The Washington herald., 1913-04-12
OUR AWAKENlNCS
ARE OFTEN CRUEL
We Must Go Through Hard School Of
Experience to Learn Our
Life Lessons.
by FRANCES SKATER,

Sometimes we grown-ups are very
philosophical and wise when we talk to
little folk of things they want and cam
not have.
We say they do not want them at
all-they only think they do; that If the
things they cried for could come upon a
wish they would be the sorriest little
creatures in the world. We tell them
that IL just once they could get taste
Of some of the things that look the
very sweetest, the bitterness would stay
with them for many a weary day, and
they would learn that big folk know
what is best for little boys and girls.
But they look at us with their great
round eyes. and are not impressed at
all. The time comes when they learn
that the doll that looked SO big and
alive and lovely was only stuffed with
sawdust, after all. But they must go
through the school OF experience before
they find it out
Dolls Stuffed with sawdust.
And we-well, sometimes our dolls,
too. are all stuffed with sawdust, but
we must go through the same hard
school before an awakening comes.
There are the friendships, the loves.
and the marriages in life. Many time
II happens that a man or woman will
meet some one to whom he is drawn
by a mystic power that outsiders cannot
understand, and they will look on and
predict the end. They see that one or
the other is the commonest kind of clay,
and that tricks and traits are hidden
below the surface that sooner or later
must lead to a break. And they caution
and advise, with ali the wisdom Of
grown-up to child, but it is the same old
story-they make no impression at ALL
Then the time comes when something
dreadful happens, eyes are opened wide,
and the bitter awakening comes. The
friend who looked so true, so steadfast
and altogether lovely-why, the back
ground Is nothing, nothing but sawdust,
and the friend is no more alive in the
things that count than the poor little
DOLL all tinsel and show and sawdust-
The awakening hurts-yes, nightly.
} but in the fullness of time there is
realization that it was all a mistake;
that outsiders Judged best and that even
grown-ups can sometimes afford to listen.
The Most Cruel of All.
But it is not in friendships where
awakenings hurt the most and where it
long slunbering. II is in that closest
relationship of all-marriage.
Many a time parents see a son or
daughter stumbling on to certain disas- |
ter by way OF marriage with one utterly
unsuited, frail in character weak, I'M
stable. and all that is bad. They plead, |
reason, storm, and threaten: try their |
best to show what life will mean in the |
long years ahead, point to similar mar
riages and the inevitable failures, and |
do all within their power to avert the |
catastrophe. But the son or daughter, |
like the little boy and girl, open unsee- /
ing eyes. and are not impressed at all.
But, of course, as the whole world |
knows, tibet ime comes soon enough |
when the awakening comes, and the
poor little boy or girl. grown big, very
disappointed and sadly experienced,
learns that parents were right, just as
they were in the doll days of long ago.
They know that there was woefui
blunder from the very start, realize only
too well that the dream they hoped
would come so beautifully true was
nothing but a dream. And the reality
they did not want it at all. It was all
sawdust nothing but sawdust.
Poor little boy or girl!
We Always Need Comforting.
And we. with all our advice and our
clear vision where the little folk are
concerned never grew so big or so really
wise that there are not times when we
need some one to say when the hard
awakenings come:
THERE little girl; don't cry!
They have broken your doll, know;
And your tea-set blue,
And your playhouse, too,
Are things of the long ago;
But childish troubles will soon pass by.
There, little girl; don't cry.
For, though the. awakenings are some
times bitterly hard, it generally happens
when the storms and disappointments
are all over, that the sawdust stands
revealed in all its lifelessness and failure
to satisfy.