Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-04-02


Washington never was able to take
shower without first having to
move Martha's stockings from the
curtain rod where they had been
hung up to dry.
It's a mortal cinch that Mrs.
Grant wrote to Ulysses while he
was at Vicksburg and asked him
when he WIS coming home and
why in the world he was staying
so much longer than he said he
would.
You could go on naming the dis
tinguished married militarists of
history, but to bring things right up
to date, who do you think was with
Gen. Macarthur at Luzon7 Mrs.
Macarthur.
All OF this Is by way Of leading
up to a discussion of the gentle
Juror that has been raised by the
many marriages Of the soldiers in
the American Expeditionary Forces.
1t seems that the boys have been
mixing orange blossoms with gun
powder too much to suit certain
parties in lands where our men
have been sent to fight.
An Australian cleric is quoted as
saying, The Americans came here
to fight, not to marry" and from
Ireland have come reports that
some authorities in that country are
a trifle upset by the number Of
colleens who have said Il do" to
our men in khaki.
There Is no finer training than
marriage for a soldier. Six months
Of married life is equivalent to three
years in a camp, and three or four
years of marriage will do as much
or more for a man than half q
dozen campaigns.
Obedience is the first REQUESTS
Of soldier. What offers a sterner,
fuller course in this than marriage?
Nothing. An unmarried soldier
finds 1t difficult suddenly to start
taking orders. He chafes and re-
bels at being bossed around. But
not the married soldier. He Is &C
customed to having superior on
Ger in charge, and he takes to COM
mands like dog to hamburger.
y X 81
Obedience is but one Of the many
military essentials that marriage
teaches man. You'll never find a
married soldier who underestimate
an opponent. Can you imagine a
married gunbearer holding the en-
envy lightly when he has learned
that one woman, wearing nothing
more formidable than dotted swiss
or gingham, weighing less than ITO
pounds and armed with nothing
more lethal than a glance, can de-
feat him 10 times out of IL.
A married soldier has no fear Of
hard work. War winning Is no
married men find Army life easy,
the duties slight, after years of being
the No. 2 boys in household. There
never was a sergeant, lieutenant or
general who could find as many
things for a soldier to do as a wife
can. What Is a forced march COM
pared to running upstairs to get the
scissors, going down in the basement
to get the mop, hanging pictures,
Strengthening curtains, moving the
lawn, running to the grocery for this,
running to the drug store for that
and generally being a perpetual-mo-
ton machine in a two-pants suit?
Guerrilla warfare has become ire
mendously important. A married
man is natural guerrilla. He is
wary. He is always on the alert. He
can move about silently. He is not
dismayed by sudden attacks. He
knows when to retreat, when to take
Inc Offensive ana ne mas learned to
ask no quarter.
The marriage of our soldiers
should be source of comfort to us
all. One can have nothing but con-
fldence in man, who, while waiting
for the enemy. keeps in training by
establishing his own private theater
Of war; who, knowing that he can't
win, goes right ahead and chal-
lenges that finest Of all fighters
the wife.
What's that, dear? Will I run
down to the store for a quart OF
milk? Certainly, sweetheart, but
you'll have to let me have 20 cents.
distributed BY McNaught Syndicate, 1ne.)