OFFICERS' LETTERS TO THE FAMILIES OF FALLEN MEN.
(To THZ EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."3 Sta,—Last week's contribution from "A Student in Arms" contains a beautiful reference to the affection felt by officers at the front for their men. It encourages me to carry out my desire to express most grateful thanks to those officers who, in the midst of their other duties, find time to write personal and sympathetic letters to the friends of their fallen men. Such letters surely help to bind up the broken-hearted as nothing else can do. For instance, the mother of the fine lad of nineteen whose letters you published a few weeks ago is now able to say : "My trouble is not so bad as some folk's, Miss; when your boy is reported 'missing, believed killed,' and there's nothing else, it's awful; but I've got the officers' letters," and these four letters— from her son's Colonel, Major, Captain, and Chaplain—are again thought over, read over, and talked about. The two latter were indeed beautiful, with the little definite details that a mother's heart craves, and, with their note of personal regret and". deep sympathy with her .sorrow, they stand to her as an official recognition of the value of her son's sacrifice, and help to make her own share in that sacrifice seem worth while.—I am, Sir, &a, N. S.
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