Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-05-29

~ JRlNG the war the families
Of the ;5s soldiers ,t " were constant %
gloomy letters, for it was
found that nothing SO effectually
and quickly took the heart out of
the men, and broke down their
filled with walls and weeps and dis
NAL news.
The ban on the doleful letter is
one of the wartime measures that
we may continue in peace with ad-
vantage. Most of us are every day
at grip with life in a battle that is
just as fierce as any ever fought on
the bloody fields of France, and that
calls on us for just as much cour-
age, and endurance. and as high a
spirit, II we are to win out, and we,
too, need words of cheer to back US
us, and take the last bit of fight
out of us.
The writing of blue letters is a
crime against our peace and happt-
ness that is chiefly committed by
those of our own households, for it IS
only those who love US best who
feel that they have a perfect right
to make us miserable
And it is a crime to which the
female sex is as prone as the sparks
are to fly upwards. Heaven knows
why, but generally when a woman
SllS uOWIl, anu takes U6r pen III mana
to ind1ct letter, she seems not to
dip into ink. but into a we'll of tears.
Pessimism of the deepest, darkest
dye pervadeS her every line. Funer-
ais, and divorces, and hideous acct
dents, and bankruptcies are the It'd
calls the sorrows Of the past. She
dweIls upon the narrowing state Of
the present, and draws a melancholy
forecast of the future. The lamenta-
lions of jeremiah have nothing in
gobs of gloom over the average fam
lily letter.
Not long ago a woman who has
many cares and arxieties of her own,
and who is making an heroic strus-
gle to support herself and her two
children, said to me:
IT adore my mother, but when I
get a letter from her it is sometimes
two or three days before I can sum-
mon up nerve enough to even open
it. The very sight of her handwrit
ing on the envelope sends my spirits
down to zero and makes me feel
that some awful calamity is hanging
over me.
"For mothers letters are simply
sodden with misery. She begins by
reminding me that she is getting old,
and will be with us but a few years
more She qwells on every little pain
and acne until I fancy her mortally
i'll, and twice have T fled to what I
supposed was her deathbed to find
her well and clipper
"She tells me about everybody who
is sick, and has had an operation, or
who has been run over by an auto
mobile, or lost their money, or had
any untoward misfortune. Then she
begins on family news, and really
gets down to business. John isn't
getting along we'll in business, and
She foresees that his family will land
in the pOorhouse. Johns wife has
been nasty to her and I get a de-
tailed account Of the perpetual moth
er-in-law and daughter-in-law war
fare.
"sarah's husband stayed out until
2 a. M, playing poker, and Sarah
and he are at outs, and she only
hopes for the children's sake it won't
come to divorce. Tom has a cough
that she fears means consumption,
and there follows a long chapter
about aunts and cousins who have
lost their money, and their cooks,
or broken their legs, and who seem
to have punched every Ill that flesh
is heir to.
"And then mother pities me until
I want to sit down and howl because
1 have to work for my living instead
of being a millionaire, and because
am a business woman in place Of
being a queen, although ordinarily
think I'm lucky in having a good
job, and am merry as a cricket.