The St. Johns herald., 1900-08-18
The Dancing Teacher
~~~~~~

HE peculldT thing dOOut MaTls
 Vanderpool was that she had an
 incorporate appetite for happiness
 She took to dancing slippers as natural
 Iy as other folk take to go;oshes or
 walking boots. She sang as read
 fly as other people sigh. She
 discovered a chance for a frolic with the same enthusiasm that
 others found an opportunity for work,
 No one ever claimed that she was of
 any use, and she certainly never made
 any such claim herself. It never oc- cured to her that she could be useful. and she often reflected that 10 a world so swarming with useful persons as
 this appeared to be-if one judged by the self-plaeed estimate of these per sons-there was plenty of room for one blissful creature of the nonutilitarian sort.
 All of the other members of her fam fly were industrious, and several of them were wise. They won distinction along commercial and intellectual lines. were noted for their philanthro- pies. and were solicited to lend their names to ''causes." They were associ- ated with nearly all of the leading benevolent enterprises of the city.
 Now, it is impossible for any seeing and hearing person to go about Chi cago without becoming aware of the fact that large number of the citizens of this busy town are not having good time. Even Marie observed it. She saw children with old faces. and men with despair looking out of their eyes, and women nervous and crushed under a bu. n of toll. She saw homes that would not keep out the cold. and coats that hung in rags from the shoulders that supported them. And, what was equally pathetic, she noticed that many persons worked so hard to silence "the wolf's long howl" that they had no heart for pleasure.
 "It is as likely as not" said Marie to herself, that they have never discov- cred how to be happy" And she felt a vast commisseration for them. Not to be happy! It was fearful-or it was stupid!
 It chanced that on one occasion there was a certain festivity at a set clement house in one of the most crowded and poverty-stricken parts of the city, and that Marie was invited to go. It was not. perhaps, just the sort of thing she would have selected. but as there was nothing else doing that even- ing, for wonder, and as she had no mind to sit down with, book. she con- eluded to go. She was good deal pug zled to know what to wear, for she was particular about the proprietieS. but she hit upon a costume at length that seemed 10 be neither too plain nor too fine. She surveyed herself with pleas ure. It was pleasant to have large and brilliant brown eyes, a mass of way ward golden hair, a snow white neck and shoulders, modelled with tender and abundant grace, and mouth that smiled with more merriment than the common run of mouths.
 But what Marie saw at the settle ment was calculated to make her for get, for once, the appearance of which she was so proud. She even forgot to be reSentful because some of the peo- p.e she met were serious. For the first time she found herself face to face with the serious problem of Efe-for the first time dim notion that life was given to be used, struggled up her consciousness. She found women as well born as herself. and much better educated and trained. de- voting their lives to others-and there fore to themselves, since in the eX- penditure of life in service comes the best development. This type of wom- anhood was new to her. She had been acquainted with many who patronized charities and benevolences, but here were women who found it privilege to express life in terms of love. Moreover, she found the ''neighbors" who came to the settlements interesting in the ex- treme. Here was a whole library of human documents, so to speak, await ing her perusal. She looked in the faces of the girls, serious before they should be so, showing the signs of close in stores and sweating shops, and the binderies and tobacco factories, and it seemed to her as if she must pour sunlight into their lives from the abundant soIrce of it within her own heart.