Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1900-08-22
! The Dancing Teacher

THE peculiar thing about Marie
Vanderpoof was that she had an
incorporate appetite for happiness.
She took to dancing slippers as natural
ly as other folk take to goloshcs or
walking boots. She sang as read
lily as other people sigh. She
discovered chance for 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. 1t never oc-
Cured to her that she could be useful,
and she often reflected that TO a world
so swarming with useful persons as
this appeared to be--if one judged by
the self-placed estimate of these per-
sons-there was plenty of room for one
blissful creature of the nonutilitaria =
sort.
All of the other members of her fam
lily We're 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 We're associ-
ated with nearly all of the leading
benevolent enterprises of the city.
Now, it is impossible for any seeil &
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 g sod
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 burden of toll. She saw homes that
would not keep out the cold, and cUats
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 VOLTS long howl thai
they had no heart for pleasure.
ut is as likely as not" said Marie to
herself, that they have never disvov-
cred how to be happy" And she felt
vast commisseration for them. Not
to be happy! Ii was fearful-or it YVES
stupid!
II. CHANGED that on one occasion
there was a certain festivity at set
Element house in one of the most
crowded and poverty-strckcn parts OF
the city. and that Marie was invited to
go. 1T was not. perhaps, Just the SORT
of thing she would have selected, but as
there was nothing else doing that even
ing. for Il wonder, and as she had no
mind to sit down with book. sse CON
cluded to go. She was good deal ruZ-
zled to know what to wear, for she was
particular about the proprieiles, but
she hit upon costume at length mat
seemed to be neither too plain nor too
fine. She surveyed herself with pleas
ure. II was pleasant to have large and
brilliant brown eyes. mass OF way
ward golden hair, a snow white neck
and shoulders. nodded with tehdel
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 Tor
get, for once, the appearance OF when
she was so proud. She even forgot to
be resentful because some OF the peo-
-,le she met were serious. For the first
lime she found herself face to face WITH
the serious problem of life-for the
first fine a dim notion that life was
given to be used, struggled up
through her consciousness. She found
women as we'll born as herself. and
much better educated and trained. de-
voting their lives to others--anh there
fore to themselves, since in the eN'
nenditure of life in service comes the
best development. This type OF WON
onhood was new to her. She had been
acquainted with many who patronlzcd
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 eS.
treme. Here was whole library OF
human documents, SO to speak, await
ing her p-rusal. She looked in tine
faces of the girls, serious before they
should be so, showing the signs of close
confinement in stores and sweating
shops. and the binderies and tobacco
factories. and it seemed to her as II
she must pour sunlight into their lives
from the abundant source OF 1t wltha''
| her own heart.