The log cabin Democrat., 1910-04-13
ON NOT BEING
 INDEPENDENT

| S----I AsIS Iut lIlOSl lulGItSllHS IUtdl. fuppoSe nobody had to fuss ever try. ng to be what he felt he was ex- | nected to be. and could just accept himself as he w4s-tbink of the time one would have really to enjoy life
 "The reason this great thought | hawned on ne" explained the girl Tko likes to talk, is that when I got up this morning fe,1 lazy and nor tally yearned to skip my gymnastics that l sternly writhe through twice a day. You see, I'm getting stout and realize that nothing but stern, heroic, regular slaying will help me
 "l had to argue with myself I said firmly: Now. you know perfectly well that those reducing exercises won't do you ten cents worth of good if you are haphazard about them-it's the steady plugging away that counts!
 Its dreadful to think that all my fife I'll have to struggle that wayi Why. l just long for a real legitimate excuse to escape my duties Talk about inheriting a fortune, If I could wake up some morning and know - days freedom from those gym. 0as,.os that I loathe I'd go mad with Joy. Think how lovely it would be il 1 could just comfortably grow fat and 7obody would be shocked, and I was "lst as goodlooking as though I wer" thin and knew it didn't matter, Si1 ply because l realize the world will LAtnk me a sight if I don't attair 'phlikeness I'm doomed to struggle on.
 "Then look at Daisy Greene, She has such a desperately pretty face that everybody says, Gracious, I ex. Gect people are just crazy over that girl, She probably is the most pop1 lar person in her crowd and has Q dozen proposals season.. Whats the result? Why, poor Daisy. who is per. fectly simple and unassuming and would far rather stay at home and read novels or embroider centerpieces, is wearing out her young days being belle because the world thinks she should be! You needn't tell me that girl isn't slave, Look at the way she races about to theaters and luncheons and dinners, She smiles, smiles perpetually, and is always keyed up to be charming and attrac. tive-when she doesn't give a pica- yune for the fact that her dance pro- gram is filled first and the papers call her a social favorite.
 She's bored to pieces by 1t all She's just as much tied to a treae mill as l am with my gymnastics ana there's no escape for her, either Everybody has decided that she Ii make brilliant marriage and be q social leader and she wouldn't dare for her life marry a man who wanted to stay at home and read the pape' evenings and wear smoking jacket for such a howl would arise about her throwing herself away with all hel beauty and genius for the whirl of SO ciety, All because she knows what's expected ci her and bows to public opinion:
 Consider the way Mrs. Updike wears herself out endea7oring to make her daughter grow up into what she thinks Hazel ought to be instead Df what Hazel naturally is, Hazel is a lumpy. ordinary young person of IA who has no taste for the artistic and no gift or charm. She'd be perfectly content to be left in corner and not bothered all the rest of her life-iu fact, that's the only role she'd make success of. Yet her mother is miserable and makes Hazel miserable by etornally soading her on to shine. putting her in an exclusive school to make proper friends when she can't make friends any more than she can pick Mars out of the sky to trim hat chasing her to her French les sons, standing over her like a monu' ment while she tortures the piano. in sisting on her painting dreadful things, making her do clumsy antics at dancing school. keeping at her grimly.
 "It would be pathetic if it wasn't 90 ridiculous. Why can't she accept Hazel for what Hazel naturally k and let it go at that? She'd have lots more time to enjoy life and HazAl would have some peace. But she is haunted by the Knowledge of what people think a daughter ought to be and she'll keep at it till they both die If exhaustion or till Hazel elopes witt 4 grocery clerk and lives happily eve after.
 "I feel sorry for George Edwards He'd be such all ideal. ladylike pro prietor of dry goods store in smal. town-and here he is trying to be 6 clubman, a cotillon leader and sac dog generally! Just because his ia ther has money and he's been to col Iege and something is expected Of him, If he belonged to 50 clubs and had new dress suit every ten min utes I should always see huntiae Georges footsteps. like a second sen