South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-08-05
Friends Are
Like Clothes
Give Them A Rest Now
And Then Or You Viii
Wear Them Threodb0re
BY ADA PATTERSON.

81 -ADa IAllbhSON.
Friends are like clothes. Don't
wear them threadbare
Now and then we should give them
a rest.
Two weeks before leaving for lit
tie breathing space among the rest
and calm giving hills, 1 looked critic
ally at a favorite hat of mine. At that
moment it was not a favorite. Was
that light passing between the strands
of the straw or had the color faded
to white on the edges The osprey
tips that | had thought so smart as
they perched on the edge of the brim,
dropped as do the feathers of a de-
jected ROSTERS tail. The gay poppy
wreath that Rugged the crown seem
ed to have lost its brightness. No
longer a JOY. ii had become a weight
upon my spirits. l was visited by an
inspiration.
THE hat is tired. Give it rest"
! said confidently to myself.
I. brushed the hat with soft little
brush. and coaxed the tips and the
peoples a bit. and placed 1t in a tissue
paper nest in box.
When ! came back from my rest in
the hills / got out the hat. inspected
it and wore it. 1t had regained its
beauty. 1t was restored to favoritism.
In that incident is hint as to how
TO treat our friends Has this woman
whose personality seemed SO vivid so
early in our acquaintance begun To
seem commonplace? Has the man
we thought such a good fellow turned
out TO be a bore2 II isn't their fault.
They are the same persons they were
when we enthusiastically welcomed
them into our circle of acquaintance.
The trouble is that we are seeing too
much of them. In justice to them.
for their sakeS and our own, we should
give them a rest. We have made the
mistake of wearing the acquaintance
threadbare.
When you think YOU must see Mary
every day or be wretched. YOU would
better not see her for a week. Still
better make il two weeks. 1t is not
we'll that any person should lean upon
another. unless they too have become
the one spirit and flesh of wedlock.
That person whom YOU think you
must see every day is not a friend.
He is a habit and a habit that may
easily become bad one. II Is unfair
to our friends to wear the friendship
threadbare. Don't talk with your
chum so often that you can tell what
she will say on any subject before she
opens her mouth. Let some element
of the unknown remain in Ter mind
Don't come TO know her moods so
well that you can anticipate them.
Allow uncertainty to play its part.
No one is perfect judge of the
weather that is to come. You have
become too familiar with a persons
mind if you can predict his mental
weather
One of the wisest women I know
refused TO meet one Of the most bril-
liant. We are sufficiently good friends
to permit each other to ask why 1
exercised this privilege. Said she:
Il know that she has the habit of
taking people up violently and drop
ping them violently. l don't want TO
be violently dropped"
remembered that if I saw the
brilliant woman many times one sum-
mer she was almost invariably with
the same woman. / had thought. !
What chums they are" The next
season il would be another I re-
called a rather staggering procession
of these shadows and recalled now
that I had heard of hot quarrels ter
minating most of them.
The wiseSt woman was right. The
brilliant woman had exhausted her
friendships Not content with friends |
she must have the human shadow, |
the chum. Chums are mistakes. /
When you find a friend is reaching
that stage which is chumship, better /
make a new friend. We need not one |
friend but many. We need variety in I
friendship. The violent friendship is
fire of shavings. Such violence
breeds fickieness.
Don't wear your friendship thread /
bare. Give your friends a rest. You /
will enjoy them more for frequent /
absences.