Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1918-05-24
LETTER IN 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 vjuiIantes.

Mathematics teach us that | from I
leaves nothing. and there Is also the
well known biological theorem that
you cannot get blood from 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 It,
The fiat rent, previously $1,000 a
year, now was $1,400. and II 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 a 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 Mr..
Lanes yearly income. This was $1,000
a year. Already Mrs. Lane had given
up one maid. The war literally was at
her door. True, Mrs Lane had no son.
no brother-no kin of any kind-in the
war, but the war still was at her door,
Hard to Make Ends Meet
Give money for the WARP What do
you think she was doing, anyway 2
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 lave 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 friend takes the
trouble to write them.
The letter came In the morning mail.
Mrs. Lane read II, then she read 1t
again. Afterward she sat there abb
sorbed. silent. rigid. The color had crept
| out of her face, and her breath came
swiftly from between her parted lips.
~ haze Just come back from tho
cdntcen," IL read. "Such an after
nOOni A trdinIodd OF seriously
toOunded to be fed at once, tohich
Is trying, as one has to climb into
all the carriages, one after the 9th
err. We begin 10Th the men ,chO
are tceH enough to sit up and han
die their cups, and those DhO arc
too III euen to itft their heads, of
course, zoe haze to W and feed
| ourselves. Feeding the ones toith
| bad face toounds are the hardest.
can stand ordinary pounds OF
blood. but phen a man ought to
have nose and mouth and all 10
| has ts-u0hi-if takes all your
| courage to get through q feeding.
| ] managed to get half pint OF
milk and a beateh egg and some
| brandy dozen the throat of a boy Of
toentv WhO had no mouth left, and
had to clean u bettceen every
mOuthful He had had no food for
fifteen hours and tcds so thirsty
that he Wds nearly insane. ! held
his head against me, and I gagged
all the time. but ! just Kept think
ing. Suppose u wds my i"y pho
aeeded a drink and there tods no
one to 0ire u to him SO ! pent
through pifh 10, and he finally oenf
to sleep. on. Mdrths. Martha Lane.
TOE need eperpthinO-dH you and
the rest can sendP
II Lawrence Had Gone to War.
! One o'clock struck. Mrs. Lane still
sat with the letter clutched In he
hand. whats for dinnerf" asked Han
nah. the maid. Mrs. Lane hardly hear
her. She was still sitting there whe
Olivia foundered In. Olivia was foul
teen, the conscious age. Mother" sh
said fretfully, II cant go to dancin
school again In brown gloves when al
the other girls have white ones tn
plant reminded Mrs. Lane that Law
renee al boarding school had writte
that morning about his socks. He ha
only two pairs OF silk ones left. "Anc
mother" said Olivia. continuing Blu
what Olivia said Mrs Lane didn't hea
She had dropped her head on the tabl
and unaccountably was weeping. Jus
suppose II was my boy-mine |" sh
was sobbing.
"Why. mother |" CALCULATED Olivia.
She hurried toward her mOthe
what is II, mother2 You're acting Jus
us though Lawrence had gone to war
Mrs Lane looked up, the teal
streaking down her face.
That's just what is the matter wit
me | should he acting as II Lawrenc
were there. And so should you'll
Willie were like these, the boys there
she pointed to the letter that had Sill
ped from her lap 10 the floor-"if 1
were, like them, in need. dying, wan
ing eggs, milk, brandy, TO keep hi
alive, would you be buying whit
gloves? And would we think what oth'
people wear or how they live or whet
! er we had only one servant now? II n
boy was over there, II my son were
But other women's sons are Ov'
/ there Mrs. Lane had AT last realize
this, The tears were rolling down la
cheeks.
4 H-