The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1885-10-23
Made over People.
HOW THE WORLD Is FILLED WITH THEM.
W Anted-A girl TO make over

"Wanted-A girl to make over"
| The above appeared in the advertising
columns of a city paper. 1t is SO indefinite
that the reader is lett to imagination as to
whether the girl is wanted 10 make over as a
| wife, or q seamstress, or merely to serve as a
| model for some one whose training, preju-
Every day some young man is looking for
dices, bigotries are seeking for an educational
outlet.
a girl to make over While she is his sweet
heart she is simply perfect, but as soon as the
| honeymoon is ended the making over pro-
| cess begins. 1t has its regular formulas, one
of which is like this:
Did you make those biscuits Helen?"
Yes, dear they are not quite right but |
am going to improve on them"
81 supposed you knew how to make them
when | married you"
| why, Charlie didn't | want to wait a
| year on purpose to learn how to cook, and
you said you never cared what you eat and
didn't want to marry Il cook, and all that 2"
| "Pshaw never said such word. Give
these bullets to the cat and kill her. I'd give
anything for one of my mothers tea-rolls."
well dear, will write to her for recipe.
| LIN try hard to learn"
| But Il man that finds ault with one thing
will find fault with another. 1t does not
occur To the young husband that his mother
is % years old, II farmers daughter, and that
he married a school girl who is as different
| from the mother-stripe as he is from the
tather-pattern. He is just capable of expect
| ing her make sausages and soft soap as
mother did. Eventually he makes her over
into nondescript that is neither compan-
| ionable wife nor u comfortable housekeeper
And his highest praise is the omission of
fault-hnding.
David Copperfeld tried the making-over
process on sweet, sunny little Dora, his child
wife. She tried to live up to his kitchen and
market requirements but was glad to die
| and end a condition so unsatisfactory.
Children are perpetually required to make
over. An original child is run in q groove
fitted to another soul 1t is dwarfed and is
expanded at the arbitrary will of parents,
until it becomes an epitome of its father,
mother, uncle or cousin. These Gradgrinds
of learning incline the twig in their way, give
it their limited sky to reach, and when it is
no longer living branch Of air and sunshine
and riotous life, point to it us the dry stick of
their grating.
The world is full Of made over people A
great number went early to their graves,
discouraged with the demand upon them.
"Whal shall do to cure my young daugh-
ter of laughing and looking in the glass ?"
wrote mother to celebrated divine. And
the answer came:
Let her alone. Time and sorrow will
cure her of both, all too soon"
Apopular novelist has depicted scene be-
tween husband and wife, where the wife
wishes to take a journey for her health.
You don't want to travel" says the con-
siderate husband. twill disagree with you;
travelling always disagrees with me-"
She urges sea-voyage.
You will be seasick-a sea-voyage always
makes me SICK" Etc, etc, etc.
Made over people, like made over clothes,
ale weak and unreliable. 1t is no sign be-
cause Johns father is shoemaker or
farmer, that John will be. He might do
worse, but he may do better. AT any rate he
has right to ascertain bis own value and do
that best fitted for him. BLESSED, thrice
blessed is the man who has found his work."
says Carlyle Let him seek no other blessed
ness"
1t is a responsibility the thoughtful capa-
bic soul will shrink from, that of making over
a human life. But the narrow unwise, bigot-
ted theorist is always willing to try his hand,
on the principle that fools rush in where
angels fear to tread"