The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-02-02
STAY-AT-HOMES MUST SERVE AS
 OUR TROOPS DO
(BY Virginia Frazer BoYle)

Service has always been hard les son for humanity to learn. Perhaps, that was why the Son of Man silently girded Himself with a towel and wash ed the Disciples feet. He did it, just as the time, when those earstwhile fishermen and taxgathers were raising the question, as to who among them, would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. To the minimizing masses, the word conveys only the sugges- tion of humility; to the humanitarian, the truest test of christianity; to the lover of his country, the noblest sig nificance of patriotism.
 The military camps of the United States are swarming today, with our khaki-clad boys, eager to prove that patriotism. Some of them are now "Over There" behind the French and British lines ready to shed their blood ito give their lives, if need be, that liberty and freedom may still mean what they spell. But muffled in your furlined overcoat, bowling along in your high-power limousine, what are y isn't the other fellows war; it's your war-our war. Of course, your son is in camp, or will be in the next draft, or is already "Over There" Maybe he volunteered; but that isn't you! You haven't had any meatless or wheat less days, and your business, as usu- al," doubled since the boy has gone, isn't your helping to win the war. The boys glory will be his own. You can't wear it at secondhand; who ever heard of a secondhand glory crown? "Too old to serve?'' Not a bit. We have millions of khaki men for the front, but there are billions of sol- diers, without the khaki, at home whose service is needed to help win in this war. None are too old or too young to aid in bringing the victory. That old mother, up in Ohio, 9S years old, who has knitted 10 pairs of trench socks is wearing the uniform of the United States on the inside and answering roll call right. Those "girls of the sixties knitting and making | Red Cross pajamas down in the South are making the cause of liberty stronger every day. That 11-year-old
 
 his own flag over little table in a 1 bank lobby and sold over a million dollars worth of Liberty Bonds, did as much in his way to win as the man in the trenches. There's a patriot in a rolling chair in Home for Incur ables that you can take off your hat 1 to. He can only use a thumb of one hand and two fingers of the other, ye: he learned to knit hospital scrub, 1 and, with tears in his eyes, he thank ed God that he was able to do some thing for his country. Impertinent kind of talk is it? No; merely strong You needn't unlock your big safe and | take out those Liberty Bonds; even a | German knows they are a good in- vestment. And those cancelled checks for the Y. M. c. A. and the War Li- brary and the Red Cross and the am- balances in France and Italy you're able to show. They've called upon you pretty lively, haven't they? But | you've been calling on your country every day that you have lived. You called upon her to mother you when you were a boy. You called upon her, boastfully, when you first felt that you were man. You called upon her to protect you in your enterprises when you went into business. You called upon her resources to help you make your fortune, and you made it right here in this blessed land of free dom. Oh! it isn't enough that you can show a handful of canceled checks; that you have given one, two or even three boys to keep your mother country without blemish. You've got to give yourself-you've got to feel it on the inside. You've got to let it enter into your soul until the place is holy with the bigness of it. You've got to set it up next to your God and live it and be it until we have won this war for the liberty and the freedom of the nations!