Camp Followers by Ella Wheeler Wilcox — Read

In the old wars of the world there were camp followers, / Women of ancient sins who gave themselves for hire, / Women of weak wills and strong desire. / And, like the poison ivy in the woods / That winds itself about tall virile trees / Until it smothers them, so these / Ruined the bodies and the souls of men. / More evil were they than Red War itself, / Or Pestilence, or Famine. Now in this war- / This last most awful carnage of the world- / All the old wickedness exists as then:

But as a foul stream from a festering fen / Is met and scattered by a mountain brook / Leaping along its beautiful, bright course, / So now the force / Of these new Followers of the camp has come / Straight from God's Source / To cleanse the world and cleanse the minds of men. / Good women, of great courage and large hearts, / Women whose slogan is self-sacrifice, / Willing to pay the price / God asks of pioneers, now play their parts / In this stupendous drama of the age / As Followers of the Camps.