South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-01-09
Empty Life Lot
of Society Girl
Not Only Ennui But Real Suf
fering Result of an OBJ
jectless Existence.
BY Beatrice Fairfax.


OF course. we all know the old
truism that nature abhors a vacuum
and we dismiss the idea without
applying it in any personal way 10
our own lives. But If a vacuum is
abhorrent in science and all the
''ologies'' and '1sms' OF book and lab
Oratory life, it is equally so in the
vast field of humanity. There is moth
ing that is more unnatural and harder
TO endure than life that is based on
nothing and filled with nothing.
The Woodworking folk who must
grub for their very needs have no
right TO be half as sorry for them
selves as they are for the poor crea-
lures who have to struggle to fill their
empty lives. Even if all ones work
does not bring in enough money to
buy warm clothing and good food and
proper housing, there is a certain ele-
ment of fight and planning and inter
eSting gambling chance" to make the
life of a worker varied and free from
monotony. And in the monotony of an
empty life" there is a very painful
kind Of misery, Of which life's busy
workers are mercifully ignorant
The sufferers from empty lives"
may be divided into several classes.
First of all one thinks of the society
woman, who, having no main inter-
est, fills up her existence with all
sorts of fads and fancies. The work
er envies the idler when she sees her
lolling in her limousine on the ave
nue.. IT is true that the butterfly" Is
probably sheltered and protected from
all Of LIES realities, but how is a
grown up woman to content herself
with froth and frivol and toys when
life in the very nature of things is
filled with big primal facts and neces-
sites?
Beside the society woman there are
other sufferers from vacuum in life.
There is the girl of the middle classes,
who sits quietly at home and permits
her father TO do the wage-earning
am her mother to do the homework
II never occurs TO her that the days
she gets through somehow might
be far more interesting if they were
filled quite full of real things instead
of treated so that they are like boxes
with a few trifies rafting around
inside.
Then there is the wife who dele
gates all the real work of her life to
paid help, and never tests her thing
ing and working powers to the ut
most: the young man who prefers to
be a waster instead of q worker; the
boy who never puts his mind to his
tasks but says instead, You ought TO
have fun when you're young" and
the middle-aged man who lets him
self go to seed and prefers a game of
golf TO a Worthwhile day in the
office.
All of these people and many more
whom you can easily name and clas-
sify for yourself. are disconnected if
not actually unhappy. Life seems TO
them to be making no real demands
on them. They suffer because they
60 1 Inf l.. rn1n in, 60
that would be empty if they failed to
fill it.
IL would be simple enough for them
to fill q real place in life if they, in
turn. let the demands of life fill their
own existences; but instead they put
a few trifies, a little work, a little
pleasure a little whining and little !
impotent struggle into lives that ac- |
tualy crave to hold some big neces- |
sites. And in much the same way
that an empty shell of q tooth is
useless for work and active for pain, !
a life that is not brimful Of real in |
terest either decayes or stands, an |
idle. unbeautiful shell Such life |
offends the observer and hurts the !
owner.
The only cure for a sufferer from |
emptiness in life is to search for one |
big thing to do. regardless as to /
whether that big thing is the absolute |
congenial choice of his nature. Out Of |
one big interest will spring many |
little interests. One of these is bound |
to lead to congenial work. And all Of |
the ennui. all of the boredom, all OF |
the misery and Of the railing against I
fate that beset a person who feels he /
has no place in the scheme of things |
will stink away before the fullness of |
life that is devoted to actually accom- |
plishing something in the world.