Better to Be a Married Dog Than a Single Lion?

The Hobart Gazette of November 29 tossed off this casual remark: "Since the ending of the war the issuance of marriage licenses at Crown Point has fallen off wonderfully" — the implication being, of course, that the less heroic of the area's men were no longer seeking draft exemptions for the sake of their sudden, dependent wives.

I don't know how strictly true that might have been; it was only a remark, not a story. But it's one of the few acknowledgments I've seen that northwest Indiana was not entirely populated by brave, self-sacrificing people. I can recall only one specific story, and that was a blind item, with no name or date.

I suppose if newspapers chose not to run such stories, it was a matter of keeping up morale. Or of being afraid of stepping over the line between reportage and libel by saying, e.g., that a specific person got married out of fear of the draft. The papers had no problem filling up their space by sticking to the morale-boosting stories about people who volunteered their service, or willingly answered their country's call when it came.

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Checking in with just a few of our lions, I see that Emma Gruel set sail for France the very day of the Armistice, to continue her army nursing work there. Her sister, Anna, was then or would soon be nursing at Camp Lee in Virginia. The last Sunday in November, Fred Rose, Jr., was allowed to come to Hobart for a few hours' visit, but then had to return to Camp Custer, still waiting for his discharge. Everett Newman was in France; some of his letters home found their way into the newspapers, such as this one dated November 17:


(Click on image to enlarge)


Sources:
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 12 Dec. 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 22 Nov. 1918; 29 Nov. 1918; 20 Dec. 1918.
♦ "Soldier's Letter." Hobart News 19 Dec. 1918.