HEDWIG: What will happen to Amelia? Have you thought of that? No; I warrant you haven’t. Well, look. A few kisses and sweet words, the excitement of the ceremony, the cheers of the crowd, some days of living together,—I won’t call it marriage, for Franz and I are the ones who know what real marriage is, and how sacred it is,—then what? Before you know it, an order to march. No husband to wait with her, to watch over her. Think of her anxiety if she learns to love you. What kind of a child will it be? Look at me. What kind of a child would I have, do you think? I can hardly breathe for thinking of my Franz, waiting, never knowing from minute to minute. From the way I feel, I should think my child would be born mad, I’m that wild with worrying. And then for Amelia to go through the agony alone! No husband to help her through the terrible hour. What solace can the state give then? And after that, if you don’t come back, who is going to earn the bread for her child? Struggle and struggle to feed herself and her child; and the fine-sounding name you trick us with—war-bride! Humph! That will all be forgotten then. Only one thing can make it worth while, and do you know what that is? Love! Well struggle through fire and water for that, but without it....
Babies Bred for War
By Mary Field
(In “Everyman.”)
Said Prince Bismarck with a shrug of his shoulder to a comment on the great number of men killed in one of the Franco-Prussian battles, “Oh, well, we will have another crop in twenty years!”
It is crops of men that governments depend upon. At the outbreak of the war the military nations of Europe took immediate steps to provide for the next crop of soldiers. Before the ranks mobilized the seed of warriors was sown. In Germany all soldiers were urged to marry before leaving for the front. In many churches hundreds of couples were married simultaneously that no time might be lost. One of the Emperor’s own sons set the example which thousands of marriageable men immediately followed. In some villages “holy matrimony” was recognized as the equivalent of an engagement. Everywhere throughout the fatherland distinctions between legitimate and illegitimate have become indistinct. An illegitimate son receives the support of the government. To bear children for the fatherland is of greater virtue than that they shall be born of wedlock, for thrones are greater than altars and exigencies greater than ceremonies.
War Cripples
By Madeline Z. Doty
(In “The New Republic.”)