Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-05-07
Little Talks by
Beatrice Fairfax

1 clipped the following from q
newspaper recently:
Danville, ILL.,, Mrs. E. Wolgamott
ei-hty years old, whose husband was
among those reported missing" dur
ing the Civil War, and who had kept
lighted lamp in the window of her
cottage for more than fifty years,
hoping that some day he would re-
turn, and the light might guide him
nome, is dead at the hospital at Kan
kakee.
Her husband was a member of
the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth
Illinois Infantry, which was organ
lied in Danville."
l am old-fashioned enough to he
lieve these two found each other at
last, and the wardrobe of fifty years
ago feels repaid for lighting the
lamp in her window all those years
I've had so many letters from girls
who want to know whether it would
be advisable to marry their soldier
sweethearts before the boys sail for
over there" that 1 am going to at
tempt something in the way of col
1ective answer.
In the first place. the wisdom of
war marriage depends on the type
of girl about to become a war bride
The question cannot be answered by
yes" or no; circumstances and
the individual must decide the case.
The girls position will be hard
enough, in any event, and unless she
has the love many waters cannot
quench." and the grim ability to
live from day to day in suspense, and
to face anything the future may
bring. she would better defer her
wedding.
1t would be absurd for a suscept-
able little butterfly. always interest
ed in the last man she meets, to
marry a soldier. She would proba-
bly, cry her eyes out at parting, then
feel sorry for herself when she saw
other girls going to dances and pic
lures and realized as a married wo-
man. she was not getting as much at
tention as formerly.
Shed Imagine Tragedy
Then probably someone else would
come along. and she would imagine
she had a regular three-act tragedy
on her hands. Therefore, to the
pretty, susceptible butterfly let me
say and say as emphatically as | am
capable of; The lot of war bride
Is not for you.
1t takes sterner stuff than out
tertiies are made of to stand tie
strain and suspense and the steel
us ~ iANthA anu manu- SNOiN AAAilN
one picks up a newspaper with its
dread casualty list. s
1t takes something of the heroic
spirit that sent our Pilgrim WON en-
across an unknown sea into an un-
known land and steadied them to
face the waiting hardships, because
they loved the men who loved free
dom. They would not consent TO
wait for their men in comfort, by an
English fireside, till the wilderness
had been subdued.
The chances of being a heroic
war bride" are good, if any of my
girl correspondents who have writ
ten on this subject has in her veins
the blood of some pioneer woman
who helped to settle our great West.
Have you ever thought of the
part played by these women in the
colonizing of our Western States?
Day after day they travelled in the
big covered wagons, cooking, wash
ing. keeping house as they made
their way across the wilderness.
The sun rose behind them in the
morning. overlook them, dropped
below the horizon at night - month
after month, year after year, some
times-as they plodded along in the
numbering, creaking wagon.
Sometimes children were born on
these Journeys, and again, children