Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1902-10-16
On the Waves of Chance.
BY +. H. LANCASTER.

| Copyright, 1902 by Daily Story Pub. Coz
| The literary woman was playing the
oracle to the man of means. He liked
her well enough. She was honest,
though she did have a penchant for
putting her thoughts into periods.
They never agreed; but then it is
not always exhilarating to converse
with people who say only Eyes" and
why certainly
Tonight the bone of contention was
the self-made man.
There isn't such a thing" she de-
clared. Let me show you how this
self-manufacturing business appears
when you get it into a focus: We
really have not much say so about
what we are going to do and what
we are not going to do. We are wash
ed on shore by the waves of chance,
and because we were furnished before
hand with roots predetermined to
strike into the soil, and because the
soil happens to suit the roots, we
stick where we are tossed, make a
goodly growth and cry out to all be-
holders: See what 1 have done by
NY lOuo Bell. IL Tie oOll 0OCoh
happen to suit our roots, we shrivel
instead of fourishing; we tap each
passerby on the shoulder and whisper
to him that this is the Lords doing"
He interrupted her with an impa-
tient movement and the woman
laughed lazily.
Not very flattering, eh?"
at is not true"
TRUE enough, and growing truer
every day. Take this terribly tor
mented question of matrimony. How
many men and women out of hun
bred couples do you suppose sought
each other deliberately? They Just
happened to meet and happened to
fall in love and happened to marry. If
the marriage turns out well, why, it
is their doing; if they drift into the
divorce court, the Lord gets the
credit for the whole of Mysterious
Providence
She laughed at his disguised frown.
you are like all the other women
of to-day" he remarked. Even while
| you stand before the altar you have
the divorce court in clear perspec-
| tive"
81 am not standing before the altar"
she cut in dryly, land don't expect to
be for one long, sweet while. What is
more; the women who are flocl1ing
to the divorce court aren't the women
of to-day. They are the women of
yesterday and last year. The sight of
our freedom has made them feel their
| letters"
do you honestly believe that?"
"What?"
"That the unmarried woman has a
better showing in life than the mar
ried woman"
Eighty per cent of the divorce SUI
are brought by women"
'That proves nothing. Breach of
promise suits are also brought by
women"
The literary woman shrugged her
shoulders.
ct isn't human nature to know
when it is well off,"
Then what about divorce?"
Just so; better be dog and sleep
on the door-mat, than a divorced
woman. But you and 1 know that
there are horribly unhappy married
women-lots of them"
There are unhappy women in all
walks of life"
Granted. But when the weather
grows too foul for the single woman
she can blow out her light The
mother must live for her children"
The man of means got up and kick
ed the smouldering log in gloomy alb.
stractio2.
You claim in all sincerity that the
self-supporting woman is the happiest
on the average?"
"You have said"
"That even If she loved the man
who loved her, woman would be IN
wise to marry?"
"Oh, if she loves him she had better
marry him. Not because it will be
the best thing for her, but because If
she doesn't, she will go through life
convinced that she has missed the
biggest thing in it. If she is familiar
with that saying of George Eliot's
about the folly of expecting trees
Topped of their bravest branches in
youth to be anything but gnarled and
ugly in their old age, she will easily
grow to believe that she is more or
less mutilated and let herself grow
lopsided at her leisure. Self-pity is
a dangerous element to introduce into
any life, when an excuse for all forms
of self-indulgence and Incidence
stands ready at our elbow. the