The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-29
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Yes. we women folks has got our
! way, decided how it should be, as
that there young writer on the morn
ing paper, that wasn't never a mother,
says-but bein' as it was flung at us
contemptuous like, as you'd throw a
bone to a stray mongrel that amt got
no business in your yard, but come
whinin' around with hunger till it got
on your nerves, SOS you'd throw it
bone and then shoe it off the prem
| ises, We amt what you'd call happy
over it.
1 reckon we'd ought to take what
| they give US and say thank you"
| They said they was dom only what
they thought was for our good, ours
| and our boys in not allowin' us to see
! EN- till the shoutin' was over, and the
I crowd had got an eyeful. CTain't
often use the vernacular, but this is
| one OF the occasions).
| In maxim this yere fight about bein'
| roped off in the state house square,
our hearts havin' followed those boys
| every step of the way on that march
| from the Vosges mountains to the Ar =
| gonne wood, and thru that terrible
| battle-ALL the way, thru all their
| eXperienceS.-we only asked simple
| justice-was it for our good to stay
| penned up-in the state house square.
and have those boys wonderin' every
| step of the way, where was Mother,
why wasn't she at the station as she
said she'd be-"
We was savin' that committee, too.
There isn't boy in that outfit but
what is goin' to resent to the longest
day he lives, every slight and con-
tempt put on his mother HE knows
who it was that helped him fight. l
| know one boy,-and he's just typical
of the others, who said to his father
as they clasped hands, just before he
went to France,-said it simply an
quietly, Dad may not come back.
But if I don't YOU will know that l
died for Mother and Sister"
I've heard a good many eloquent
speeches made in this town, by the
| men that know how to spiel it off
But 1 amt never heard one yet that
ever mentioned the mothers, and the
part they played in this war Yet il
we mothers hadn't stood and waved
and smiled, as our boys went away
and if we hadn't always writ them
cheerful letters. an KEEP up what mill
| tary folks call. their morale, do
you suppose they would have had the
| heart to fight al they did?
| We amt tryin' to get no credit thai
don't belong to us. We're glad tc
have the folks that helped our bow.
get credit for all they did. But il
amt fair to speak so contemptuously
or the Military Sisterhood, as is bein
done. That organization amt nothin
much. of course-just the women rel
atives of the soldiers-that's all. And
it was just because there want an,
one else we could talk to about oul
boys, but them as understood, that i
, was organized. And ONLY them a.
was undergoin' the same agony-ly
ing awake Unsatisfactory out at thu
tstars-wonderin:- Where are the,
ttonight-are they lynn out there-ir
Flanders Field - where peoples
grow" could know anything about it
We don't ask for any honor. til
too late, now. 1t never has beer
shown US. as the mothers of soldiers
and it is everlastin'ly too late if bod.
was a mind to, which they amt, as il
very plain by the contempt with which
we are bein' spoke to and Of
We HAD to fight for the right to b,
! the first instead of the last to gree
: our boys. Amt any of you folks tina
amt suffered what We have, fail
enough to see that?
Had there been any disposition t.
J show any courtesy to US mothers, w,
wouldn't have had to fight or to bes
| for the bone that was flung US. TIL,
committee would have said. I'VE mus
show these women who gave their owl
flesh and blood whites we gave onl,
: our dollars and our time, that we DC
apprecite what they done for thei
. country And we must show thes'
, boys that we know who it was tina
put the spirit into Them
They lost their chance that is all
And now, all that we women folks car
, say in response to the bone bein' flunt
at US, is, Thank you kindly, sirs.''
| MA .TTMKTNS