Show Kathleen Norris Says His Wife Is a Flirt Bell BeD Syndicate Features I f iH N i If 1 she do does write she of 0 things and places and people I 1 don don't know mane oaf or maybe d dislike like She doesn't doesn put vui any ny crosses at the end md the way she did at first I By KATHLEEN NORRIS HIS week brought me a aletter aletter THIS letter from a soldier who is down in the hottest loneliest hardest fighting of all the fight to take island after island in the South Seas and so conquer and so move nearer to Tokyo yo and the end of the war He has been married almost two years he adores his wife He loves the memory of their first little home the happiness happiness happiness happi happi- ness of sharing the new love and the new life together he heis heis heis is 27 had never cared for any woman before The wife Patricia is 21 Often these days the mall comes In and I dont don't get et a letter at all aH writes Private Joe Carter If II she does write she writes of things thins and places and people I dont don't know or maybe dislike She doesn't put any crosses In at the end the way she shedId shedid shedid did at first or tell me that she misses me Ive I've been pretty heartsIck heartsick heart heart- sick over it ft for I haven't any mother moth moth- er or anyone else who writes tome to tome tome me and I get awfully blue some some- times Lots of ot the other fellows get letters with newspaper clippings pasted In snapshots of their kids descriptions of ot how Christmas was wasand wasand wasand and what's going on at home But Pat doesn't think of any of those things Wife in Bad Company Now what gripes me is this the letter goes on Lately Pat moved in and Is sharing housekeeping housekeep housekeep- ing lag expenses with a girl I hate because because because be be- cause she's just no good and everyone everyone everyone every every- one knows it This girl irl always had plenty of money and she keeps a flat fiat with plenty of cocktails cocktails cock cock- tails and old old and all that Pat never was that sort and I cant can't sleep nights worrying about how this older girl will get hold of her and Influence influence influence in In- fluence her All Pat ever said was that Dotty had decided to go straight and had a job next to her herin herin in hi a machine shop but one of ot the fellows from our town who got out here lately told me he often saw them in the saloon together after hours and that Pat and Dot were sharing the same flatI flatI flat fiat I dont don't like to write her a sour mean letter from here and tell her that if she pulls any fast tast ones on me Ill I'll drop her once and for all But gosh says the letter youthfully youthful youthful- ly it certainly is the limit to be be way out here seeing what we see eaten up by pests longing to get let letI I home to cool rooms and showers and the old car again and to have your wife suggest that she's having havinga a o swell time without you Isn't there any way of getting etting it through the heads of the girls at home that they owe us something too and can help an awful lot just by being loving loving loving lov lov- ing and faithful and letting us know it In that last simple sentence lies liesa a tremendous truth The wives who are here at home can do a mighty service for their men and If It they are true and patriotic women they will do it To shake a mans man's faith courage and hope for the future is fifth-column fifth business it weakens his patriotism it causes him a desperate desper desper- ate oh oh what what the hells hell's the use feel feel- ing And that discouraged lonely angry feeling may make an enormous enormous enormous enor enor- difference when some small but important all act of valor or daring is to be done Write Soldier Loving Letters In common kindness and charity write that soldier of yours hopeful and loving letters If U you write only weekly weekly and and its it's a very good idea to have a special time dedicated to the writing of letters then letters then during the I days between keep him in mind There are small items in the papers papers papers pa pa- I pers Jokes poems that will mean I KEEP INSPIRATIONAL LETTERS FLOWING TO SERVICEMEN there any way o of f getting getting getting get get- ting it through the heads o of f the girls at home that they owe us m something too and can help an awful lot just by being loving and faithful and letting us m know it It is tragic that such a question should arise in the mind of any American soldier Civilians owe a debt to all aU men at the battlefronts which can never be paid in mere coin Only by constant devotion and acts o of f inspiration tion can we begin to show our appreciation for the supreme e risk they are making A soldiers soldier's soldiers soldier's soldiers soldier's sol sol- sol sol- diers dier's wife u who uio io forgets this and adds to her unpatriotic actions action by doing things which cause her husband to worry and question her loyalty is an anaid anaid anaid aid to a fifth columnist almost as surely as i if f she were on the enemy's payroll something to him There Is news from all his old crowd if It he has hasa a chum who is still at home call caU that chum and ask him for a detail or two If U there here are children include a astory astory astory story about each one take camera shots of ot them have those who can write scrawl a line or two to Daddy And always always always-always-always always always paint a picture of the future that includes him yourself home again love again peace again Dream dreams dream for him of ot your little farm or your tiny cabin up In the mountains or near the lake tell him his fishing line and his tennis racket are waiting waiting wait wait- ing Lag and end with a few tew fervent words that will let him know that you are sharing every moment of his tremendous tremendous tree tre tre- tre sufferings and his tremendous tremendous dous sacrifice You dont don't know how eager Bud and I are arc to get home to all the plans I wrote one of the two sons of an Illinois woman who sent me mea a copy of ot his joyous letter This cant can't last forever and when you write us of what's waiting waiting the the new pups the Sierra trip the way youve you've fixed up our rooms well rooms well there Isn't a man here doesn't envy us Thank you Mom Today gives every wife an opportunity opportunity opportunity to be cruel or to be kind She may either build now for the dignified happy home life of the peaceful days to come or she can snatch at a little dangerous and ephemeral excitement and ruin her chances of ot ever finding real happiness happiness happi ness as a wife wile |