The copper era and Morenci leader., 1919-05-02
LOVE LETTERS
 FROM FRANCE

OesSh 41OiH N)udCCcu-I HICIIy oilu Belleau Wood. Boys with nerves shattered hy the incessant burst ing of shells and the intermin- able booming of the big guns. Boys who left an arm or leg in France. They laughed at their wounds and joked at their awkwardness with the new crutches. They had been a-seek- ing the great adventure.
 But there's another angle that we sometimes don't get.
 It has been my privilege to read the letters written by an American soldier in France to his wife. Underneath the khaki of the soldier there breathes the protective tenderness of the man for his mate; his anxiety for her happiness and comfort.
 'I wonder if you have enough to eat, or if you are cold" writes the soldier husband, crouched in the mud and damp of the tren- ches. ''Has our little daughter clothes enough to keep her warm while she is going hack and forth from school? All of these things I think of so much"
 And again: Tell our little one 1 cut a picture out of a book; it was little girl praying for her papa to come back safe from the war"
 An interval. Then came a let ter from a hospital in Switzer- land, after his release from a German prison camp. Lying there with a leg shattered by a German machine gun bullet, "an explosive bullet that tore my right leg to pieces," he writes Sunday night was such a beau tiful moonlight night. When I looked out my window how my thoughts did go back to you, be- cause we used to. say those were our nights. We'll, never mind, our nights will come again.
 His nights and hers. Nights flooded with moonlight and love and happiness and peace. Never mind, they will come again after all those dreary days of battle and prison. But it can't be be- fore midsummer, because the injured leg is slow in healing. War isn't all romance and ad- venture. It isn't all glamour and glory and dash. It's horri- ble. It's rotten. It is hell. It may be romance for the young and adventure for the soldier of fortune, but it is just plain, stern duty for the man who tears him. self from the clasp of wife and child and offers himself to his country, because. God help him, he cannot do otherwise and be a man.
 They did it for you. They of fered their lives to make peace possible and they helped you fi- nance the big deal. And without a doubt they will help finance the victory.
 You subscribed to four Liber- ty Loans through patriotism. You thought of the Lusitania, and your country had gone to war. You helped prepare, equip and maintain the army sent ov- erseas. And when you read about Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood, St. Mihiel, the Argonne Forest, Sedan, you went out and bought more bonds.
 And now, the Victory Loan and peace. But your patriotism is yet to be put to the real test. Over 10000 American boys gave up their lives for your safety. More than 100000 soldiers gave a leg or an arm or their eyesight for your protection. The crippled must be cared for and taught new trades, and other expenses of the war must be met
 CEcoke down that lump in your throat and go out and buy some more bonds to get right with your owr conscience to bring home the soldier-husband and to answer his little girls prayer.