The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-03-03
EU ening Chat
ForestalIing Family Jars.
BY RUTH CAMERON

When an animal in a menagerie is
especially cross the keeper some
times hangs a sign of warning on his
cage.
Now, why wouldn't that be good
idea for human animals to adapt and
adopt?
Don't laugh. I really know two
young people who have found an
adaptation of that idea of warning
very helpful in avoiding family upsetS.
This is what they do. When either
one of them finds that he has gotten
out of the wrong side of the bed, ne
warns the other 81 feel pudgy today
"Pudgy'' is a word coined for the oc-
casion 1t means nervous and touchy,
irritable, at odds with ones self and
the world.
That announcement is received by
the other as warning and acted upon
as such. He knows that if the pudgy
one says something cross or disagree
able, he doesn't really mean 1t and he
takes any such outbursts with a kind
ly grain of salt. Again, he knows that
little things that ordinarily would only
mildly disturb his housemate today
will crate on his nerves and -rritate
him beyond reason, and he makes a
special effort to look out for the lit
tie individual sensitive spots that all
of us possess. q have used the pro-
noun he throughout to avoid awk-
wardness, but of course one of the two
people is ''She.")
Let one thing be emphatically un-
derstood Having given the warning
does not entitle the pudgy one to give
free rein to his pudgfness and to be
Just as diSagreeable as he chooses. On
the contrary he is expected to make
payment for the consideration he is
receiving by trying not to give way
and by doing everything he can to re-
gain his poise.
What happens when they are both
pudgy at the same time? Wen, that S
very often, and when it does. the one
who makes the announcement first is
supposed to have the privilege of be-
ing looked out for.
Another interesting thing about TINS
arrangement is that sometimes just
making the announcement seems to
clear the air, and pudginess confessed
is pudginess already half overcome.
You're still laughing at the whole
thing? You think it absurd? Very
well, laugh if you want to but let me
remind you of one thing. It's true and
it has helped and it might help you,
if you weren't above trying It.
Questions and Answers
wrong to elope? We want to get rid
of all the fuss and feathers of a big
wedding and so we are thinking of
slipping away to the little church
around the corner. The only thing
that deters me is that it would make
my mother feel so badly. She thinks
that Opponents are terrible.-H. T.
c.
Answer. 1t isn't necessarily wrong
to slip away to the little church
around the corner" but it is very
wrong to hurt your mother. E1ope-
ments have a bad name because they
are usually hasty and i1-considered
marriages and have an Objectionable
air OF intrigue and concealment. 1
have n file of divorce clippings and
you would be surprised to know how
many begin with the statement that
the parties eloped. There are plenty
Of stages between a big wedding and
an elopment. Why not have a quiet
home wedding? Anyone who can face
getting married can face that
Question. c. A. B. wants to know
whether a young girls card should
have her full name or not
Answer. I believe that either the
full name or simply Miss So-and-so is
allowable.