Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-04-06

- W NsNWWN' the wrinkles about
A@& W your neck; when you
have to put on spec
tacles to read at night, and humor your
feet, you know that when that time comes
they begin to leave you out Of things, no
matter how young your heart may feel.
1 looked up from the magazine I was
glancing through and saw at the table
next to mine a group of ladies whom
knew, all quite deeply interested in dis
cussing the depiorable going Off i'll looks
of various women whom they knew. Rather
an odd subject for luncheon gossip in pub
lie restaurant. On leaving, paused to pass
the compliments of the day and almost
unconsciously I found myself taking a
mental picture of Miss Minnie. VINO had
expressed her regret at being left out or
things"
Miss Minnie is dear good woman. but
not q comfortable one. She ought to have
been called Martha instead of Minnie be-
cause she Is one of the careful troubled
my mind was not pretty one. Miss
Minnie has reached the age, meanly called
uncertain" by would-be funny people
Way hack in the springtime of her life,
when her ash-colcred locks were thick and
golden, and her eyes as bright as twin
stars, used to see her with her lover and
she was as bonnie maiden as one would
wish to see. Something happened, and the
lover went away, whether in anger or not
nobody ever knew but Miss Minnie,
think, but. anyhow. he never came back
for the ship in which he sailed was lost
at sea.
You have seen a beautiful peach, large
and luscious looking, hanging on the tree
long after the others have been picked, and
have gathered 1t, expecting to have great
treat. bat when you set your teeth in it,
To- 1t was Soured and bitter. That was
what happened to Miss Minnie-young and
beautiful, she soured on human kind. For
world, and devoted herself to the care Of
her motherless brothers and sisters-ft was
about that time that her father failed and
her mother died. She was a good sister
splendid rearing and sterling worth. but
You know even sterling silver has to be
kept FURNISHED and bright to make people
admire it, and Miss Minnie shut all her
shine up.1er a black crust of reserve till
people got to almost dislike her.
The boys grew up and went off to hunt
their own fortunes. The girls blossomed
into lovely womanhood, and they, too, went
away, into homes of their own. Then Min
ME was left alone with her father in the
big house they had got back again. 1t was
a desperately lonely life after the last one
had gone, and. unconsciously, Miss Minnie
turned back to the world she had thrust
aside ten years before.
Her Own Fault After All.
Ten years is long time to take out Of the
heart of Hfe that has just begun. 1t is
not missed so much after ones life has
passed the eqvinoctial and entered the
calmer waters where the waves reach the
other shore. but Miss Minnie did not rea-
lie the gulf that would have to be bridged.
and was continually hurting herself on the
sharp edges of the changes that had taken
place She had let herself get careless of
her personal appearance. She had old
fashioned ideas about etiquette, and older
fashioned ones about her attire. She lacked
in finesse, and in that indefinable thing
called tact and was hopelessly behind the
age in thought and action. Really. 1t was
almost pitiful to see her when she first
came back into the world. 1t was like one
who had all her life been used to candle,
being ushered suddenly into the full glare
of an electric light; 1t confused and be-
wildered her.
'They begin to leave you out of things"
she said, but the fact of the matter was
she left herself out of things, and when
she got ready to take hold again things
had left her in the lurch. and her old
friends having formed world of their
adaptable enough to make social niche
for herself she gradually drffted into phil
anthropic and mission work, because her
empty hands craved employment. She was,
not quite fitted for 1t by nature, for she
had grown severe and overcritical in her
retirement. and often found that she was
harsh when she meant to be only just, but
contact with the world began to soften
the same sunny nature that made her SO
companionable when she was girl.
But 1 am afraid it is too late to regain
her lost chances. She has been too long out
of touch with the world. My mental pic
ture of her is that of one who is utterly
hopeless so far as the graces of life are
concerned. She Is thin and sallow and an
gular. Her hair Is uneven, faded and
stringy Her tones are severe her man.
ners stiff, her attire almost outre, betraying
utter lack of taste or personal pride. 1t
seems incredible that in the little more
than a decade since she slipped out of So
ciety that she should have so deteriorated
She has not even kept up with the world
of books, and that, in a woman of Min
MES mental endowments is simply un-
pardonable!
The Se1fshness of Children.
Women make fearful mistake when
they let go their hold on the social world
and shut themselves up, jealousy, oftimes
morbfdly at home with their tiresome
round of duties and the rearing of their
children. There is no grander mission in
life than that of the mother, but no mother
should be slave. Her duty to the boys
and girls who are Of her own flesh and
blood lies as much outside of the home as
in it. If she sits down behind closed doors
| and feeds the growing minds of her little
ones only from what she has stored up she
will find, bye and bye, that she is a cistern,
and not well, and that the day will come
what then?
Her children will go out into the world,
| enter schools and colleges. broaden and
widen, while she stands still, and then the
day will come when they will say Of her
that she has outlived her usefulness. OF
course, they won't say that If they are
children worth having, but if their mother
does not keep up with them-yes, even a
little ahead, SO that they can look up to
her-instead of selfishly sacrificing herself
to their whims and sinking her individu-
atty in their childish demands, she incul-
Gates in them the spirit of selfishness
which will in the end shove her out to
| make room for those more active and use
full. You know you have seen such in
stances-many of them.
What of the husband Of such wife? Is
| she doing her duty by him when she makes
herself subservient to his children and for
gets to keep by his side and apace with him
| Intellectually and socially? man does not
| like to say to his wife, "You are fading.
You do not dress in as good taste as you
once did You are no longer interested in
the same things that am" Those would
be brutal things for a man to say to a
! whom he loved and there re