Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1918-05-16
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 ViqiIantes.


OF the vigiIantes.
Mathematics teach us that ! from I
leaves nothing. and there Is also the
well known biological theorem that
you cannot get blood from q turnip.
1t 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 q
year, now was 1,400. and It 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 "a.
But this was merely detail. A SINH
lar phenomenon occurred as to beef.
steaks, potatoes, butter, fish and the
81 other varieties Of domestic essen.
tials. 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
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 war; What do
you think she was doing, anyway
She was giving every cent she had,
trying to make both ends meet in her
household. It hurt, though. Mrs.
Lane was q kindly, warm hearted wo-
man, and she would have liked to give.
The war was dreadful 1t was so
dreadful she'd stopped reading about 1t.
But one must read letters. One
must do that when q friend takes the
trouble to write them.
The letter came In the morning mail.
Mrs. Lane read 1t, then she read 1t
again. Afterward she sat there alb
sorbed, silent, rigid The color had crept
out Of her face, and her breath came
swiftly from between her parted lips.
II h0ve jsIst come back from the
ccnteen," u read. "SucA an after
Nooni A trGInIodd OF seriously
Wounded to be fed at once, sohtch
u trying, as one hos to climb into
all the carriages, one after the 9th
@. We begin soith the men soho
are DeI enough to st UP and han
die their cups, and those soho are
too W even to UT their heads, of
course, zoe hGVe to lift and feed
ourselves. Feeding the ones soith
bod face scoWnds are the hardest.
I can stand ordinary sooUHds of
blood, b1t ,ohen nsaa ought to
kGVe q nose and mouth and all he
hos Is-U0hHit takes all your
courage to get through O feeding.
managed to get hGli pint Of
mills and beaten egg and some
brandy dozen the throat of O boy Of
tsoonty sch0 had no nsoHth left, and
had to cleGn II bett1een every
Ns0NthfuI. He had had no food t0f
fifteen hours and sods 90 thirsty
thGt he soGs nearly t'tsdste. I held y
his head G0GtRst me, Gssd gagged
all the time, but I just kept think
ing, Suppose u sods my boy toh0
aeeded drink 0wd thesS soas no
one to Osve II to him. So I soext
Through soith It, and he finally soext
10 sleep. Oh, KGstka. Mdstha LGwss
zoe aeed eVerytkim0--Gu yoa and
the rest con seRd%
II Lawrence Had Gone 20 War.
One o'clock struck. MIRA Lane still
sat with the letter clutched in he's
hand. whats for dinner?" asked Han
nah, the maid. Mrs. Lane hardly heard
her. She was still sitting there when
Olivia houndered In. Olivia was four
teen, the conscious age. "Mother," she
said fretfully, II can't 60 to dancing
school again In brown gloves when all
the other girls have white ones" The
plant reminded Mrs. Lane that Law
renee at boarding school had written
that morning about his socks he had
only two pairs Of silk ones left. "And,
mother" said Olivia, continuing But
what Olivia said Mrs. Lane didn't hear
She had dropped her head on the table
and unaccountably was weeping. "Just
suppose 1t was my boy-minew she
was sobbing.
"Why, motherr calculated Olivia.
She hurried toward her mother
"What is It, mother1 You're acting just
as though Lawrence had gone to war y
Mira Lane looked up, the tear
streaking down her face.
That's Just what IL the matter with
mel should be acting as II Lawrence
were there, And SO should youi II
Willie were like these. the boys there,
she pointed to the letter that had slip.
ped from her lap to the fioor-"if he
were, like them, in need, dying, want.
ing eggs, milk, brandy, to keep him
alive. would you be buying white
glovesl And would we think what other
people wear or how they live or wheth.
or we had only one servant now1 II my
boy was over there. II my son were"
But other women's sons are over
there Lsrs. Lane had at last realized
this. The tears were rolling down hsg
eheekA
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