The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1901-04-19
FOOLISH AMBITION.
WOMEN MADE UNHAPPY BY CRYING
FOR THE MOON.

With the Merry brook. Count Your
Blessings and Be Happy.
The earth is green, the flowers pink and
white and sweet, the sky that bends
above is of Il tender blue, the stream that
rlppies along is clearer and more spar
king than jewels, and Yet all this is not
enough. We cry for the moon.
Maybe you live in little town where
you nave big back yard with flour
lshlng garden, or maybe you live ont in
the country among the very green fields
ana close To the laughing little brook
that the tired city dwellers often travel
many mile to just be near. If this is
the case. the moon that you are probably
crying for Is great big, noisy city, where
you believe life is so much more inter-
estng than it is in your little nest of
nome Therefore you are a discontinued
woman.
Maybe you are a city woman and cry
Tor the moon, the moon of your particu-
lar desire being apartments in a fine ho-
tel. where you may live rs Mrs. Very
rich does, paying more for one weeks
luXurlcs than you pay for a whole month
of home comforts.
1t isn't good thing to get in the habit
of crying for the moon. To be sure, it is
habit, one that is surprisingly easy to
form and rather difficult to break, though
1t Is by no means an impossibility to
break it, The crying for the moon habit
first starts through envy. 1t begins on
the very day that you gaze upon your
nelghbor, who seems more fortunate than
yourself, and wish that you could do as
she does. Follow this little spark of envy
up, add fuel to it every little while by
contrasting your own life and its af-
fairs with the life and affairs of Mrs
Neryrich, and in a little time your friends
will begin to wonder how it is that your
voice that used to be sweet has a harsh
note and why you frown instead of
laughing merrily and often, as you once
did. The frown and the harsh note are
unmistakable signs of the beginning of
the crying for the moon habit
This is the story of a girl who wrote
some very nice verses once upon a time
and a dainty little romance or two that
found their way into print. If this girl
keeps a diary, one day she will probably
turn back its pages to a certain date and
smile-l hope she will be wise enough TO
smile-over the entry made on that page.
This girl was fortunate enough to have
won two of the very best things in life
the love and the admiration of the folks
with whom she daily associated. Her
family was SO proud of her that often she
would feel a blush creeping up over her
face ut their unstinted praises She won
dered sometimes if strangers would not
think her conceited prig. that she al
lowed folks to openly declare her the
brightest and wittiest girl in town.
Well, in spite of all this that was de-
hghtful, the girl one day fell to crying for
the moon. Her book of verses-she had
paid for its publcation-was TO be found
in every home of Bankvlle. and the
printed copies of her three published sto-
ries were pasted in her scrapbook along
with lot of verses that had never been
printed, just penned in her neat, feminine
hand.
As soon as this girl began to cry for the
moon she fancied she had outgrown the
folks around her. She sighed for liter
airy atmosphere" and one day she left
home and went to a big, busting city to
find it,
This was long time ago. | should new
er in the world have guessed at the bitter
had she not told me of them. She mas told
me of the awfulness of the shock lit was
truly awful to herr when she first discov-
cred that as the authoress of Songs of
the Meadows" she was entirely unknown
and that the literary lights who were
dined and wncd and listened TO, when
they condescended to speak from plat
forms, by admiring hundreds regarded
her as very ordinary little being. if, in
deed, they thought of her at all
Now, | am glad to relate, this girl has
quite grown out of the crying for the
moon habit. In fact, she honestly admits
she has taken her own measure" and
knows that a better thing for her is just
the everyday, commonplace existence of
an ordinary mortal. She is still ambi
tious, and her little measure of talent. far
from growing less. has grown greater, for
genius was never known to have been
killed or conquered by disappointments.
though through them its workings have
been often retarded
The girl who wrote nice verses and
pretty little stories cried for the moon
as it appeared to her longing vision and
got it only to find it was not all she
dreamed it would be after all.
1t is far and away better thing to be
Independent and individual than it is to
select some one else for a pattern and
Cry and sigh because you cannot copy
that one exactly.
Dress as well as you can, but no bet
ter than you can afford simply because
it is your wish to initiate your fashona-
BILE neighbor Gather about you as many
pretty things in your home as you can,
! but remember that true happiness is not
dependent upon gilt chair with bro
caded cushion one-half so much as ii is
upon the chcerfulneSs and good temper of
the woman who presides over the house
hold One of the moons most often
cried for is a handsomely fitted dwelling.
And, alas, | have seen this moon attain
ed through much sacrifice and then prove
| Dead sea fruit.
Laugh with the merry little brook,
smile with the blue skies of April, keep
your health and count your blessings
/ md in this way allow yourself no time
to fall into the crying for the moon habit,
which am told is an increasing habit
among American women. - Margaret
| Mannis in ST. Louis Republic.
Sewing Hints.
/ A 4 l.. Al.