .... ..s
"Why. ! don't remember that ever
saw Mrs. Robinson when she didn't
have little American flag pinned
somewhere on her person, and just to
hear her discourse about MY COUN.
TRY was nothing short of a sacred
privilege. l never listened to her as
she talked with shining eyes and rapt
voice about the glory of being an
American citizen and the blessings of
being able to live in this land, of lib
erty. without getting chokey in the
throat and feeling like getting up and
waving the Stars and Stripes. Oh,
she was the Mrs. George Cohan, all
right.
"So,of course. when the president
called for soldiers to defend the coun-
try against Germany, naturally
thought that Mrs. Robinson would
be the first woman to set an inspir-
ing example by offering up her son
to fight fer freedom and his native
land. But nothing Of the kind hap
pened. Mrs. Robinson loved her coun-
try and gIorified in its freedom, and
she was perfectly willing to offer up
every other woman's son on the altar |
of her country but not her own. She
was wild with fear, until the draft |
was drawn, and her Sam escaped con.
scription.
alt would kill me- she said, to
think of my darling boy being in
those dreadful trenches and perhaps
getting manned or killed. Besides