The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1902-08-15
ABIDING FRIENDSHIPS,
The True and Deep Kind is Not Out of
Date by Any Means-Little
Woman's Views.

'Listen to this" said the Little Wom-
an:
The friendship Of woman for an
| other woman is something so fragile that
| the least breeze will blow it away
That quotation is from the recent
| newspaper article of witty Frenchman
who sometimes sacrifices truth and COM
mon sense to his singular conception Of
humor.
I'm all that has been said and written
on the subject of friendship, have met
but one heresy to rank with it. Here it
Friendship is out of date. We
change our friends as we change our
| Clothes
1T is because I have friends-a few,
very few, but those few of long stand
ing and true-and because I have an
humble consciousness OF not having
proved altogether incapable of lasting
| friendship that 1 want to raise a protest
against the circulation Of such NONSENSE
cal falsehoods.
both of those statements are admira-
! bic specimens Of the shallow newspaper
paragraphing which tickles the ear, but
makes not the slightest appeal to the
| reason, being founded upon nothing more
than the fippant fancy of all insincere
writer.
! Il take it for granted that the author
| of the first is not SO happy as to know
several such women as | might point out
for his meditation-women who have tru-
ly befriended each other for years. Hap
plnesS and sorrow have drawn them so
closely together that the relation Of sis
tiers could not be deeper-indeed, is not
often as deep.
MANY a gray-haired woman still
| treasures in her heart the chum of her
school days. They may see each othe,
! but seldom; and when they do, perhaps
they do not fall upon each others neck
and kiss and pledge and VOW as in the
, old days.
"But who supposes that sort of thing is
what constitutes abiding friendship? The
superficial observer who does might in
deed be justified in supposing womankind
incapable Of lasting friendship.
''No! women have strong, true. deep
friendships with women, and men with
men, and men with women. too, in spite
Of all the elegant trivialities of our
! Frenchman to the contrary.
"Wheneyer I read such sentiments as
! that about changing our friends as we
change our Clothes or this other, Of
which it makes me think. The age of
true deep friendships has passed; men
meet and they are as ships that pass in
the night l conclude that here speaks
greater misfortune than the loss Of
friends; he has lost his ability to be a
friend.
"Fine things have been said Of friend
ship. Plutarch says it is the most pleas
ant of all things, and that nothing more
! (as Tully did before him) that friendship
doubles our happiness and abates our
grief. Disraeli calls it the gift Of the
| gods, and the most precious boon to man.
| Emerson defines friend as the master
piece Of nature.
''But nothing is finer than these words
Of a II BILE woman writer Of our own
city: Il used to think friendship meant
happiness: have learned that it means
discipline.
I'm that expression lies the secret Of
the matter the reason why 4 man who
ceases to be friend has suffered worse
loss than he who has lost a friend.
IA friendly heart, it 10 said, will have
plenty. of friends. but will have them,
as another has said, not for the purpose
of receiving but Of giving.
IF | desire one to be my friend in
order that may be the gainer-in riches,
or time, or pleasure at his expense, or
whatever--I shall never know what a
true friendship is.
| "But let me desire him for my friend
that he may be the gamer, and it shall
! be for his blessing and my own.
SIS he glad? So shall I be. Is he in
| trouble? Here is my word of cheer, my
hand of sympathy. Has he lost faith?
Here is my friendship to teach him there
is yet truth in the world. Has he broken
the law-man's law or Gods? Am not
his friend still? Aye. never more so. 70"
now if my hand or word should fail. who
will help him right-about-face or bid him
| look up?
docs he trust my friendship? His
trust makes me glad and strong. Does
he slight it, even betray it? Let me not
falter in being his friend 1t is my priv
ilege now to prove the truth and grandeur
the very face Of his denial.
This is friendship. This is the dis
cipline that makes man or woman a mas
terpiece Of nature. This is the power