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Show m 2aflH IllllllllVlBBflBBl " LETTER IN THE MORNING MAIL How Mrs. Lane Finally Realized That Thousands of Other Mothers' Sons Are at War Scarred Battle Front By MAXIMILIAN FOSTtlt Of the Vigilantes. Mathematics teach ui that 1 from 1 leaves nothing, and there la also tna well known biological, theorem that you cannot get blood from a turnip, It la alao assumed, Sir Isaac Newton having demonstrated the law, that what goes up la bound to come down, but this Is only abstract. Bin. Lane probably would have denied It The flat rent, previously $1,200 a year, now was $1,400, and It showed no signs whatever of comlag down. The same condition applied also to her children's shoes. The shoes now cost $7, whereas they formerly had cost $4. But this was merely a detail. K slmU lar phenomenon occurred aa to beef, steaks, potatoes, butter, flsh and the D7 other varieties of domestic esseu tints. All had gone np; none had come down. About the only thing stable sta-ble In Mrs. Lane's cosmos was Mr. Lano's yearly Income. This was $7,000 a year. Already Mrs. Lane had given uponemuld. Tho war literally was at ' her door. True, Mrs. Lane hod no son, po brother no kin of any kind In the war, but the war still was at ner door. Hard to Make Ends Meet Give money' for the warT What do you think sbo was doing, anyway! She was giving every cent she haV trylng to mako both enda meet In ber household. It hurt, though. Mrs. Lane was a kindly, warm hearted wo man, and siio would have liked to give. The war was dreadful I It was so dreadful she'd stopped reading about It But one must read letters. One must do that when a friend takes the trouble to wrlto them. The letter came In the morning mall. Mrs. Lane read It, then she read It again. Afterward ahe sat there absorbed, ab-sorbed, silent, rigid. The color had crept out of her face, and ber breath came awlftly from between her parted lips. " hav9jut come back from Ik canteen," it read. "Such an attar' noon I A tnlnload of terioutly wounded to be ted at once, tnklch U trying, at one hat to climb into all the carriage, one after the other. oth-er. We begin with the men kao an well enough to tit s and handle han-dle their citps, and thote who art too HI even to lift their headt, of eourte, we a'ave fo lift and feed ourselves. Feeding the one with bad fact wound an the hardett. 1 1 can tiand ordinary wound! of blood, but when a man ought f -have a note and mouth and all ha ha it ugh t it take all your courage lo get through a feeding, i managed to get half a pint of milk and a beaten egg and some brandy down the throat of a boy of twenty who had no mouth left, ant lwhad to oteenMl between evert memthfmt. Be hat had no feed for fifteen hour and tern ' 'Hktr that he wo nearly intone, i held hit head agalmtt me, and i gagged It the time, buff jutt kept think-ing, think-ing, 'Suggote it wet my iboy who needed ' drink ant then wa no mm lo give U to Jttm.' Mo l went through with it, and he finally went fottee. Oh, Martha, Martha Lane, we need everything all yon and there eon tendl" If Lawrence Had Oene te War. One o'clock struck. Mrs. Lane still sat with' the letter clutched ir her hand. Weat'a for dlnaerr asked Han. aah, the maid. 'Mrs. Lane hardly beard, her. She was still sitting thero when Olivia: floundered In. .Olivia was four teea, the conscious age, "Mother," she said fretfully. "1 can't go to dancing school again In brown glovea when all the o.th'er girls have white ones." The plaint reminded Mrs. Lane that Law reace at boarding school had written that morning about his socks. Be bad okly two pairs of silk one left "And, mother,", said Olivia, contusing But what Olivia said Mrs. Laae,dlda't bear. .She had dropped hec head on the table and unaccountably was weeping. "Just uppoeo It was. my bey miner she was sobbing. "Why. mother I" ejaculated OUvla. She hurried toward her mother. "What Is It mother tf You're acting Just as though Lawrence had geae to wart" Mrs. Lane looked np, the tears streaking down her face. "That's Just what Is the matter with me I I should be acting as It Lawrence were there. And so should, you I If Willie were like these, the boys there," she pointed to the letter that had lipped lip-ped from her Up. to the floor if be were, like them, In need, dying, want. Ing eggs, milk, brandy, "to keep hire alive, would you be buying white gloveaT And would we think what other people wear or how they live or whether wheth-er we had only one servant how? If my boy was, over there, If my" son were" But other women's sons are over there. Mrs. Lano bad at laat realized this. . The tears were rolling down her cheeks. , f |