The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-23

~ HE following letter has interested
 me much:
 have been discussing a little
 matter with a friend and ] would
 like your opinion of it. The nnes- tion is how much one should re :ent cer- tain things that are said and done The point that started 1t is the naoit of a woman we both know of straightening out and touching up the clothes and hair of her friends. Before ' have been ,r the room with her five minutes she Is at my back hair. sticking Tn q Eairpin to catch up what she calls a little wandering lock or taking out my back comb and putting it in again or fussing with the stray hairs at the side of my face and pushing them out of the way.
 If 1t isn't that tt's something else about my dress. I don't mean she is l. or rid or critical, but if she sees something that is not quite right she tells me so frankly-and l don't think it's any ot her business. That is what my friend tc whom l referred at the beginning and had our dispute about. She insists that this other woman does all these things out If the kindness of her heart ard because she wants her friends to ook nice and tanks it is the part of friendship to point out defects so that they can Ee remediei. say it is because of critical disposition that always wants to be putting things to rights-and I might as well own that it irritates me beyond endurance at times.
 Please tell me how the matter i'm presses you and which you think is m the f,r;n and cross and is the fussy wom n really doing all these things with a lovely mo- tive or am I in the right and is she what we children used to call a MeddIesome Mattie? L. N. K"
 This query is hard to answer because l don't know the woman to whom reserence is made. l cannot help believing that cer- tain persons are really fond of fussing with otherpersons belongings and nave tendency to meddle which finds an outlet in this way. The woman on whose case this letter is based may be of that scrt and she may not be. Only one who lrew her well could determine.
 But the question at issue interests me just at this time because I have lately had something of the same kind brought to my attention and l nave had to 60 a little work in patience on my own account and some pondering over the situation which presented itself to me.
 l was staying in the house with come one who might have oeen the twin sister in disposition-of the Meddlesome Matte " described in L.. N. K. S letter and l confess that sometimes her att ,1npts tried me inexpressibly. 1 hope l shall never reach the point where I consider myself beyond criticism, for when get there I shall know that improvement of any sort is at an end, since resentment of criticism means degree of self-satisfac- tion which is fatal to gcowth.
 At the same time I draw the line be- tween the persons who have right to put me straight. so to. speak, and those who have not and the woman to whom refer l considered to belong to the latter class. When she took out my combs and put them in again half a dozen times day, or told me that my skirt did not hang right, or pinned my collar differently, or criticised the fit of my waist became at times intensely annoyed. If I had been a naughty little girl I would have told her to go away and mind her own business.
 As l am woman of mature years. and