The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-11-29
EVENING CHAT
BY RUTH CAMERON.

am exceptionally glad tonight that
1 write this chat.
Because it gives me a chance to ex-
press some pentup feelings about the
person who regards indiscriminate and
considered plain speaking as the
shining evening star among virtues.
And if 1 didn't have that chance,
seems to me I'd explode.
OF course you know the kind of
person that mean.
You also meet up with them every
once in a while, and, in the name of
their dislike of hypocrisy and burning
love of truth, are informed of some
disagree BILE and completely unneces-
sary fact by them.
Truth, oh, truth, how many
wrongs are committed in thy name %
I suppose you are wondering what
makes me so very rancorous tonight.
Well, I'll tell you.
Molly, the little stenographer lady,
came to see me yesterday. Molly is
one of my favorite heroines, along with
Joan of Arc and Marie Antoinette. If
L am ever clever enough I am going
to put her in a book She is twenty
one years old. She is very pretty. If
she hadn't been Overworked and I'M
deramused all her life she would be
even prettier. She works in an office
through which many men of all sorts
are continually passing. A few of
them are genuinely kind to her, but
most of them insist upon regarding her
prettiness as a sort of Girl for sale
work up a more or less desperate fir
tation with her. You can't trust any
man. Not even the white haired ones,
who begin by talking about their
the worst is the sum of Molly's ex-
perience. And vet, despite the handi-
cap of her surroundings and her
charm, the stenographer lady has kept
both her character and her dignity in
tact.
Molly has worked ever since she was
sixteen and never earned more than
| ten dollars a week. because she didn't
have a good equipment to start with.
To return to my theme-the stenog-
| pher lady came to me last night with
the corners of her mouth turned
down. That is rare for Molly, for de-
spite her far from hilarious life, she
manages t. keep those corners pretty
perky. And this was the raison
'etre, as 1t came out in due season.
A big event had just taken place in
Molly's uneventful life. She had
| bought a new hattie first one she
had had in three winters. And, alas,
it was a terrible error in judgment
"a hfdeous shape and an unbecoming
color.
The stenoggrapher lady, as soon as
she had bought it, dimly suspected
that she had made a terrible mistake,
| DuC neT mates Knowing now I0uCn It's
| purchase meant, and how very, very
| long Molly would have to wear it,
nobly rose to the occasion and reas-
sured her. and Molly was comfortd.
+ And then as i'll luck would have it,
Molly met up with plain speaker,
and the plain speaker, glorying in the
fact that she was no hypocrite, told
Molly, You know I never can pre-
tend to like anything when 1 don't,
and, really, Molly. it isn't a bit your
style. Why. you looked better in that
old hat you wore last year than you
do in this. And no one is wearing that
kind of feathers now, and look at that
/ velvet. It's terribly cheap"
OF course the girls who told Molly
it was the most becoming hat she
ever had didn't do right.
Hypocrisy is wicked. of course, but
| I wonder what st. Peter thinks OF
certain kinds of plain speaking.
When anyone asks ones opinion in
regard to something which can be al
| tered, think one should tell the truth
as gently as possible. But when any
| one asks ones opinion on some I'M