Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-03-08

Will JoIln gone TO the war
on the little house that they were
20 hard to get and whose every
as her hearts blood, unless she ia
floors Scared by scuffing feet, hel
beloved wallpaper smeared and de-
faced by careless hands.
Jane can't swing the apartment
into whose furnishings she and Tom
put so much thought and love il
seemed almost a part of their we'd
ding ceremony, without she takes
some other woman in to live with
her. And Maria sees no other way
but to take the children and go back
home with mother and father who
are old and cranky and set in their
ways.
There is, of course. no happy s0lu-
ton of the problem OF what the
young wife, whose home is suddenly
broken up by the war, shall do with
herself for the duration. For no
woman who has once had her own
house in which she has been nor
arch of all she surveyed and able to
express her own tastes and desires,
ever fits into anybody else's home.
She can't even be happy in the
home in which she was reared, or
keep from telling mother how SHE
makes apple sauce, and that SHE
uses her good china every day in
stead of leaving it on the shelves to
gather dust
perfect companion with whom to
share home. Even ones husband
doesn't fill that bill, much less an
other woman who has ideas and
tastes and habits that don't jibe
with yours. And if the other woman
has children. it is lucky If the ar
rangement doesn't end in mas
sacre of the infants.
Yet these are the conditions I'M
der which thousands upon thou
sands of women have to live during
these wartimes, and to do it cheer
fully and bravely, as so many of
them are doing, requires just as
high a morale as their husbands are
showing on the battle front.
I get hundreds of letters from
young wives asking what they must
do when their husbands leave for
war. and to these I would say:
Don't break up your home if you
can possibly avoid it, Keep on in
your familiar surroundings. Some
thing of your husbands presence
will linger in the rooms in which
he lived and about the chairs in
which he sat, and you will miss him
less than you would if you went to
a strange place with which he has
never had any contact.
Heaven only knows why, but
woman's furniture is always COM
pany that talks to her of good times
that they have had together, end
says: Don't you remember how
John brought me home on your
birthday as surprise to you, or
the jolly Christmas party I pulled
off last year," And, more than
that, it is a comfort to the absent
husband to think of his wife in her
own home where he left her, and
to which he is always thinking Of
returning.
Perhaps, in order to do this, you
will have to share your house or
your apartment with another
woman, for you must have COM
partnership. Pick her out carefully,
preferably some one you have known
for a long time and with whose pc
culiarities you are acquainted. Hav-
ing done this. accept the situation
with philosophy and make the best
of your bargain. Don't expect her
to be pin-feathered angel, Or
rubber stamp of yourself. Keep
your mind focused on her good
points and ignore the bad ones.
Remember you are not perfect your
self and that she has to put up
with as many things in you that
get on her nerves as you do in her.
And don't talk 100 much. Don't
tell her family secrets. When you
let down your back hair and feel
that you are in confidential mood,
take a sleeping powder and go to
bed before you can tell the thing
that the next day you will wish you
had bit out your tongue before you
said it.
If you have to go back home to
mother and take the children, be
grateful for the love that takes you
In and gives you home, and never
fail to show your appreciation of
1t. It Is hard on old people to put
UP with the noise and mischief Of
children, so don't resent it when
mother and father correct them
Take care Of your own kids and
don't turn mother into a baby nurse
while you go off to enjoy yourself,
or do war work, Never forget you
are asking a great sacrifice of them
and make it as easy for them as you
can.
1t isn't easy for any of US to
change our way of living, but if we
are good sports about it, it helps a
LOT