The Washington herald., 1918-01-04
Neus and Ve,us of Interest Women Readers of The
OUT OF EVIL COMES GOOD
BY DOROTHY DIX.
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer,

A number of women were busily
working at a big table In Red Cross
unit. They were making bandages to
be sent to France for our boys. A
sweet-faced, middle-aged woman pass
ing by stopped to speak.
"How are your boys?"asked friend
Of hers. |
s-rhree of them are already over
there" replied the woman. "and the
last goes in a very few weeks. ! have
not shed tear where any one could
see me. but I take a fold in my belt
every week"
~I do not see how you bear IT,"
breather her friend. sympathetieaily.
cit breaks my heart to have them
60, but II would scar my soul II they
were slackers enough to stay, said
the woman as she passed on.
The women looked at her with the
tribute in their eyes that women pay
to heroes, and then the friend burst
out tmpulsively.
Believe me-" she said, "the strang-
est thing about this whole war is what
it's doing to people, 1t is making
them over. Every day meet on the
streets some big, tanned, broad shoul-
dered. outstanding husky young fellow
that ! don't recognize for a few min
utes. Then 1t dawns on me that he Is
a boy that I remember as narrow
chested. stoop-shouldered. thin. white
faced bookkeeper or clerk. Why even
his voice has changed and the look In
his eyes. He's been turned by war
from a manikin into a man.
"And the war is having Just as
much effect on US women. It's
changed us. Half the women I know
have been just as much meta
morphosed by the war as II they had
changed their skins. They think
about different things. They do differ
ent things. They've got different
ideals. an entirely different viewpoint
on life.
Take that woman. for instance. who
has just told US with perfect calmness
that she has sent four sons out to
meet danger. and perhaps death.
She's one OF those frantic mothers who
have Mysteries for fear their children
will have blood poisoning II they stub
their toes. I've seen her 60 through
| agonies OF anxiety when one OF her
boys was five minutes late in getting
home from school. yet she can smile
and kiss them good-by when she
knows they are leaving her probably
forever. The war has made her over
from a weak. unreasoning, fearful.
poor creature into brave, strong. no.
BILE woman"
"She isn't the only one" said an
| other woman Il have a friend
who has had a most unhappy life,
She had a step-mother who treated
her cruelty in her childhood and in
trying to get away from her wretched
home she rushed into a disastrous
marriage. Her husband is one OF
those cold. mean. selfish, tyranni-
cal men who make their wives
lives a hell on earth. And as II
this poor creature had not had
enough suffering TO bear. her chill
dren have been no comfort to her.
Her combined miseries have
broken the woman's spirit and for
years she has gone about looking
like a figure of tragedy. She never
smiled. she never seemed to take
any interest in anything. and the
only real pleasure she had in life
was to tell you of her troubles
and go ON a regular jag of tears. II
| took me days to get over one of
her visits and get back to the place
where 1 could feel that life was
something else besides cinders
ashes and dust = -
We'll, the other day 1 met this
woman and she was so braced up
that 1 hardly knew her. She had
on a bright colored dress and il
was the first time 1 had ever seen
her in anything but black. She ac-
tually essayed a feeble joke, and
she never once mentioned her trou-
| bles.
Things are going better with
you. aren't they?" I said, at last
when my curiosity got unbearable
"'No.' she replied, but in the
face of the world woe I haven't got
the nerve and egotism to even con-
slider my own little, petty. personal
griefs. What does IT matter wheth-
er ones husband is considerate or
inconsiderate when nations are be-
ing trampled under foot by barba-
rians? What does it matter whether
or not my own children are all that
I would have them when millions
of mothers are seeing their children
Slaughtered?