The Attitude Toward the Sailor.

For one thing, it took the war to bring the sailor into his own. "I am surprised to find," said a kindly gentleman down in the Square to us the other day, "that your men are gentlemen." He shouldn't have been surprised; but he was just another victim of popular report. Like countless others, he thought sailors were instinctively rowdies, that the uniform was the signal for a rough-house, and that he had better nail everything down that was laying around loose.

But the war cleared all that up. The sailor came in unprecedented numbers to live in towns that had seldom really known him before. Residents rallied to the war service cause with an enthusiasm and generosity that can never be forgotten. On the whole, it was just a matter of making ourselves known, as one might say, "Mr. and Mrs. Jones, I am a sailor, a gentleman and a human being, just like everyone else," and the reply was, "Glad to meet you, Mr. Sailor; Mrs. Jones and I mean to be hospitable and neighborly. You have no reason to hold aloof and consider us as 'unfriendly civilians.' Come over to dinner Sunday."

From those first steps a general and lasting friendship has grown up between the service and the civilian public. The barrier between seems to have dropped out of sight for good. For the benefit of those of us who will find it pleasant to enjoy home hospitality after the war, and for the general reputation of the service, let us maintain the high reputation that we enjoy in this and in many another community. --The Oscillator.