The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1918-04-25
LETTERS OF CHEER

SSA0G1 4IOA4 S4A " SCNGA
to ninety-seven. The other day 1
met the Chairman of the Woman's
Division of the Public Information
Committee, Clara Sears Taylor, and
she said, 'sDo you know that one of
the serious menaces to the morale of
our boys here and in France is the
tenor of their home letters?"
Probably I looked skeptical as well
as shocked, for she went on to say
that this assurance had come to her
from very high military authority,
and that it was her purpose to send
out bulletion urging women to keep
/ up their courage, and she suggested
! that we do the same, so, as Hashimuro
TOga would put it, 'tHere are bulletin
of cheer-up."
1t is not enough to keep the home
fires burning; if you find yourself
growing weepy add another chorus
of your own which might go in this
fashion:
Keep your letters cheerful,
Do not make them fearful;
! Sad heart never helped man to win
a fight;
Tell them in full measure
What will give them pleasure,
Write with hope and pride and keep
your letters bright.
1t is really rather inconsistent for
US to expect our soldiers to pack up
their troubles in their new kit bags
and smile, smile, smile while we wipe
our weeping eyes and stifIe our groans
against their new uniforms. What
they have to face is bad enough, and
what the women have to bear, who let
them go, is not to be set down in
words, and we would do anything
that would help them, anything. But
ohx-1OT1S ThInc~ fO do 1C
to keep up your own courage, and so
theirs.
Writing may not come easily, and
humorous writing is a gift few pos
sess, but If anything funny has hap
Dened, anything that would bring a
smile, anything that Son can read to
Brother and provoke a laugh, put it
into the soldiers Letter. There are
certain items that belong in all these
/ letters. If there is bad news don't
work up to it. Tell him how the fam
lily is, what it is doing and then be
sure to tell him that the service flag
is the proudest possession of the fam
ily,> and the storm center around
which everything circles. Tell him
something about every member of
the family, not emitting the dog, and
anything interesting about the neigh
bors. There are times when gossip is
a duty 1t need not be ill-natured.
It is said that the perfect short
story should move the reader to
laughter, bring him close to tears and
have in it a touch of the inexplicable,
the supernatural. The grief element
lust now Anyone who has seen
Barinsfather's inimitable cartoons
konws that laughter is still possible
even where horror seems to have
everything in the hollow of its hand.
Moreover, it is possible to be re-
giOus without being mournful about
There is no good reason why we
should let the Kaiser have a mono
poly when it comes to thanking God
for victories, because in the end we
are going to win, and autocracy and
all that the Kaiser stands for are 60
ing into the limbo the eternally lost.
| There is nothing in he world so abso-
lutely certain as that for
Fright is right, since God is God,
And right the day must win,
To doubt would be disloyalty,
To falter would be sin"
That isn't such bad verse to send
your soldier lad. That is militant
Christianity, and that has to precede
the triumphan finish.
4HSl IuSIS Vic OIuSI S1SInShI
that I try to put into the letter going
"over there" If the Hun ever gets
one of those letters it should be full
of cold comfort for him. 1t ought
to tell him that crops are good, the
Liberty Ian oversubscribed, the new
quota of recruits getting into train
ing by the tens of thousands, and the
men already trained getting to the
front about ten times as fast as we
thought possible a year ago They
may bend, they may bread, the west
line if they will, but nothing on earth
can save Kaiser Bill. Every letter
should be a nerve tonic for our boys
and heart depressant if it ever falls
into the enemy's hands.
If you are blue remember General
FOch- He had some cause to be just
a bit worried at the Battle of the
Marine, and when things were at
their worst he sent this wire to Gen
eral Joffre: "My right is retreating:
my center is breaking; my left is fast
giving way; know nothing to do but
to attack" So he attacked. All. the
world knows the result.
This is the time for heroism here
as well as there. Here IS an extract
from 2 letter to his parents written
by a Belgian boy of ninteen who en-
listed in 1914 and has had active ser
vice ever since, except when he was
in the hospital from wounds received
at the battle of Ypres,
"Do as I do. You must forget the
war. Don't think about it at all and
just make up your mind that you
have somewhere three sons that are
all coming back to you safe and
sound. This is the surest way not
to 's'encafarder' as we say. If we
should pity ourselves as YOU pity us
we who are under the direct stroke
of the war, we would have been
long time dead and buried. So, no
more worrying, Ell? Let the war take
care of itself, it's something we have
nothing to do with"
Nothing can defeat courage like
that. Our boys have It and we must
help them keep it.
ELLIS MEREDITH.
CRAIG SCHOOL NOTES
t. - AT-&1