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Show Kathleen Norris Says: 7.s Wife Is a Vlirl llrtl HyiKllrutn. WNU I'Viilnrr. ft " she dors write, she writes of things and places and people 1 don't know, i or mrtybe dislike. She doesn't put any crossri at the end, the way she did at first." KEEP INSPIRATIONAL LETTERS FLOWING TO SERVICEMEN "Lint tlierc any way of getting get-ting it through the lieads of the girls at home that they oive us something too, and can help an awful lot just by being loving and faithful and letting us know it?" It is tragic that such a question should arise in the mind of any American soldier. Civilians owe a debt . to all men at the batllejronts which can never be paid in mere coin. Only by constant devotion and acts of inspiration inspira-tion can we begin to show our appreciation for the supreme risk they are making. A soldier's sol-dier's wife, who forgets this and adds to her unpatriotic actions by doing things which cause her husband to worry and question her loyalty, is an aid to a fifth-columnist almost as surely as if she were on the enemy's payroll. something to him. There Is news from all his old crowd; if he has a chum who is still at home, call that chum, and ask him for a detail or two. If there are children, include a story about each one, take camera shots of them, have those who can write scrawl a line or two to Daddy. And always always always paint a picture of the future that includes him, yourself, home again, love again, peace again. Dream dreams for him of your little farm, or your tiny cabin up in the mountains or near the lake, tell him his fishing-line fishing-line and his tennis racket are waiting, wait-ing, and end with a few fervent words that will let him know that you are sharing every moment of his tremendous tre-mendous sufferings and his tremendous tremen-dous sacrifice. "You don't know how eager Bud and I are to get home to all the plans!" wrote one of the two sons of an Illinois woman, who sent me a copy of his joyous letter. "This can't last forever, and when you write us of what's waiting the new pups, the Sierra trip, the way you've fixed up our rooms well, there isn't a man here doesn't envy us I Thank you, Mom." Today gives every wife an opportunity oppor-tunity 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 ever finding real happiness happi-ness as a wife. By KATHLEEN NORRIS THIS week brought me a 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 Rabaul, and so move nearer to ToKyo, 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 happi-ness of sharing the new love and the new life together; he is 27, had never cared for any woman before. The wife, Patricia, is 21. "Often these days the mail comes in and I don't, get a letter at all," writes Private Joe Carter. "If she does write she writes of things and places and people I don't know, or maybe dislike. She doesn't put any crosses In at the end, the way she did at first, or tell me that she misses me. I've been pretty heartsick heart-sick over it, for I haven't any mother, moth-er, or anyone else who writes to me, and I get awfully blue sometimes. some-times. Lots of the other fellows get letters with newspaper clippings pasted in, snapshots of their kids, descriptions of how Christmas was 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-ing expenses with a girl I hate, because be-cause she's just no good, and everyone every-one knows it. This girl always had plenty of money, and she keeps a goodlooking flat, with plenty of cocktails cock-tails and old-fashioneds and all that. Pat never was that sort, and I can't sleep nights worrying about how this older girl will get hold of her and influence in-fluence her. All Pat ever said was that Dotty had decided to go straight and had a job next to her in a machine shop, but one of 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 flat. "I don't like to write her a sour, mean letter from here and tell her that if she pulls any fast ones on me I'll drop her once and for all. But gosh," says the letter youthfully, youthful-ly, "it certainly is the limit to be 'way out here, seeing what we see, eaten up by pests, longing to jet home to cool rooms and showers and the old car again, and to have your wife suggest that she's having a swell time without you. Isn't there any way of getting 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 lov-ing and faithful and letting us know It?" In that last simple sentence lies a tremendous truth. The wives who are here at home can do a mighty service for their men, and if they are true and patriotic women they will do it. To shake a man's faith, courage and hope for the future is fifth-column business; it weakens his patriotism, it causes him a desperate, desper-ate, "oh-what-the-hell's-the-use" feeling. feel-ing. And that discouraged, lonely, angry feeling may make an enormous enor-mous " difference when some small but all-important 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 you write only weekly and it's a very good idea to have a special time dedicated to the writing of letters then during the days between keep him in mind. There are small items in the papers, pa-pers, Jokes, poems, that will mean I t |