The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-09-30
WRITING FROM THE HEART.

Des Moines Register: Many mem
orable war letters, which even time
can hardly dim, are being writer
these days. In his page in the Metro
politan magazine, Theodore Roose
welt has quoted one of the best OF
these. 1t Is from the wife of fight
ing soldier at the front, addressed tc
the mother of gallant boy, who
at the front, had fought in high all
like an eagle, and, like an eagle
fighting had died.:
write these few lines-not OF
coincidence, for who would dare
to pity you?-but of deepest
sympathy to you and yours as
you stand in this shadow which
is the earthly side of those
clouds of glory in which your
sons life has just passed. Many
will envy you that when the call
of sacrifice came you were not
found among the paupers to
whom no gift of life worth offer
ing had been entrusted. They
are the ones to be pitied, not we
whose dearest are jeopardizing
their lives unto the death in the
high places of the field. / hope
my two sons will live as worthily
and die as greatly as yours.
The war is giving the world many
great letters, because the writers
thereof are writing from the heart
They have something to say, and
they say it. Language ~ being used
to convey thought. not to conceal 1t
Letter wiring was well-nigh a lost
art before the war; 1t is being rap
idly revived these days. After all
there is but one secret to writing:
To have something to say and tc
say it. The boys who are writing
home do not know but that each let
ter, each word, may be their last
They have put aside the chicanery
of small talk and of gossip; they
are writing from the heart, rather
than from a fertile brain. That Is
why we are reading war letters
every day which are literary gems
and deserve to become classics.
That is why, also, Colonel Roose
velt's page in this months Metro
politan is the best he has ever writ
ten. He was not arguing, he was
writing out of full heart He had
just given one of his sons to the
great cause; it was as father
mourning for him who will never re
turn that he wrote those concluding
words:
In America today all our peo-
pie are summoned to service
and sacrifice. Pride is the por-
ton only of those who know bit
ter sorrow or the foreboding of
bitter sorrow. But all of us who
give service, and stand ready for
sacrifice, are the torch-bearers.
We run with the torches until
we fall, content if we can then
pass them to the hands of other
runners. The torches whose
flame Is brightest are borne by
the gallant men at, the front.
and by the gallant women whose
husbands and lovers, whose sons
and brothers are at the front.
These men are high of soul, as
they face their fate on the she'll
shattered earth, or in the skies
above or in the waters beneath:
and no less high OF soul are the
women with torn hearts and
shining eyes; the girls whose
boy lovers have been struck
down In their golden morning.
and the mothers and wives to
whom word has been brought
that henceforth they must walk
in the shadow "a
These are the torch-bearers;
these are they who have dared
the great adventure.
Out OF the mists and the mys
terry, the chaos and the confusion OF
the war, we are learning clarity
which we did not know before; on,
OF the darkness of despair we are
coming to have clearer vision, &c