ABOUT SWEETHEARTS
SOMETHING WAS STARTED
“JIM” Or C ROW.
The entire editorial force of The Cad
uceus has been hunting for the base
hospital patient who signed himself
“Jim” of the C row when he wrote a
treatise “About Sweethearts” two
weeks ago. We have p.ot found him.
He is either gone from the hospital
care or is in hiding like the myster
ious and powerful Junius of English
literary history.
But “Jim” started something when
he discussed the gentle topic of love.
A mother, living on Elizabeth avenue,
launched an attack against the phase
of “Jim’s" philosophy which seemed
to disregard a certain element of self
restrained on the part of the maid
enamored by the khaki show of the
loyal lad.
This week we have two more let
ters which take up the vital subject
from yet different angles.
Soldiers Need Friends.
"Dear Mr. Editor :-
“It seems as though Jim of “C” row
Is causing a great discussion on the
subject of soldiers’ sweethearts. I
think Jim was right about it is best
for soldiers to have a sweetheart and
most of the soldiers have a real sweet
heart back home, that are true as
steel, while others have not.
“The Elizabeth avenue mother
seems, to think that soldiers are wrong
in having a girl in every camp; I think
it is nice for a soldier to make
friends with the young ladies in every
camp town if it is possible.
“I am a Charlotte girl the same age
of this mother’s daughter.
“I have a soldier sweetheart who is
now on the battlefield of .. ranee. I
am being true to him, but would he
want me to sit at home and mope all
the while he is away? No, he would
not. While there is so much I can do
to make life happier lor the boys now
stationed at Camp Greene.
“These boys are away from home,
lonely I am sure because I have met
many of them. I invite them to my
home as often as possible for me to
do so. As yet I have not met one fel
low who has told me I was the first
love and has not been a perfect gentle-
man.
I am just a friend to one and all, 1
never get sentimental with tnem and
a sensible girl does not. I invite the
soldiers to my home to meet my par
ents and my mother helped me enter
tain, and my girl friends come over. As
yet I have not had one of the girls to
tell me about their falling in love, and
they tell me all about their friend
ships, they are just good friends. A girl
does not have to be in love every time
she goes with a boy a second time like
a great many seem to think.
“No mother should be uneasy about
her daughter going with a soldier if
she has the confidence of her daught
er like every mother should. From
experience, if every mother teaches
her daughter right she will not fall in
love with every soldier that she
meets.”
Signed
“A Charlotte Girl."
“The interesting subject, concerning
the soldiers’ sweetheart” has caused
some real excitement for the readers
of the Caduceus. There seems to be ,
room for argument on the matter and
since I am a soldier’s sweetheart I
think I have a right to give my opin
ion of it. There’s always two sides
to an argument so naturally I will ex
press the thoughts of an American
girl in my own way.
“Since all of our own playmates,
the boys we grow up with, have left
our little town to become a part of our
magnificant army we, the girls they left
behind, have opened our hearts and
homes to the playmates of other girls.
No true American girl will snub the
brother, or refuse to let him come into
her home, of another girl. If we
should fall in love with every soldier
we met I’m afraid our poor hearts
would be having a terrible war all
their own. Some of us haven’t met our
life long playmates till the soldiers
came here. Sometimes I think that
is one of the blessings of the great
conflict—to bring the sons and daugh
ters of the NORTH and SOUTH to
gether.
■ How else would we have met them?
If the “Mother” had already talked
with a soldier who has a sweetheart
“back home” she will know that that
is the very first thing he tells you
beside his name and home town, es
pecially if it is New York, or within
a hundred miles of it. It is very easy
to pick them out so I really can not
see where the argument comes in.
Can you? Some of them say that the
thoughts of “the girl he left behind
are what make the boys fight ''^tth
a determination to wipe the Hun from
the earth. It is up to us to keep the
heart-fires burning-^so what Mother
is going to object to this true friend
ship? I agree with Jim.
A GIRD IN DIDWO&TH.
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CHANGE IN “LINE OF DUTY.” -
A new and more liberal policy has
been adopted by the war department
in reference to determining when a
soldier discharged for disability shall
be regarded as having suffered the in
jury or contracted the disease “in line
of duty.” This policy is announced
in General Order No. 47, paragraph
2, as follows:
“Hereafter any soldier who shall
have been accepted on his first
physical ex.amination after arrival at
a military station as fit for service
shall be considered to have contracted
any subsequent determined physical
disability in the line of duty unless
such disability, can be shown to be
the result of his own carelessness,
misconduct or vicious habits, or unless
the history of the case shows unmis
takably that the disability existed
prior to entrance into the service. The
same rulings shall apply in the cases
of officers who have been passed as
fit for service on physical examina
tion upon entrance into the service.”
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