Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-10-29
Cbe Beloved
Hrt Of
Soothing

There are many types of femininity,
but perhaps the rarest and most ap-
preciated is the girl who soothes.
There are SO many yivacious girls,
types which excite one to mirth or to
lively interest, but there is only one
girl In a hundred who soothes. She is
Ike the oasis In the desert, ~restful, re-
f~reshing, welcome to one and all. The
woman with the keen wit, she of the
bubbling mirth, the girl with the Ian
guorous manner, all are of interest at
times and under certain conditions, but
the girl who soothes never fails to at
tract wherever she may be.
1t is she who smoothes down your
rufled feelings when circumstances
seem to have conspired against your
peace of mind. If your dressmaker
has failed to deliver your new frock at
the promised time or If your maid has
just broken your favorite bit of china,
you take your troubles to the girl who
soothes and come away feeling much
better for her cheering words.
To learn this most difficult branch of
social diplomacy-namely, the gentle
art of soothing-you must have, first of
all, a goodly share of intuition. There
are times when your ruffied friend may
want you to ignore her very apparent
perturbation. At other times she may
be just waiting for you to speak a
word of sympathy or perhaps to touch
upon the upsetting subject in order to
burst out with her whole tale of woe.
Your intuition will have to tell you.
One of the first things for you to
learn in the gentle art of soothing is
never to disturb your friends poses.
There is nothing quite SO ruffling as to
have ones pose detected. If a friend
Is a chronic invalid with nothing real
ly the matter) sympathize with her
imagined aches and pains just as If
they We're real.
If a friend has her mind all made up
to be q martyr let her be one and don't
suggest possible ways out of her a
tyrdom. She will RAM on for hours on
the subject of all she has to undergo,
and it would be fatally tactless to dis
turb her in this pose. If she imagines
her husband untrue to her just be-
cause he has had to consult a woman
client on a matter of business, condole
with her by all means, whether you
think her foolish or not.
You must never suggest by any
chance that YOU confidant was in the
wrong In q quarrel. If she tells you at
length how Bobby and she no longer
speak to each other because he is so
ridiculously jealous, smooth her down
in your most tactful way. Suggest that
Bobby would not be so jealous if he
did not care for her; never intimate in
the faintest way that she would give
any one ample cause for jealousy.
If you want to be one Of those rare
creatures, a girl who soothes, never
tell a tired oma shopper that she
could have obtained much better bar
gains at another store. If a friend
wears an overelaborate gown, make
no comment on it, but tell her that
you have never seen her hair look so
well. 1t is strange how far an adroit
compliment will go at times toward
smoothing q ruffied mind.
There are women, however, who
cannot be helped by such methods at
all. You must study your friends and
their characters in order to learn the
art of soothing thoroughly. There is
no single way, but rather myriad of
ways of calming down a ruffled mind.
In fact, each woman seems to need a
different treatment.
1t is well worth studying the art,
however, for the girl who soothes is
beloved by all who know her.