Evening star., 1919-09-28
ADDY. dear: The great ad-
venture Is over,
The curtain 10 ready to fal

When one stops to think about It the
play is not that Of war workers,
1t belongs to, the President, Mr..
Hoover and. Gen. Pershing. They are
In the, ltmelight and / am oa.y one
OF the chorus. whose exit will; be un-
noticed when the others nn UP the
gap. }
i am writing this propped Turkish
fashion against q pillar at the foot
Of my bed. II It t'took more than my
two fingers and q corner Of my. brain
to create this letter 1t might be "a
might have BEEN Indeed ri am
completely worn out from attempting
to write finis across the last week
of my Washington life, also from
paying the washwoman $3.50 to do
what little I dared send her and from
doing up myself that which I dared
not.
Last night Priscilla and I. as a
sort Of farewell lark, went for boat
ride on. the Potomac. It was one Of
those camp community Affairs for
which tickets are given. out at each
government department, and is just
one instance of the many pleasant
evenings furnished tthe war worker
by that organization. The night was
mine to spend as chose and, some-
how, that appealed to me more than
anything else we could do. We got
places, in the stern Of the boat, as
much of secluded spot as can be
imagined on the Charles Manchester,
and there we let the beauty Of the
moonlight night fill our souls. 1T
was my last communion with those
spirits that walk through the history
Of our country. and l. found that 1t
was not the easiest hing in the world
to bid them adieu.
And yet. hard as that was, 1t did
not compare with saying goodbye to
the present in the form OF. the war
risk bureau this afternoon. It was
impossible to work steadily during
the day, and when o'clock came I
hung around tho room, getting my
hat and umbrella, telling every one
goodbye. kissing my supervisor and
those I hated most to leave. That,
busy old place had wound Itself more
tightly about my heart strings than 1
knew. As went downstairs passed
hundreds OF clerks pouring out of the
building and rejoicing that the hour
Of freedom had come. thought how
differently they would feel IL they
knew they were. leaving 1t and their
friends forever. Many OF the faces I.
had been seeing since first entered
the bureau and meeting them SO fre-
quently made 1t seem as though they
were friends. although i knew few Of
their names. ! was passing them,
then. for the last time. Across ver-
mont avenue I stood over by the
Porto Rico, shop. and there watched
the girls still pouring out. It seemed
as though the department were some
big grinding mill. into which had been
poured the girlhood Of the nation,
with Its youthfulness. its lack Of ex-
perience, its wide-eyed, open-hearted
ferent from the raw material that
cams into It last summer, when the
calls were.so urgent, were the fnish-
ed products! THY demonstrated the
survival Of the fittest in q way that
would have made old Darwin chuckle
with glee over his pet theory. Those
poor little creatures. that. like'straws
In the winds of circumstance. were
swept Immediately. by their own
weaknesses. to their destruction, had
not lasted long, but 1 saw their
friends. with ideals as low. and
among them were girls who came to
the big city AZ ignorant OF 1t a. the
pets they played with ON the farm,
but with the strength Of the soil. In
their determination to make good. I
knew that they had made good by
attending night business schools and
sticking to their places until they had
put their feet on the round OF that
ladder that IL called success. Last OF
all came Americas finest--those coll
lege trained, capable girls. who had
displayed executive ability that no
man would have given them credit for
possessing before the war.
do not think that have changed
any. Perhaps my. confidence In the
trustworthiness Of the human family
Is worn a little at the edges and my