Magazine 'The Bystander' - 12th of June 1918, item 1

• July 1, 2017 17:26:51 Gerjan B

  The bystander, June 12, 1918             451

  "In England-

  A WEEKLY LETTER  Now!" Illustrated by

  FROM "BLANCHE"              HELEN McKIE
  

  
  

  London, June 10, 1918                       From grave to gay

  DEAR COUSIN-                                    -not quite such

  A SOLDIER man                                  a scream as usual, I think,

  has just                                                the Birthday Honours that

  written to                                             kept on coming out last

  strafe me because, in

  one or two of my

  letters, " some of the

  bubbles have gone 

  from the champagne,

  the crispness from the

  pâté." In sending in
  

  reply my remorseful

  regrets for such a

  lapse, I would like to

  ask him, does he

  really think that anyone

  worth anything

  can possibly have

  come with cheerfulnes

  quite unscathed

  through these four

  years of war? Does

  he, does anyone, think

  that all the sacrifice,

  all the tragedy, all

  the waste and horror of those days of pain can have

  left without a scar or a wound men and women of

  imagination? And though one is sorry if, perhaps,

  a little of the colour has gone out of life, a little of

  the unfettered gaiety from one's pen, I don't think

  I want to belong to that strange, soulless company

  who speak and even are just as they were before the

  world was out of gear.

  
  

  
  

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