Omaha daily bee., 1916-09-08
BY ADA PATTERSON.

A little girl years old tried to steal
a baby. The baby's nurse looked for a
policeman. The little girls mother
said: "I'll spank you hard with my
slipper when we get home. The baby
and the perambulator were pushed
around the corner into safety. The $
year-old was led away in a bowling
rage. What set the bystanders agtin
and aroar was soul station in the lite
Journey Of that little girl.
There are six main soul stations in
the Journey of life. Way stations,
switch stops, changing OF ears-yes'
there are all of these. But when you
plan a Journey you think only OF the
chief stops. The first is the discovery
that YOU are not the center OF the uni
verse. -.
Every person is amazed to learn
that the world does not revolve
around him. The discovery comes
earlier to some than to others. 1t may
come in childhood or later II later 1t
hurts worse, or if not worse, longer:
What the babe first sees is a group OF
faces about his crib looking anxiously
and straight at him. That is the first
impression. First impressions are
stubborn. These faces are the family.
and the family reyolves about him:
That is the reason that it is time OF
tragedy to some children when an
other baby comes to the house. The
little lad or maid finds that there is
another figure on the horizon of his
life Slowly and unwillingly we learn
that there is a vast family in the home
we call earth and that there are others
who may claim place there as well
as ourselves. 1t is an unwelcome truth
and dimly perceived. If it were clearly
perceived there would be no war.
The second main station is cooper
alton. The boy or girl may learn it
in the home, when the boy is COM
manded to bring drink OF water to
his little sister, or when sister has to
submit TO the noise that brother and
brothers friends are making in the
room, although she tearfully explains
that dolly is asleep and the racket
will surely awaken her.
Or the lesson in cooperation may
come with another, when the boy or
girl "goes to work" A main stop that
IS in every life. No one will ever for
get that first day at work. Nobody
thought much about it except "the
folks at home" and the boy or girl.
Other persons in the store or factory
seemed not to care at all. That hurt.
There would be hurts like that all
along the way. The knowledge was a
soul awakening. 1t forced the timid
one to draw upon his or her own
powers. 1t was the soul station of self
reliance. 1t was the first gleam OF
truth that no soul may really lean up
on another, that all must stand alone
and stand upright.
The soul station of falling in love
was there ever a glory or q folly like
it? Human beings differ in = thousand
ways, but never in falling in love. The
way is always the same. They fall in
love, not with the person that is but
the glorious object that their fancy
makes of him. Draped in the gold
and purpose Of our fancy he becomes
a god, and she goddess. And others
looking on smile. They have created
some such wonderful being them
selves and they shake their heads
sagely about what will follow. 1t fol-
lows as inevitably as night day, the
readjustment Of love. The god or
goddess falls from the pedestal and
breaks its nose. Or some other nee