El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-05-15
The Tyranny Of Youth
Custom and Fashion Weigh Down
Upon the Young Too often and
spoil Their Pleasure.
EEg f1orofFt-- 1F~
HE Kingdom Of Childhood is pc

m HE Kingdom of Childhood is peO-
pied with wicked elves. ghosts
Ogres and hobsoblins, and we
hide our heads under the bed covers
and long to be grown up that we may
vanQuish them. little knowing that the
Land Of Grown-Ups has a greater ter
ror.
It is the tyranny OF criticism. and its
name is What Win Folks Says
No" a girl says. 81 am not going to
the party 1 want to go, but 1 Would
nave 70 wear my last seasons party
dress, and what would folks saye-
We cannot afford to give that din
ner" a woman viii frankly confess,
but If I don't pay my social OgHgd-
tfons what VIII folks say"
The sickness had been long. pain
ful and costly. and when at last the
sufferer was mercifully released the
family realized that the long seige had
materially diminished the bank ac-
count There were doctors. druggists
undertaker's AMI nurses bills 10 pay,
leaving scant protection against want.
But We must buy mourning the de-
clares, for if we don't, what viii folks
say?"
Once Again
A girl realizes that her lover has
grown cold Perhaps. down in her
heart she also realizes that she is not
him Up as long as cajOlery and tears
Will hold him. Il don't want any one
to think 1 have been Tilted" she says,
and If he stops coming here what VIII
folks say2''
1t is this tyranny OF criticism that
IS the hObgOblin Of the grown ups,
as fearful and real as the ghosts thar
clanked their chains about our beds ID
childhood. We hide our trembling
heads under the covers. just as We diG
then. and lose all sense Of reason be-
cause OF the great ogre We nave fool
tshly conjured to torment US.
We are not honest, we are not natu-
raj. we are distressinsly self. conscious.
we are not kind, we are cOWardly hypo-
critics in the presence of hobgObllu
that has no real existence. Nv hat viii
folks sayZ'' you plead in defence Of
fOOlishness. Did YOU ever realize that
YOU credit such powers OF cOndemna-
uOn2 And do YOU, as one of the
folks" despise ana condemn the We
man who wears an old garment be-
cause she cannot afford a new2 DO
YOU look with an air of superiority at
any honesty that dares to DE honest
Don't you really envy the spirit of the
woman who can rise above all con-
seriousness Of clothese
Your Reply.
You viii reply that you don't con
denim such person, but that others
do And in saying this, you declare
you are better than others. Ny dear,
YOU are not We are all very much
alike No one who is worth knowing
puts the outward show above tire in
ward worth. If your friends are more
friendly when you are a coward
hypOcrite and eXtravagant, then they
are not the kind of friends worth hav-
ing. and it is cheapening very pre-
ciOus word to call them so.
If you meet a woman you like, and
whom you would enjoy knowing better
and hesitate to invite that woman 10
your house because hers is finer, then
you do not give her credit for being
broad minded. and are narrOf gasel
yourself It is the personality that
counts; not its background or adorn-
ment.
And unless you can show yourself
so strong, so broad so big. that your
test question is rs il right and not
what will folks say?' you are no fur
Their advanced mentally than the child
that hides its head under, the covers
at every unusual sound