The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1918-05-10
LETTER IN the
MORNING mail.
How hrs. Lane Finally Realized
That Thousands of Other
Mothers Sons Are at War
Scared Battle Front.
BY MAMMALIAN FOSTER
OF the vigilantes.

n or the Vigilantes.
Mathematics teach us that / from I
leaves nothing. and there is also the
well known biological theorem that
you cannot get blood from turnip.
1t is also assumed, Sir Isaac Newton
having demonstrated the law, that
what goes up is bound to come down,
but this Is only abstract. Mrs. Lane
probably would have denied it.
The fiat rent, previously $1,000 a
year, now was 81, 400, and 1t showed no
signs whatever Of coming down. The
same condition applied also to her
children's shoes. The shoes now cost
81, whereas they formerly had cost "a.
But this was merely detail. A SINH
lar phenomenon occurred as to beef.
steaks. potatoes, butter, fish and the
o. other varieties of domestic essen.
tials. All had gone up; none had
come down. About the only thing sta.
BILE In Mrs. Lanes cosmos was Mr..
Lanes yearly income. This was $1,000
a year. Already Mrs Lane had given
up one maid. The war literally was at
her door. True, Mrs. Lane had no son,
no brother-no kin Of any kind-in the
war, but the war still was at her door.
Hard to Make Ends Meet.
Give money for the war? What do
you think she was doing, anyway?
She was giving every cent she had,
trying to make both ends meet in her
household. 1t hurt, though. Mrs.
Lane was a kindly, warm hearted wo-
man, and she would have liked to give.
The war was dreadful 1t was so
dreadful she'd stopped reading about 1t.
But one must read letters. One
must do that when a friend takes the
trouble to write them.
The letter came in the morning mail.
Mrs. Lane read it, then she read 1t
again. Afterward she sat there abb
sorbed silent, rigid. The color had crept
out of her face, and her breath came
swiftly from between her parted lips.
II haze Just come back from the
>. cdnteen," 1t read. "Such an after
noon! trainload of seriously
BOUNDED to be fed at once, tohicb
Is trying, as one has to climb into
all the carriages, one after the 9th
er. We begin toith the men ioh0
are peH enough to sit up and han
Z die their cups, and those toho are
too III eren to lift their heads, of
, course, zoe haze to lift and feed
! ourselves. Feeding the ones toith
: bad face acOunds are the hardest.
Z can stand ordinary Wounds of
4 blood, but tohen man ought to
} ussI ill Ia
has is-u0hl-it takes all your
, courage to get through a feeding.
/ managed to get half pint of
milk and beaten egg and some
Z brandy doton the throat of a boy of
+, ttoenty t1h0 had no mouth left, and
/ 1 had to clean II bettceen eUery
m0uthful. He had had no food for
: fifteen hours and toas so thirsty
9, that he .oas nearly ins0ne. ! held
all the time, but Just Kept think
ing, Suppose 1t s1ds my boy tUho
needed drink and there tUds no
one to Oire u to him So I t1ent
through scfth II, and he finally ioent
to sleep. oh, Martha, Mdrfh0 Lane,
zoe need eperythin0-dH you and
the rest can send"
/. II Lawrence Had Gone to War.
One o'clock struck. Mrs. Lane still
sat with the letter clutched In her
hand. whats for dinner?" asked Han
nah, the maid. Mrs. Lane hardly heard
her. She was still sitting there when
Olivia foundered In. Olivia was four.
teen, the conscious age. "Mother," she
said fretfully, 81 can't 60 to dancing
school again in brown gloves when all
the other girls have white ones" The
plant reminded Mrs. Lane that Law
renee at boarding school had written
that morning about his socks. He had
only two pairs Of silk ones left "And,
mother" said Olivia, continuing But
what Olivia said Mrs. Lane didn't hear.
She had dropped her head on the table
and unaccountably was weeping. Just
suppose II was my boy-minel" she
was sobbing.
"Why, mother !" calculated Olivia.
She hurried toward her mother.
"What Is 1t, mother? You're acting just
as though Lawrence had gone to war;
Mrs. Lane looked up. the tears
streaking down her face.
"That's just what Is the matter with
mel should be acting as II Lawrence
were there. And so should you'll II
Willie were like these, the boys there"
she pointed to the letter that had slip
ned from her lap to the fioor-"if he
were, like them, in need. dying, want
ing eggs. milk, brandy. to keep him
alive, would you be buying white
xIoves7. And would we think what other
people wear or how they live or wheth-
er we had only one servant now7 II my
boy was over there. II my son were
But other women's sons are over
there. Mrs Lane had at last realized
this. The tears were rolling down her
cheeks.