News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1915-07-28
BETTY AT THE FAIR
Letters of the Panama Pacific ExpO.
sition by Florence Livingston
LETTER TX
SAN FRANCISCO, July z6, 1915.

Isn't it the greatest relief to push re
sponsibiity over to the share of someon
/ else? Even if it doesn't belong there
e the temptation is just as strong, and tn
resulting relief just as Geep. When Jo
suggested that we leave his case to Mrs
Winwood, | Immediately and unreason
ably shifted the burden and awaited he
dence. The judgment was not lacking
, but. oddly enough, do not know exact
, ly what it was.
Mrs. Wlnwood received Joe graciously
and without surprise. To my protesta
lions against staying with her longer
under these altered circumstances, she op
posed an amused smile and the reitera
tioD that her invitation included my in
cumbrances. She said further that was
not to give the matter another thought.
for she would settle its details with Joe
directly. want to tell you, daddy mine,
that there is something about that dear
lady's firmness, perhaps its accompany
ing gentleness, that stops your questions
and leaves you to watch for develop
ments.
Anyhow, watched for them, but they
didn't happen. To be sure, there have
been several mysterious conferences be-
| tween my hostess and her new guest, but
| l have been given no inkling of their
| nature. Mrs. Winwood's attitude has
| not changed, but Joe has betrayed a
| growing nervousness and tendency to
| fits of abstraction entirely unsuited to
his years. Thus the situation has stood
for many days, each one of us occupying
a corner of the triangle, and no two real
ly meeting at any point. 1 try to think
that we shall work out some satisfactory
adjustment, and in the meantime | have
undertaken to amuse Joe by taking him
about with me on my sightseeing jaunts.
Father dear, an ordinary day at the
Exposition is exciting enough; but when
there is special attraction, you should
hear us click the turnstiles. The latter
operation is in itself an interesting one to
me. There are more than eighty turn
stiles which are connected with a regis
tering machine in the Service Building
As the visitor slips in his notch of the
horizontal Maltese cross and awaits the
pleasure of the gatekeeper to grind him
through, he may feel that he is about to
60 on record in the central Office and in
his humble way change the statistics of
the big fair.
l know that your practical mind has
never felt the charm that turks in fairy
stories, but your daughter differs from
the parent stock in this particular, and
I'm now going to confess that one of the
surreptitious tales which beguiled the
days of her early childhood was about a
naughty little girl who was punished
with the unnatural severity that occurs
oftener in books than outside. She was
given boxes of needles and pins of vari-
Gus sizes, hopelessly jumbled, and told
that she must arrange them in neat rows,
heads by heads, and points by points,
each size by itself. She tried and she
cried, but all she accomplished was to |
perfect herself in this alienation of ac-
tivities. Just at this moment the kind |
fairy appeared and waved her wand, the |
needles and pins took their places, and |
the story was finished.
l am little uncertain about the ethics
in this total remission of punishment,
even though great suffering had preceded |
it, but it is not that question which
makes me recall the story now. 1t is the
between the Exposition and
the fairy. The Exposition is constantly
saying: "Listen, my children! L have
set apart days especially for those of you
who come from one section and another,
who are working in any one of many
fields, who are interested in this and that
Form of social progress or artistic effort.
Be sure to visit me on your special day!"
And they do. The Exposition sorts
the people, and it proves to be a most
arrangement all around. 1t
Dleases the Exposition to have so many
Interested visitors; it pleases the visitors
10 be sure of congenial entertainment and
|OhPahiOhss anu ~ PHRASES INC uebdCUeu |
observer to have an opportunity to study
different classes of human beings, assem-
Dled in numbers.
Sometimes your frivolous Betty be-
comes one of these detached observers,
acquires seriously moony mood, and
,lings to the outskirts of gatherings,
and wondering. You see, faith
IT, it is very puzzling to try to under
tand why people who follow the same
oath in life should look more or less
like, should act in practically the same
way under given circumstances, should
'njoy the same pleasures and be totally
lnattracted by ethers-in fact, why they
hould put their heads together, like the
inns in the fairy story, and belong, out
Vardly as we'll as inwardly, to the same
ype. DO they grow alike because of
imilar tastes, or do they develop similar
astes because they had the same natural Z
ndowments? The hardest thing know
5 to distinguish between cause and effect.
{ is rarely that can tell which is which
nless l see them come on to the ground;