The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-25
Fair Weather Friends
By IRENE WESTON

The woman worker looked around the little flat. It was deliciously bright and eomfortable She thought. as her eyes wandered over well filled | hookshelves and fine bits of china, of
 the stuffy bed sitting room that had once been her home. And there was just a touch of regret in her voice as she turned to her friend, who sat smok- ing by the wide open window, and said: Success has it's penalties, Mary Mary turned quickly around, with a qlizzical smile.
 Quaint girl" she laughed. You are earning a capital salary, and you have
 the very incest rooms I've seen. You ! really have made a nook for yourself
 in the world. And you talk of penal
 ties. What do you mean?'
 I'm not ungrateful' said the other woman, with a sigh. "But with the
 material success I've gained I've
 seemed to have lost so much else. Friendship for instance. When I was earning S10 a week and doing without ny lunch if I wanted to go to the thea Ire, l had scores of friends. There were half a dozen houses where I was well
 come Today my old friends appar- ently think that I no longer need them It isn't jealousy. It's just that they feel Pm in different world-and it's lonely"
 Mary was silent a moment, and then
 she said thoughtfully:
 Don't you think that unconsciously
 you are paying something of a tribute to your friends? Seems to me that the longing to be of use, the great de- sire to be needed by those we love is
 just the very highest test of friendship you could have. At least, your pals aren't satellites, wondering how your success in life can procure their own" But" protested the worker, you are making the very mistake that they have made Why should one only need
 friends when one is poor or i'll or be- roaved of a dear one? Bad weather pals are needed, heaven knows: but there's room for fair weather pals as well. I want my friends to shake my hand and tell me they are glad of my
 success with as much enthusiasm as they would show me their sympathy | if I were in trouble
 Then" said Mary, decisively, "it must be that you don't make your need of sympathy and understanding ob- vious It's so very natural for people | to suppose that because you are ma 1 telial1y independent you are also emo tionally independent. Mistake. of course, and a mistake that a thinking, understanding person could never
 make. But understanding people are rare. You are proud. But if you were
 Tn some financial hole you wouldn't be too proud to ask old pal to help you to get out of it. And now that you are in an emotional hole why should you hesitate to claim the obli-
 gations of friendship?
 "I couldn't-simply couldn't ask for sympathy. If it's not spontaneous, what's the use of it?"
 But don't you see" said Mary, that
 the sympathy and love are there all
 the time? They would bubble out very
 rap'dly if you drew the cork"
 You mean that I ought to be frank,
 anC just tell those I care about that
 I really do need them?"
 "Why not? The next time you get 1 tte inevitable hump, don't say that it wouldn't be any use telling anyone about it. Make your friends see that
 one can he lonely and sorrowful and
 depressed even if one Is earning $200O
 year. Take them into your confi-
 dence, and you'll find that they'n be 1 just as satisfactory as fair weather
 friends as they were in the old days
 of storms and fogs."
 | Pm beginning to see what you
 rloan,' said the woman worker slowly. "r never thought it could De my duty | to show my friends how much I needed l their love and companionship. But I
 see it now. My material conditions have changed. and it's my job to show them that I'm very much the same
 kind of person as I was two years ago 1 After all, one can't expect people to
 see through a dark curtain. One must
 lift the corner, so that they can at least l guess at what is beneath"
 That is it." said Mary. "So many
 people complain that they are neg ! lected or misunderstood And the l fault is as often their own reserve as 1 lack of understanding and love on the | other side"
 The woman worker smiled happily. "I don't think I shall be without | fair weather friends in the future"