RISKS WAR WIDOWS RUN.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 278, 25 May 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

RISKS WAR WIDOWS RUN.

HUSBANDS WHO RETURN FROM THE DEAD.

'.Serve her right ior being in such a hu ry to marry again—'t was callous conduct, to say the least of it!" was the verdict of her neighbours on a war widow who had sought consolation by entering once more into the bonds of matrimony, a year after Iter husband iud been reported.killed at tho Front. Put ho had not been killed—he had merely been taken prisoner to Gerand for some inexplicable reason had not been allowed to communicate with his relatives. His arm had Iteen shot off. and the finding of the limb on the battlefield with the identity disc on the wrist had led to tho official report of h's death. Perhaps, however, had they known tho real facts of the case the woman's neighbours would not liave been so hasty in their judgment, for happy though her marriage hud seemed, she had not married tho man she really loved. Through misunderstanding they had parted for good, as they both thought, for her lover sailed soon after for Canada. Jt was then that she married and found happiness in her marriage, though not tho beppmess she would havo found in a marriage with tlie man who had apparently gone out of her life. THE DOMESTIC SKELETON. Who can blame, her. then, when be-' licving herself to be a widow, she yielded herself to tho importunities of her ftVst lover, who, returning to England with the Canadian contingent, sought her out and mado up tho'r quarrel. Why, by putting off her second marriage, should she have risked once more being parted for ever trom the man to whom she had given her heart? Caustic comment is all too rife upo.-« tho ait'on of those war wdows, whatever their position in tho social scale, who have lost little time in entering for a second time the bonds of Hymen, and this when to all appearances their first marr'ago was ideally happy. But was it? That is a question which can only 1)0 satisfactorily answered by the parties most intimately concerned. T,, or it is the habit of the world to make a fefsh of keeping op appearances, and many a thoroughly ill-assort-ed c-owilo make a point of " playing the game,'' to hide front their friends tho fact that they never cease, to long for the breaking of the -"rains that bind them. Outwardly happy, thcT life i<? one leng rebellion agaiim fate. SHOULD SHK WAIT? But when a woman h-8 been thoroughly unhappy in her first marriage, shouldn't this be an all-potent reason against undue baste in risking a second venture? is an argument which is often put for* ird. The l»est answer to this is that the life of each one of us is spent in the quest of that "will-o'-the-wisp," happiness, and tho more elusive it i" the more eagerly we strive for it. And this is the reason winch induces th? one who had failed once to try it once more More it passes her by.

'it i« an unfortunate fact that war m:>!;es domestic traged'e*. all too common, and in this war mom tlian anv othcr must poigmnt problems !>o faced. But when they do occur, is it fair to blamo tlio woman whosj action in remarrying is the cause of tho painful portion in which tliroo jK-oplc are placed? , ~ , , "She -hould hare waitod a little long- § er!" is the inevitable rry.