The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1918-02-26
NORDS OF CHEER FORM S0LD} -K
TO HIS lDTkER AT HOME.

the boys who have gone to the AMY
have gone with good cheer and q
hopeful spirit. An@ehar the good
cheer ab;des with them. No natural
mother can .& her boy go without "a "a
| zee. my o. saWness. and a wish that it
was not necessary. The mothers,
God bless them, are braver than some
! of the rest of us, and are bearing anu
will continue to bear the hardshlps
of war with more courage than the
men,. 1t has always been so. And
when they see their boys march away
it is with the feeling of the mother
of the Gracchi, with your shield or
on it, And yet no one but mother
can know the pang tLat touches the
heart beneath the words.
We were permitted to read letter
the other day from brave boy now
in camp, to his mother, and 1t is 50
full of the right spirit and of good
cheer for his mother that we thought
maybe a few extracts from it might
cheer some other mothers heart who
also has a boy there, or somewhere
in France, and it might also strength
en- some other boy who is there and
does not see it exactly as this young
man. .",l !
Lieutenant Ebert J. Dickert who
went to training camp and is az
present stationed at Ft. MouitrIe
awaiting orders to go over seas,
writes a very helpful letter to his
mother They have been in quaran-
tin down there and had just gotten
out. He says he does not go over
to Charleston very often, and had
nothing specially calling him there
the other day, when quarantine was
lifted, hut he went. "You see," he
writes, "I couldn't realize that the
quarantine was lifted and that [
could go until / went once There
were only two cases of meningitis tt
develop at the camp, he writes, ane
both of them proved fatal.
But the point in the letter which
we especially wanted to quote refers
to another matter. It refers to the
comfort which it must have given his
mother, and in some measure recon-
cile her to the sacrifice which she is
making for the good of humanity.
Speaking of himself, Lieutenant Dick
ert says:
I'm perfectly we'll and as fat as
ever, if not little fatter | weighed
1T pounds yesterday, and know
that's the most ever weighed. You
shouldn't worry about me, mamma,
I'm man now and no longer boy.
Of course, I want you to think of me,
and l would feel terribly bad if
thought you didn't miss me, but re-
member. you are as brave as l am
to make a sacrifice for right, justice.
humanity, and democracy. There's
no argument to it-were right, and
man who won't fight when he knows
he is right is no man-he's nothing
short of coward--a slacker-un-
worthy of the space he occupies.
When the high and noble principles
of justice, humanity, and democracy
are at stake, surely you won't be
satisfied to have the people the
world-to point at your boy with a
finger of ridicule and absolute dis
gust and hatred and brand him a
coward, Stacker, unworthy OF the
space he occupies. If such were the
case. would want you to be ashamed
of ME, as you are now proud. AS
it is. you can look the world in the
the face with million other mothers
in pride that you are doing your bit
in furnishing son for a worthy
cause-a son who would by. far
rather die noble death for his coun-
try and the cause for which he in
tends to fight, than, to bring one bit
of shame or disrespect to his mother
and father-the family from whence
be came
'1Be optimistic, look on the bright
side of things. mamma" I'm coming
back. and then--won't you be proud
that l went?"
Sure, she will be proud that you
went, and let US all hope that You
may not be disappointed, and that you
may come back to US. We are all
proud now and will be proud then.
But there is one thing that boys
some boys-foreet, and that is they
may be men now, but to that mother
and that old father they are Still boys
and always will be boys. And it is