The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-04-13
Evening Chat
Why She Wasn't Loved.
BY RUTH CAMERON.

The other day a group of US were
discussing a piece of good fortune
which had befallen a woman we all
used to know in our school days
She has inherited a sizeable sum
of money from a distant relative, and
the poverty with which she has al
ways had to struggle is at an end.
we looked at her with startled eyes
mad always been and how glad we
were for her, and then suddenly me.
franker than the rest, spoke out, 1T s
a queer thing-but I'm going to con-
TESS it. 1 never liked Amy: I always
felt 1 ought to, but 1 didn't"
We looked at her with starteled eyes
and then we looked at each Uthes.
and then from each of us, it came
You don't mean it. Why, that's
just abe way I've always felt. oily
1 never dared say so before"
MY dear, it's simply uncannyI
I've been so ashamed of myself be-
cause 1 couldn't like her"
Isn't it the queerest thing? I adj
mire her for being so good, but she
always exasperated me- -
What do you think the reason is p
said the analytical one of the g-CuD.
rs it because she's so good that she
makes us ashamed because we aren't
better. and so we don't like her?" .
No" said another woman. Don't
you know how we all loved Flore ce,
and she was just as good"
It's a different kind of goodness,
isn't it?" said someone.
Yes, it's a self-conscious goodne IS
I-Amy's 1 mean" said the analytical
one thoughtfully. "She did make a
big fight to put herself through col
lege and to help her younger sister
through, but she was always manag-
ing to refer to it, to drag it into the
conversation in some way. If she
couldn't go anywhere she told you it
was because she was too poor, and
smiled that sanity smile of hers
Don't you think she thought re
rest of us were selfish?''
again; "I wouldn't go so far as to be
sure of that But she did think she
was good. 1t was just that. that she
was self-conscionsly good, and don't
believe that kind of goodness ever
made people loved"
So we left it.
And so, 1 believe, it is. We often
wonder why someone who is very
good isn't more generally loved. And
we talk about other peoples selfish
ness and ingratitude May it not BE-
partly due to the quality of the good
ness?
Pious people, in the invidious sense
of the word are people who are self
consciously good.
''To live with the saints in Heaven
Is untold bliss and glory;
But to live with the saints on earth
Is quite another story"
So wrote a clever rhymester with
more truth than poetry. And the
| difference is that the saints in
Heaven are those who got there by
being unself- consciously good on
earth, while the saints on earth" re-
fers to the people who wear their
saintliness in much the same spirit
as they would wear a gown that was
richer and finer than their neigh
boris gown.
There is a snobbery of saintliness
you know just as there is a snob-
berry of intellect or wealth or family
Simple. unconscious goodness is
one of the greatest powers in the
world. 1t can remove mountains OF
evil by the mere beautiful fact of It's
| existence, while self-conscious good
ness is utterly futile and impotent
so far as influencing or helping 9TH
ers. 1t is more apt to antagonize and
irritate.-(Protected by the Adams
| Newspaper Service.)