The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-07-16

THE SECOND FIDDLE GIRL
LIFE'S CLEVER PERFORMER
She Steps Gracefully into the Next-best Place 10
Sister, but Always with Grace.

- 49,. so,o narson more thar another he music of whose life Id telhng
harmony to the gayety of men and nations it is The girl M can Sill sr'o,
violin.
She Is not by ny means a commonplace young """"' WIS
fate has decreed In lesser parts in nfess symphony.
She is ohn rather pretty but the girl m WORKS d" inc h"
tier. She is cleverr han most young persons, perhaps o' -
IN else whose mind is keener whose nowledge Is more """ ''
attractive and people like her; but most folks like hers girl chum better.
She simply goes through the world playing the second hdde I'M plasns
it we'll
For it never occurs to her to be Jealous of the pretty young woman At "e
desk. Or if it does she fights dow he ugly little feeling vahanuS' an
nreuv soon forgets Ill about it.. She learnsto be honestly fond of the girl M
ispretty and to sympathize with all her romantic little oys an sorfo"' a'
to make herself, half mconsdously, the pretty girls goo frhnd.
She admres the girl who is cleverer than she becaus she Is "ehse
enough a girl herself to recognize h vaue of cleverness. She is perfectly will
scores of Interesting little things that are very well worthk knowing. mere Is n
lurking bitterness in her. heart for he years at school tha she herself missed
no " of the brilliant mind OIL r comrade.
There is n o false humility abou al this. When she thinks about herself at
all which is seldom, se realizes quite well that she is very far from oeng o
nonenttv She is Tot me of The unnamed members of the large orchestra. She
is the girl who would be playing first violin herself if there didn't happen to De
who played 1T just a little better.
It is because Of this because she comes 50 near to being the star member
Ios he company-that her W partc calls for so much of actual argeness in thu
playing o it. If it is ne that "the gOod is the enemy IF the best" 1t is none
the less true that the presence of the best makes defeat AM almost tragedy
not for he poor an inadequate, ut for the very good itself.
It is not an easy thing for a pretty girl to rejoice in the pleasant little
trumphs of a girl who is petder. 1t is desperately hard for a girl who Is clever
to accept III fruits of mothers greater ceverness or for a attractive girl to
join in the unanimous praise of nothers greater charm. There is only n way
in which this can be done. as it must be done by hundreds n thousands of
tnls every day in the ear, and that is by cutivatng a broad min n a
generous and loving spirit and by getting rid of the vexing onscousness of
self.
The second fiddle girl is IN important enough person to spoil the music If
she were so minded, or to mak things mcomfotab for the first violin. If she
were that sort of a person. avs a writer in thu Philadelphia Press. But SHIT is
rot. 1t might hav been veyh hard at first to be always good -humored and gay
and sweet, to make a FRIEND where onlookers might reasonably have expected
la dkagreabe rivalry n to purge from the heart the lurking grudge"
But she does it always, n latter while 1t becomes unconscious. And so
lit is without discord that he symphony goes IN.