The San Francisco call., 1910-10-30

dubbed by the discontented wife SLOW
because allowed no time to lift his
nose from the grindstone.
you understand the soul OF woman
runs IN a pointed scrawI crosswise
over six blue pages, so I know you
are one of the few souls who would
understand the phases of. my nature.
I saw your picture in the advertisement
fof your book, and I am sure if we
could only meet it would mean the
liberation OF my soul. If you will an
swer my letter 1 promise to burn IL
before the touch of your hand has
grown cold. My husband IS Indifferent
pand in an atmosphere Of love and
appreciation"
Sometimes a confding soul with a
past" will. f1gurattvely, whisper In the
authors ear by means OF an anonymous
letter a pitiful, commonplace little
story to be used for the plot OF a
book, sometimes with and sometimes
without hope OF remuneration.
This is my own life tragedy" writes
one woman after one Of these all too
common experiences. II have never
told 1t to any living human being but
yourself. Under the magic OF your
touch you will be able to work II into
powerful theme. and no imaginary
heroine, IL / do say 1T. could have
loved. suffered and endured more he
roicauy than I have done NY right
name is Eliza, but I would prefer to
be called Violet in your book"
Next to the glory OF going on the
stage as the injured innocent comes
the longing TO figure In a love story
as the lovely, misunderstood heroine.
for the woman who puts all her "cuss-
edness' down to the fact OF being
misunderstood is the woman who de-
ludes herself into believing herself the
&-4~-
she reads about.
The soul OF a woman, we have been
told, shines through the way IN which
she does two things-says her prayers
and does up her hair-but the Man
behind the Pen has no need for this
index to her character. As her Maker
sees her. the 7authorman knows her
Secure in the consciousness that she
individually, is unknown to him she
has no cOmpuncttOns about settling IN
his mind a type Of vain. morbid, use
less womanhood, and. strangely enough,
most of these soul heroics and soul
gymnastics seem to come from the
middle west. Two out OF every three
of these notes OF the abnormal sort
are postmarked from some small town
in the great corn belt where the corn
fed soul seems to outstrip the develop
ment OF reason. judgment and discre-
tion- The word discretion" Is used
mere IN us strongest sense fOf q
woman, married but tmperfectly mono
gamous, who strips of the disguise OF
morality before a strange man leaves
her poor. naked nttls soul shfvering In
the cold light OF his scorn. deserving
no charity and no quarter.
Simply because a man who must
support a family anJ wife OF his own
elects to do 1t by writing love stories
he Is supposed by these harpies to be
surcharged with emotion. having the
real thing always on tap at the call
of the overfed. underworksd. married
woman whose husbands stockings are
out at the heel. whose soul had never
felt the purifying emotion OF mother
hood because OF her seldshness and
vanity. who lives in a hotel or apart
ment house because cooking Is too
sordid for one Of her sensitive tenn
permanent, and whose husband IS Slow
or "neglectsul' for the sole reason that
in order to meet her expenses he works
after hours, leaving her to entertain
herself with morbid reading.
This class OF women. unknown to the
writer a generation ago. is growing
with the growth Of the conditions that
foster it. Idleness and vanity are the
direct causes, and the only sure anti
dote is scrubbing,