The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1918-05-24
LETTER III the
MORNING MAIL.
How Mrs. Lane finally Realized
That thousands of Other
Mothers Sons Are at War
Scared Battle Front.
BY MAMMALIAN FOSTER
OF the Vigilantes.

leafeS nothing, anu thefe is also the
| well known biological theOrem that
you cannot get blood from a turnip.
Ii 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 1t.
The flat rent, previously $1,000
year, now was $1,4O0, and it 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 81.
But this was merely detail. A SINH.
lar phenomenon occurred as to beef.
steaks potatoes, butter. fish and the
81 other varieties of domestic essen
tails. All had gone up; none had
come down. About the only thing sta.
Bile in Mrs. Lanes cosmos was MIR.
| Lanes yearly income This was ST 900
a year. Already Mrs Lane had given
up one maid. The war literally was at
| her door. True, Mrs Lane had no son,
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 it.
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.
again. Afterward she sat there NIB.
sorbed, silent, rigid. The color had crept
out of her face, and her breath came
swiftly from between her parted lips.
III haze Just come back from the
cGsateen." 1t read. "Such an after
nOoni A trGialodd OF seriously
s0Ounded to be jed at once, tchich
10 trying, as one has to climb into
all the carriages, one after the 9TH
er. We begin scith the men BhO
are soeU enough to SIT up and hG,s-
die their cups, and those Wh0 ure
too i'll eUen to Hft~theiy heads, of
course, zoe haze to Mft and feed
oursetvcs. Feeding the ones With
bad face aoOundS are the hardest.
l can stand ordinary ,ooumds of
blood, but t1hen man ought to
1 haze nose and mouth and all he
has ts-ughi-it takes all your
courage to get through a feeding,
managed to get half pint of
milk and beaten egg and some
brandy doaon the throat of q boy of
ttoenty soho had no mouth left, and
had to clean 1t betaoeen every
ns0WthfaI. He had had no food for
fifteen hours and pGs 80 thirsty
that he t0ds nearly insane. ! he'll
his head against me, and I gagged
all the time, but Just Kept think
ing, Suppose it WGs my ~ Who
needed O drink and there tOaS no
one to 0iUe 1t to him. SO tccnt
through soith 1t, and he finally ,oent
to sleep. Oh, Martha, Martha Lane.
zoe need everythim0-ou yo~ and
the rest can send"
II Lawrence Had Gone to War.
One O'Clock struck Mrs Lane still
sat with the letter clutchcd in her
hand whats for dinner?" asked Ham
nah, the maid. Mrs. Lane hardly heard
her. She was still sitting there when
Olivia fioundered in. Olivia was four.
teen. the conscious age. Mother" she
said fretfully, II can't go 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 1t was my boy-mine p she
was sohbing.
"Why, mother" calculated Olivia.
She hurried toward her mother.
"What is 1t, mother2 You're acting just
as though Lawrence had gone to war |"
Mrs. Lane looked up, the tears
streaking down her face
"Fhat's just what Is the matter with
mel should be acting as If Lawrence
were there. And so should you'll If
Willie were like these, the boys there"
she pointed to the letter that had slip
ped from her lap to the flOor-"if no
were, like them. In need. dying, want
ing eggs, milk, brandy, to keep him
alive, would you be buying white
gloves? And would we think what other
people wear or how they live or wheth-
err we had only one servant now? If my
boy was over there. If 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