I have
been sent to different entertainments given for soldiers. At one
place a woman got up and invited the girls to ask the boys to dance.
At another a crowd of girls were lined up wearing different ribbons,
and the boys marched along until each one found the girl wearing a
ribbon to match the one he wore. That was his partner. It was
interesting to see the eager, mischievous, brooding eyes of these
girls as they watched and waited. Just as interesting was it to see
this boy's face when he found his partner was ugly, and that boy
swell with pride when he found he had picked a "winner." It was all
adventure for both boys and girls. But I saw more than that in it.
Whenever I could not avoid meeting a girl I tried to be agreeable
and to talk about war, and soldiers, and what was going on. I did
not dance, of course, and I imagine more than one girl found me a
"queer soldier."

It always has touched me, though, to see and feel the sweetness,
graciousness, sympathy, kindness, and that other indefinable
something, in the girls I have met. How they made me think of you,
Lenore! No doubt about their hearts, their loyalty, their
Americanism. Every soldier who goes to France can fight for some
girl! They make you feel that. I believe I have gone deeper than
most soldiers in considering what I will call war-relation of the
sexes. If it is normal, then underneath it all is a tremendous
inscrutable design of nature or God. If that be true, actually true,
then war must be inevitable and right! How horrible! My thoughts
confound me sometimes. Anyway, the point I want to make is this: I
heard an officer tell an irate father, whose two daughters had been
insulted by soldiers: "My dear sir, it is regrettable. These men
will be punished. But they are not greatly to blame, because so many
girls throw themselves at their heads. Your daughters did not, of
course, but they should not have come here." That illustrates the
fixed idea of the military, all through the ranks--_Women throw
themselves at soldiers!_ It is true that they do. But the idea is
false, nevertheless, because the mass of girls are misunderstood.

Misunderstood!--I can tell you why. Surely the mass of American
girls are nice, fine, sweet, wholesome. They are young. The news of
war liberates something in them that we can find no na