El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-10-17
Girls Must Pay Their Taxes = By Beatrice Fairfax

" HE girls to whom the words
Personal taxes" bring a vague
l. memory OF something that trOU-
bles father several times a year. and
to whom all tax questions seem mys-
FERROUS problems beyond all under
standing, have taxes Of their own
which they must pay.
Father loses his temper over the tax
on mortgages, the tax on horses,
/. bonds, automobile and furniture.
Daughter burrows her pretty brow
and sheds a few tears, and scOlds and
pays taxes just as serious, and often
more trying than those he pays
For hers are the taxes she pays on
friendship. There is nothing in his
business life that is more fretting and
more annoying than the little taxes
she pays, though hers are not paid
over a counter to a county Official.
A friend bOrrOTs a book and returns
il with the back half off. A friend
makes an engagement and then pre-
sumes on the rights of friendship TO
break 1t on a moments notice, and
sometimes there is no notice at all
A friend claims the right of criticism
and exercises it beyond the bounds of
criticism, the line between that gentle
art Of faultfinding and the more vul-
gar one OF naSging being most deli
cately drawn.
4 friend violates every law Of conf
dencc. \ friend has been known
countless times to come between
girl and the man she loves. A friend
is at the same time the most worrying
and the most comforting Of all the
companions life brings
Must Pay Her Little Taxes.
Father knows ne must pay his taxes
to keep his business credit good.
Daughter must learn, II she has not
already taken this painful lesson to
heart, that she must pay all the little
taxes on friendship with philosophic
cheerfulness or be friendless.
1t is better to lose q n umbrella, to
have ones most precious books re-
turned looking as II spoiled children
had played with them, and to spend
hour after hour waiting for an ap-
pointment that has been disregarded
than to go through life without
friends.
There could be no fate that is worse.
The friendless girl is hopeless. she is
morbid. She is selfish. She IS self
centered.
She misses all the little pin pricks
Of friendship, and she misses, also, its
greater joys.
She misses the JOY Of SEX sacrifice.
She never learns the lesson every one
should learn, and that is, self efface-
ment.
Every little tax she pays on friend
ship is good for her soul if she accept
the lesson it brings in the payment.
If a friend is negligent in the little
niceties and tries her almost beyond
endurance, she profits by even such a
friendship if, in paying her tax, she re-
members the friends many other good
qualities.
The friend hurts her feelings. Tt is
good for her to pay this tax of friend
ship, If, while remembering that the
friend had no intention Of hurting her.
she must in future be less sensitive.
The fault is half my own is a good
thing to say while paying a friendship
tax. Il must not place umbrellas,
books, ribbons. a few waiting hours, a
few hasty words, above the value of
human hearts. I need friends more
than 1 need what I would save had
no friends and no tax on friendship
TO pay"
Not Always Easy to Pay.
Tt isn't always easy to pay these
little taxes smilinGly. some OF which
are imposed so heedlessly and so IN