THE MIRROR AND THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2236, 24 August 1914, Page 3

THE MIRROR AND THE WAR

.OUR GENUINE SELVES.

(By Ethel Turner.)' -

.It is as it an iron hand has suddenly clutched at'the crumpled,'silly scroll of women's lives and is" beginning Vto straigliten it out. Justhow'crutnpied, liow silly, that scroll, how crowded with -meaningless c'phers it-had become, wo women, ourselves only know. Those figures mincing along our uneven streets m Louis Quatorze heel, unable to run except ridiculously, because of narrow skirts, absorbed.' sale's of worthless litter,'playing cards and dancing -tangoes' by idaylightr : ir desperate elfort to kill time—were those figures really ourselves?" Or .are these ourselves, these quiet-faced women who put no detaining hands on' husbands, and eons and fathers as they go from us, who even, bid them farewell,, dry-eyed and smilingly, who hasten to pour out tlio passion, for service that possesses them in ambulance work, in eager sewing and knitting? .Theso ;are ourselves, these . latter women. . ■ . ' . - • '

Tho b:" A violence of this sudden jolt in our ... ..ooth. and prosperous road Has. flung; us clean .back into our genuine; uelvei. . . ..':.:... ...'.:

There is something to be a little dreaded—a .temptation that,, as a city, we may fall into any day out of sheer heedlessness. This is to illuminate, to make bonfires, to throw up our caps a little too high when cablegrams containing victories reach us. Victory means bitter misery for both sides. Let us take it with soberness, keeping the thankfulness quietly in our hearts, just as, if news of a defeat" at any time should come, let us -not .he unduly, depressed; both are things in the grim day's work of war. The.timo to make our bonfires will be when peace is concluded. After tho; battle of Santiago and,the destruction of the Spanish fleet, "Don't cheer," said' the'victorious American General, "there are men drowning and burning over there." ; ' ... _ ■ Let us be gentle to the stranger'within, our gates. . ■ -''. ■'■ '■■• - We are not at war with Wo are at war with the military::casto'of Germany, just as at Waterloo England was not at war with France,_ but-: with Napoleon. ■ .The,. German: citizen' fjs a ' peaceful, and rather sentimental.:individual, who dreads the horror of war quite as. much as we do ourselves. Those of us who have any knowledge of, and >any friendship with, German's both like and sincerely respoet them; i While 25,000 of them "tembly car--pst the earth with dead," let .us 'be gentle with those within our gates who aro weeping for them— ,w—-,.,-.. .* .... Ifor my enernyis'dbad'i : a man 'jdivine as" myself is dead. " ";'" I look where ho lies, white-faced and still in the coffin—l draw near, Bend down and touch .lightly- with ray lips the white face in .the coffin. •—■' Sydney Morning Heralck",.-..