Evening star., 1943-09-13

runaway emotions that would make
them stop, look and listen before
they rushed into a relationship that
is risky at best and foolhardy when
undertaken by those totally unpre-
pared for 1t. and who do not even
know their own minds on the sub
ject.
There is not a day that I do not
get distraught letters from young
sters who have plunged into these
Spur-of f-the-moment marriages, and
who frantically ask how they can
break out of them. One such mis-
sive on my desk as I write these
lines is from boy overseas. He
says he married just on the eve Of
departure from the States and spent
less than "a hours with his bride.
Since then he has found another
girl with whom he has fallen in
love, and he desires to start divorce
proceedings against his short-time
wife SO that he can marry the other
charmer after the duration.
Half a dozen other letters in the
same mail are from young wives
who swore eternal fidelity to strange
lads they married after a few days
or weeks acquaintance, who have
already dried their tears at parting,
transferred their affections to some
Johnny on -the-spot and now want
to know If they should write and
tell their husbands about it, or keep
1t to surprise them when they come
home.
One girl who wrote that she could
not endure the agony of being part
ed from her bridegroom snatched
away from her by the Army and
that she was contemplating COM
mitting suicide, sent this airmail
special delivery note: Disregard
previous letter. Have fallen in love
with a sailor who is a perfect
peach"
Now these boys and girls are not
Intentionally cruel, heartless or dis
loyal. They are only infantile.
They are only childish in their emo
tions, swept away by any chance
gust OF passion, knowing nothing of
themselves and still less, if possible,
OF the opposite sex. They are copy
cats who must do what other Young
sterS are doing, too young and in
experienced to weigh the conse-
quences of their acts and optimis-
tcally believing that everything is
bound to break just right for them
in the finest of this best of all good
worlds.
So boy meets girl and they get
married because he likes the way
she does her hair and she thinks
he looks swell in his uniform, and
they know they will always be con-
genial and happy together because
their steps match in the dance; also
because Tom, Dick, Harry and Mary,
Ellen and Susan are getting mar
rled, war weddings are the fad of
the moment and it seems the CLAM
orous and romantic thing to do.
1t does not seem to matter to them
that they are strangers who know
absolutely nothing of each others
tastes, characters and habits; that
they have no common BACKGROUND.
that they do not even know whether
they will have anything to saw to
each other after they have done
with the saccharine patter of court
ship.
Can any one wonder that the thin
veneer of romance made up of war
hysteria, homesickness and boredom
on the boys part, when anything in
skirts look good to them, and of the
glamour Of uniforms and thinking
it adventurous to marry a sailor or
soldier, and there is some distinction
In being war bride, on the girls
part, does not last, and that it is
literally out Of sight, out of mind,
with so many young husbands and
wives?
For the love that endures has to
grow out OF knowledge that a man
and woman have of each others
minds, hearts and souls an associa-
ton that has made them need each
other and part of each others hap
piness.
or course. many boys and girls
who rush into these quick-order
marriages have the thought in the
back OF their heads that when the
war is over, If they don't like it, they
won't stick. There is always Reno.
But divorce is not the easy way out,
as they think it is. Always such a
separation leaves wounds that never
quite heal and scars that disfgure
lifetime. So, wise are the BOYS and
girls who wait until after the war
TO marry.