Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-12-21
AS ONE WOMAN SEES IT
curlously Enough, No Country Has
Yet Thought Of Setting Up Monu-
ment for the Army Nurse-This
Age May Be Known as the
Age Of Service
BY SARAH ID. LOWRIE

TNHE American women who served over.
l. seas during the war. and lately organ
lied as the American Woman's Overseas
Legion, had q dinner the other evening, at
which the out-of town guest of honor was
Mrs. Robert Meade
1t was rather a touching occasion to me,
who, having been stay at home, was there
that night merely as an interested locker on.
1t was also distinguished occasion by rea
son of the personnel of the members present.
You realized, on examining the groups at
the various round tables. that they had not
Just happened to get on the other side during
the war | never saw more quietly force
full, more carefully set-up crowd of women.
They certainly were the ittest, and that they
survived some of the hardshipS they had to
cope with proves that those in authority
who gave them leave TO go knew what they
were about.
should have liked nothing better than
to have learned straight from some of them
what they had been up against but they
had n pleasant aloofness on points touching
hardshps that made Inc shy Of searching for
details. One of them laughed when she mem
toned casually that she had not had a bath
for nine consecutive months over there. and
never enough water TO wash more than an
inch or two at time. They agreed with
me that those of us who stayed at home
would never know what war was like; its
HW1ulneSS COulQ not De put INTO speech.
One other characteristic: There was
scarcely any applause for the speeches and
very little laughter possible, either in what
was said or what the audience tempted the
speakers to say by their attitude as listeners.
TTNHERE was nothing tragic about them;
L they were, on the contrary. rather matter
of-fact, but they were gravely matter-of-
fact. As you looked in their faces YOU
could see purpose, force. discretion, ex-
perience, charm, but mostly what you felt
was their gravity.
They had had so much in common that
they spoke language intersperscd with
they had bel0ngcd-l loung Mems Christian
Association. Young Women's Christian AS
sociation, Red Cross. Friends RecOnstruc-
ton, Ambulance Corps, Jewish, Catholic
Emergency Aid, ctc.-wcre known by let
ters rather than names and the sort of work
that was done. the places where they we're
quartercd and the army branches they came
under were all known by shortcut Of
speech, so that ] was left laboriously SPELL
ing in the rear while ] listened to the re-
ports. But / should say that that crowd of
doctors and nurses and Cantcen and recon-
StruCtion workers who had come out of the
great tribuation of the war with a still
greater common memory of unique cY-
perience could make themselves felt in their
day and generation If they ever chose to
unite Tor any purpose except to remember.
1t seemed from their reports that they
had, as an organization, lent hand this
year now TO this naval or that military post,
with view to helping the enlisted mon
through the boredom of barrack or hospital
existence. but | wondered if such interests
would really hold most of them for an ap-
prcciable time. 1t struck me that what
really struck fire out Of them was not that
sop to Cerberus," that amelioration of the
drastic conditions of whole system, but the
whole question of the possibility of eventual
disarmament, the stopping of war rather
than the mitigation of the soldiers hard
ships.