THE "SPOILT MAN" IN KHAKI.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17123, 26 October 1917, Page 7

THE "SPOILT MAN" IN KHAKI.

HOW THE WAR HAS CURED HIM

Theodore John was the only son of his mother, and brother to four sisters. The natural consequence was that Theodore was spoilt. From earliest childhood there'd always be a woman to wait upon him, to fuss him if his little finger ached, and pander to his fads and fancies.

When Theodore John reached man's estate he was helpless in the home and a real tyrant on the domestic hearth. His sisters waited on him hand and foot. One took off his shoes, another fluttered for his pipe and paper, while another fussed over what was to go into his lordship's mouth. What Theodore John would have been like as a husband if the war hadn't taken him out of his family's clutches, nobody knows. But some woman will have a better husband, if the boy lives to come back to Blighty.

You see, when he went to camp there was no c feather bed and hot water bottle for him, no one to run when he raised his finger, no one to cook particular dishes that met his particular fancies, no one to fuss v/hen he caught a little cold.

He found that he had to learn the real meaning of discipline. From the position of autocrat he sank to that of automaton!. He was one among many, instead of lord of five.

But it has done him good

He has learnt how to be a man. He'll never want to go back to cotton wool and cosseting. He has found out how to do things for himself and others, and he has found a place as a spoke in the wheel of everyday life instead of expecting to be the axle.

There are lots of boys like Theodore John wholl have learnt some of life's lessons "through the war.