New Britain herald., 1918-02-23


 it will be all right. These are the letters that are oftenest re-read by the soldier before he goes over the top, just comm onp place letters that tell of everyday happenings back home, and of the love and the trust that are in keeping for him there.
 Don't Blur Letters With Tears.
 Certain other types of letter ought never to be sent to the men at the front One is that written by the selfish or thoughtlesS woman whose closely written pages are blurred With her tears, and taken up with her own sorrow in having her soldier so far from home, and her plea for him to come back at once, since everything is going wrong without him. One of the Young Mems Christian Associa- ton secretaries in France tells of promising young chap who came back from leave with every appearance of having been drinking heavily.
 You sce," the young soldier told the Young Mems Christian Associa4- ton man, 1T got a letter from my mother. and she was so worried about my going wrong over here, and so sure that I had inherited alcoholic tendencies from my father that I got desperately blue, and went on spree to forget all about it.''
 Moral Conditions Arc Good.
 Moral conditions in the army are 8 great deal better than is comm only reported; Captain Pearson said No mother. he thought, needed to wor- ry more about her soldier-son on this score than she would if he were anywhere else. The army is as safe a place for a boy as can be found. But the hometown across the seas seems a long way from the she'll scared field in France, and there is little to remind a man of the home standards and home-traditions in the strange new life within range of the bursting shells. He eeds letters from his family to do it. In II. maintaining high moral conditions, as well in keeping the morale of the army what it should be, Captain Pearson believes that letters from home play a larger part than any other thing.
 Men don't talk much about home sickness, and perhaps women don't understand just how lonesome life is for them over there," he said. i've see big. rough soldiers. the most hardened ones in camp, turn all Wo- man when it came to cuddling some French youngster who happened to be about the place, some baby that looked like one of their own at home, or that they imagined looked like one of their own. It's the unusual soldier who doesn't come and show the Young Mems Christian Association worker snapshots of hi; girl back home, or a picture of his mother, or of his chidrcn.'
 All women want to help in war time The trouble is that most of them would like to go over to France or in some way to give personal ser vice to the soldiers. But the real way to be of aid is to do ordinary. un- spectacular things oVere here, to send their men off cheerfuily, and to write the kind of letters that keep them of good courage.
 Get Ready to Do Mems Work.
 'There is very little that women can do for our soldiers over there
 Captain Pearson declared. IVY nat the American women ought to be do- ing now, in my opinion, is to be get tlnS roaOV to UO ulcl S WOl N, I'l ttt''' the war lasts a long time. In France YOU will see them busted with almost every task that men formerly did, hitched to the blow in the fields, driving the motor cars in the cities, doing almost everything you can mention brave, devoted women who are every whit as good q soldier as their men at tho front. In Canada and in England it is almost the same; there are few men left at home, and the women must do the work. When it comes to sending home boxes to the soldiers overseas, Wom- en should be sure that they send gifts that are needed, and that won't spoil en route A lot of junk merely clut- | ters things up for the soldiers there. | But d letter is a gift that is always ] timely, and never in the way. War just shows how wonderful l women can be. But sometimes they I don't understand how lonesome sol I diers get, and how far from every 1 thing they feel over there on the bor- ! der of No Mans Land. They wait l for answers to their letters, and don't 1 stop to figure out that they are neg l lecting one of their wartime jobs. | Write to them!"
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