Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-04-09
The Square Peg
In the Round Hole
By
Ellen ADALR
UncOngenidL Work

IT'S comparatively easy matter tc
preach time-worn platftudes TO other
when we are secure in the knowledg,
that after all. life has dealt pretty
kindly with us. and that the work we
arc doing in the world is something that
ls very soui-satisfying and so congenial
that we would miss It dreadfully IL we
had to relinaulsh it. But what of the
men and women who today might be
numbered not by hundreds or by thou
sands. but literally Ly millions, who are
nothing more nor less than the pro-
verbal square peg 81 the round hole.
and who are fighting a harder fight than
we could ever quito fathom-unless we
had to go through it ourselves?
For uncongenial work can prove an
affair that is almost soul-dlling in its
brushing weight. 1t can blot out the
sunlight so successfully that the whole
world seems a place haunted with hopes
that have died before they ever saw the
light OF day. And yet the man or woman
who has daily to toll at an uncongenlal
task must face this burdenso OF life, and
their only hope is that resignation-a
resignation that is not happiness, but
merely an opiate which dulls feeling and
obllterates regret-will come to them.
"Forgetfulnessl" they cry. I've only
want to forgetl We dare not, cannot.
ask for happiness, - we long for
strength to face tho work. to carry US
through the long years which bring moth
ing but uncongenial toll in their trainr'
And these are the square pegs In the
round hole who have no hope OF ever
being anything else.
'sBut why, why should any human be-
ing continue toiling at an uncongenial oc-
cupation when his whole soul is turn
ing, elsewhere?" one asks, surprised.
And indeed at first thought 1t does seem
strange that man should let fate or
untoward circumstance or the unfor-
tunate selection of an uncongenial pro-
fession eat the very heart and soul out
Of him.
But only the very shallow thinker, or
the person who is ignorant of social con-
ditions, can every seriously ask such
question. For social conditions and fam
ily obligations are such that too many
people cannot choose the particular busl-
ness or calling for which their faculties
ut them.
Behind the tired, dull faces of hundreds
OF the worlds toilers are hid burning
ambitions and souls that have yearned
for a soaring to fame and happiness and
to the satisfaction of all earthly am
bltionsl But circumstances have been
too strong for them. And now they are
merely tiny units in the great wheel of
Me, the square pegs who fit so badly
And sometimes with such desperate re-
bellion into the round hole they would
sell their very souls to quit forever.
But they cannot quit. For there is one
desperate fear tugging at their heart
strings. a fear that keeps them pIodding,
plodding with a grim determination that
is trying to outdo fate and outdo un-
to haunt them at quiet times-the fear
Of losing their job. "There are hundreds
and millions waiting. waiting to fill my
place." such an one will say desperately.
'.And IL lose this Job. what lies before
me? What lies before my familyr What
lies before those I caro- for most in tho
whole world?'
1t is an extraordinary but true fact that
30 many people one daily meets seem to
have deliberately chosen the wrong pro-
fession In life. have set their feet ir-
revocably on the one pathway and the
ono career that of all others they should
have particularly avoided. Then regret |
for past miscalculations is added to the |
sum-total OF their mistakes
A blind adherence to old family tradi- |
tons has a very great deal to do with |
this. In one family, for instance, the
youngest SON has always gone into thS
Navy. For hundreds of years this has
always happened. 1t Is foregone con-
elusion. And so, when the youngest boy |
Is old enough to understand the meaning |
OF words. he is imbued with the idea |
that he is to be sailor. He grows up |
with the idea. Sometimes he has vague |
feeling that the sea has no attraction for
him. but his family talk him down. And |
% he gets his commission and his career |
is fixed
But after year or two he begins to |
rebel bitterly. The loneliness of the life. |
tho lack OF society when one is out at |
sea, the work. the monotony. the isola- |
tion. begin to prey on hts mind. He feels |
that by choosing that particular profess
sion he has cut himself on from his fell |
CpPTNG CTVT .ES