THE MOTHER- OF “DUG-OUTS.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1611, 16 September 1916, Page 4

THE MOTHER- OF “DUG-OUTS.”

The following verses were enclosed in a letter from a Fox ton boy at the front to Ins parents; —- I’ve come from a “dug-out” in Handers, From the mud, the blood, and the doubt; I’ve come to 'a city that panders To the men who haven't been out. When the dale of my leave was certain I thought, its 1 hurled hand-gren-ades, Of ladies “behind the curtain” ' And the fun of the promenades. I thought of the music and laughter, The song, the passion, the dance; I thought of the bad headaches after, And the wearisome journey through France. But I’ve come to a city of doom No song, no women, no wine— And I wander about in the gloom .Searching for somewhere to dine. There rest’rants are full of the ot hers: Of traders, shirkers and spies, “Home-service men .and their mothers, And the men who are “held by home ties.” The night-clubs are • (dosed at twelve-thirty, The bright promenades are all bare: In the streets that are darkened and dirty, That’s whei’e you’ll find them — there. Are we a nation defeated, To he spat upon, jeered at and cursed. Or are all these changes completed By the plan that a great prig has nursed ? I want to go back to excitement : To laughter, whisky, and shell, To life’s joy and pain—death’s onlight Tnent;

I want to go hack to —hell!