The Washington herald., 1918-02-11

Viewed from any sane and practical
standpoint, II is rash and reckless
thing for a young man to get married
on the eve OF starting to war.
Unfortunately, however. Cupid has
never taken counsel with Solomon.
nor has the mere fact that a mar
riage is inadvisable prevented its TAX
ing place, and at the present moment
it Is a matrimonial condition and not
theory with which We have to
reckon.
An epidemic OF marrying has swept
through our training camps that has
proved fatal to thousands upon thous-
ands of our soldiers who are sailing
away to somewhere in France to the
tune Of THE Bride I Left Behind
Me-"
No use to argue now about the wis
dom or the folly of these marriages.
No use to say that most of them were
the result OF a passing sentimentality
engendered by the thought of leaving
home and friends on the boys part,
and a mixture OF patriotism, vanity.
romance and brass buttons on the
girls part. The thing Is done. There
are the boys gone overseas to fight for
us. And here are the lonely little
brides, and what are we going TO do
about it?
This war has a cusious way Of max
| ing all of US think of things We never
| thought of before. and do things that
we never did before, and above all.
! II has made us realize that we can't
escape our duty to our fellow Great
ures, and that we are all our broth
ers' and our sisters keepers.
Ordinarily we might say it's no af-
fair Of ours what becomes of Jim
Johnson's little young wife II Jim
Johnson is foolhardy enough to marry
mere child and go off and leave
her. But when Private James John
son, U. s. A, is risking his life on a
blood drenched battlefield to keep our
own daughters safe from the fate of
the girls Of Belgium and Flanders, II
makes a very great difference to
everyone OF us what happens to lit
tie Mrs. James Johnson in her hus-
bands absence.
She becomes our duty, She becomcs
our ward. 1t is Just as much up to
US to chaperon her. and to keep her
happy and safe as II she were our
| own little girl.
Never were women placed in more
trying positions than these war brides.
Practically. all of them are very
young. Most of them are mere chill
drtn, girls in their teens who in the
ordinary course OF events would not
have married for four or five years.
War has suddenly pitchforked them
into matrimony for few days or
weeks, and then pitchforked them out
again, leaving them neither maids,
wives nor widows
Or, IL they are wives, they are
wives in name only, as Bertha Clay
used to say, with no husbands about
to protect and entertain them, and
no wifely duties to fill up their time.
| At first the little war brides is suf-
ficiently occupied with the novelty of
her position, and with preening her
self in q pathedcally romantic pose
before her. friends, and weeping into
her new embroidered pocket handker-
chiefs.
But the pedestal stuff makes small
appeal to the normal American girl.
It's uncomfortable and slippery, and
she soon slides from II. Nor can she
continue to shed tears over a man
who Is hale and husky. and who writes
back that he Is having the bulliest
time ever, and wouldn't have missed
it for a billion dollars.
So the little war bride finds her
self a woman without a social coup-
try, so to speak. She hasn't a griey-
ance as has the deserted wife. She
hasn't a broken heart as has the
widow She hasn't a husband as a
companion as has the ordinary mar
ried woman. She has the disadvan-
tage Of both the married and the sin
gle estate. and the advantage of
neither.
And she's young. Youth, thank
God, Is the time when we hope for
the best. and believe that the best Il
bound to come to uss. Experince has