The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-04-19
EUenin Chat
Mary Jane orr Rosalie Cecilia?
BY RUTH CAMERON.


A letter friend Suggested to me the
other day that itswould be splendid
idea if children were called pet names
in their babyhood and permitted to
name themselves after they grew up.
MY mother named me Rosalie
Cecilia" she writes. II look and act
like Mary Jane. 1 am large, square
and matter of-fact. When people hear
my name they always laugh. 1 have
tried to be called Cecilia as the lesser
of two evils and 1 sign r. Cecilia, but
people want to hear what the X.
stands for and that amuses them
more than ever. Now is it fair that
because my mother was romantic over
her first little pink and white baby
that a sensible, plain, unromantic
woman should be burdened with a
name like that?
one can readily understand the
warmth with which my letter friend
advocates this reform. A name IKE
that on a person it doesn't fit is as out
of place and awkward as the airs and
furbelows of sweet sixteen on plain,
angular and forty. 1t isn't so bad
when the mistake is the other way
round. Mary Jane imposed upon a
girl who is a ROSalie Cecilia in heart
and appearance is like a demure
Quaker costume on a very pretty girl,
it gives an added piquancy to her
charm.
But as to letting the young folks
name themselvesNat what age, pray,
should they be permitted to exercise
this function?
The scheme is one which has sug-
gested itself to me several times but
I always pasued in the face of that
difficulty.
Would the names we choose at
twelve and sixteen be any more suita-
BILE to our matured selves than the
choice of our adoring parents?
When we were about twelve
group of us girls had club and one
of it's most delightful features was that
we club members knew each other not
by the names inflicted upon US by
misguided parents but by names of our
own choosing. One girl was Lily, an
other Violet, another Mil!icent, an
other Vivienne, while I rejoiced in the
cognomen of Phyllis.
AS you may suspect, certainly am
not sorry that I was not permitted to
name myself at that age. How the
other club members feel I do not alb
solutely know, but 1 have my suspi
cions, particularly as two of them have
already named their daughters their
own formerly despised names. Joan
and Anne
Perhaps twenty would be a pic
turesque and appropriate time for
young person-to select his name-just
as he stepped into his majority. But
I'm not sure that even then he would
like the name the rest of his life. Be-
sides, any former name would have
become irremovably glued to his per-
1 sympathize with you with all my
heart, Mary Jane that should have
been, but I Just can't devise any new
way that would be materially better
than the old. Can you?
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Question: A letter friend writes
that she still clings to the feeling I'm
a man because a woman couldn't be
so logical Don't 1 agree with her?
Reply: i know you mean to COM
pliment me but please don't do it by
running down my sex The most il
logical, prejudiced person 1 know is a
man. To be honest, the most logical
is also a man but both or these facts
are accidents OF my acquaintance
There are logical men and logical
women, and more of the latter every
day. Men have formerly encouraged
women to be illogical because they like
to laugh at them and feel their own
superiority, but I hope and trust they
are growing out of that bless their
sweet eyebrows but confound their
intelligence attitude