The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-31
DOLLY ON "CANARIES
IN SQUIRRELS CAGES"
Just Crafty Whm-There is Language of the Heart Thai
is Deeper Than Any Speech That Gould Be Caught in
the Pages of a Dictionary-Every Day Jargon
That Means Nothing
= Dolly DALRYMPLE

have done better TO have broken loose
from her family-severed the ties that
pind her TO her own flesh and blood
and"
Il don't know" Betty ruminated, but
do know that Rose has wasted the good
30 years of her life catering to whims-
cal old woman, who provides her a bed
and board, which is the inheritance Of
every girl baby that is born into this
world"
And now she's a hopeless old maid.''
her friend remarked
Being married or unmarried, doesn' t
cut any figure at all, as I see it," Betty
insisted, but .he tragedy as l view it is
that instead of being a gerat painter Of
pictures, Rose sits now. mewed up in
the house with domineering old lady, who
deludes herself INTO believing that tatting
and silly dog and empty conversation
with those who are interested in nothing
higher than what the other people up and
down the street are doing, and saying fill
up the days and life of a girl who de-
spises gossip, and who has never met a
person yet who really speaks her own
1anguage@'
What do you mean?" her friend de-
manded
Just this" Betty explained: There
Is a language of the heart of the soul.
that Is deeper than any speech that
ctuld be taught in the pages of a die
tionary- or course Rose speaks the
eseryday jargon that is heard in Aunt
I.uoreta's house.- She knows English
ana French, but underlying all this there
is inarticulate speech, which her fam
lily would sit aghast at If she were to
indulge in it,
And all this is apropos of what?"
asked the Boston friend.
'Of my idea of the new woman" said
Betty. The new woman doesn't mean
to me the woman who will know how
TO vote when the time comes No. Not
at all. 1t means the new mother, who
will be able to differentiate between her
children, and realize that she can't put
a canary bird into a squirrels cage and
make it happy
But don't you think a child owes
something to its paCents?" asked her
friend
The kind of child I have in mind"
said Betty, don't ever ride rough shod
over anybody. Now in the case of Rose.
tf she hadn't been unselfish enough to
realize that in the final analysis her
self-effacement on account of her par
ents would cost more than any realized
oi cam of her own, why she would have
been a very different person."
$50 it all comes back to what your
Aunt Uucretia didn't do" came the
suggestion quickly.
Yes, IL you wish to put it like that"
said Betty. For Rose is failure and
she'll keep on being a failure now to
tho end-a mere social drudge, pouring
tea and eating senseless, foolish little
cakes with her mothers gossipy friends"
But you've just said" her friend re-
marked.
II really haven't just said anything"
replied Betty. II can't. The subject is
to big for me. What do say, though, is
just this: If you put poor little canary
bird in a squirrels cage thinking it is
the place for it, don't lock the door. IL
you kept it there for great number of
years it will be too late to open the
door then. The bird by that time will
have forgotten how to swing and sing
IF you take a girl who wants to
paint pictures and make her pour tea for
twenty years and listen to the everlast-
ing gossip upon this street and down that
one. there is no use at the end of that
time putting a palette and brush in her
hand. The dream has gone. What once
might have been real inspiration, Is now
only a mere interest in How many
Jumps, please, in yours2 Isn't that trueT'
Betty" her bosom friend gasped,
what makes you talk so?''
II don't know" Betty returned, sadly,
unless it was yesterday when I stopped
by there and caught a glimpse of Roses
face when she didn't know | was look
ing; when Aunt Lucretia was discussing
her new pet canary in a squirrels cage
IL came to me quick as flash that this
is exactly what Aunt Lucretia did to
Rose-fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five
years ago."