The Washington herald., 1918-06-03

A friend of mine has recently
gone to live in a hotel A few days
after she took up her residence In
the hostelry, a chambermaid said
to her;
please ma'am. may I ask II you
are an ordinary lady or q war ladyT'
am very much interested In war
work." replied my friend. but what
is the difference between an ordin-
ary lady and q war lady?"
AN ordinary lady. replied the
chambermaid, out of her vast
knowledge on the subject. "is q
lady what has her breakfast In bed
and doesn't get up until IL o'clock
and a war lady is lady what gets
UP In the morning and has break
fast down in the grill at o'clock
and hustles out to work like a man
does.
Now there's Mrs. Blank In s11
whose rooms I've been making up
for four years. In all that time ]
never knew her to get up once be-
fore IL o'clock, and she always took
her breakfast In bed. but now she's
q war lady. and she gets up at haif
past seven and goes down to the
Red Cross and she don't get back
until five. She used to be fat, and
many is the time ] broke my finger
nails trying to hook her dress belts
but you ought to see her figger now.
It's something grandw
Twin sister to the chambermaid'
picture of the effect OF the war on
women is the plant / heard recent
ly from the wife OF famous nerve
specialist.
NO" said this woman. 1--WE are
not going to have a new car this
summer. Can't AFFORD IT. Busi-
ness is bad with US. Believe me-
there's no class that's been harder
hit by the war than the doctors,
and especially the nerve specialists,
and it's only because so many
physicians have gone to the war
that the balance of US are making
any money at all.
The reason is plain enough.
doctors main source OF income Is
his women patients. Women who
are sick, or think they are sick. and
nowadays there are mighty few SICK
women. The war has cured them.
1t has given them something De-
sides themselves to think about,
something to do except to sit up
and explore their systems for imag-
mary ailments. and as result
they've gotten well.
'It takes more nerve man the
average woman possesses to ask peo-
pie to sympathize with her poor
nerves when men are meeting death
over there with smiles on their lips
and everybody has got some story
to tell of a hero cut to pieces by
shot and shell who endured the tor
lures of hell without a murmur. Why
l believe IL a nice. fat. healthy-look-
ing woman would start to talk about
her nerves now, that other women
would fall on her with hat pins and
prick her to pieces. they'd be so dis
gusted with her.
"Of course, like the character in
Dickens novel, am praying against
my husbands business to say such
a thing. but all the remedy that
nine-tenths of the neurasthenic wom-
en- needed was to have something
happen to them that would lift them
out OF themselves and make them
think of somebody else-something
that would make them quit being
lazy. selfish slobs, and go to work.
The war has done that for them.
1t has saved them body and soul.
When we think of war" went on
the Doctors wife. 1--WE think OF it
in terms of death. but we should
think of il in terms of life also. for
just as many lives are going to be
saved by the war as are going to
be lost in it. and queerly enough
the ones who are going to be saved
by it are the boys and women. There
are thousands upon thousands of
pale, flabby. thin-chested boys who
have been turned by army disci-
pline and exercise into big. strong.
husky young men. These boys, who
were doomed to early death by peace,
will be saved to a hale old age by