Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-07-20
WHY NOT BE
JOYMAKER ?
Peace Which Comes After
Turmoil Is Very
Lovely
BY BEATRICE FAIRFAX

| BY BEATRICE FAIRFAX
Experience is universal. When
John clasps Jane in his arms and
tells her that he loves her as woman
was never loved before, he is wrong.
Every man says that to the woman
he loves, and every woman thrills in
response to 1t as all their ancestors
have been doing since Adam anu Eve
began it in the Garden of Eden.
"Hy cynical!" says Miss Young
love, and stops reading at this point.
| But her older and sadder (as well
once crumb of comfort. They can
look ahead. They recognize the in
evitable next step.
Love is universal-so is sorrow,
and so is the peace which comes
after suffering and turmoil.
There are great many hysterical
folks who enjoy exclaiming over q
cut finger, and demanding attention
and sympathy and the services of a
trained nurse and surgeon therefor.
Fhey get dramatic glow from their
own suffering. They like imagining
their pain unique, individual.
4 Leona can be guaranteed to "go up
In the air" at least once a week over
! the agonies for which life singles
mates can never be safe from a
phone call after midnight or before
six a. m. II Leona feels that suffering
has claimed her again. In her own
mind she eXaggerates the failure to
appear on the first day of the month
of the rent check, which is the great
er part of her income, as the abso-
lutte approach of poverty and desti-
| tuition.
If she is out with a group of
friends and she decides that she has
sick headache and must go home,
and no one volunteers to leave tho
matinee to go with her, Leona feels
abused. Martyrdom to her friend
ships and utter lack of loyalty are
the things she feels sure are her lot
! If none of her friends phone her or
send roses or other beautiful trib-
uteS to her suffering.
The Old Story
! l happened to telephone her one
afternoon about dinner engage
ment she had for that evening. The
hostess had been compelled to
change the hour from eight to seven
| because one of her most important
guests was leaving town on an
early train. She could not reach
! Leona by way of telephone, so she
| asked me to convey the message.
Out of that Leona managed to wrest
| for herself an. insult and a total
lack of consideration.
Mrs. Van Zant might have told
me, but / suppose I'm not important
enough to get phone call. OtI
course the only person who counts
with her is a celebrity. Professor
Johnson wants to take an early train,
| so she puts the dinner an hour ahead.
OF course, 1 get home from my work
at six and need a little rest before
1,,4 % l,nN
ter. I don't count. Well, I'm used
to it-no' one ever considers me-" It
/ is as much of Leonas grafton as I
can remember.
Most situations need not be taken
personally There were going to be
eleven guests at the dinner and ten
of them were being hurried even as
was Leona; but she insisted on con-
sidering the situation as peculiar to
herself.
Which of us does not know at
least one man or woman like Leona?
Which of us does not himself occas-
ionally act like Leona?
There are only seven plots in all
the world, say some of our sages, and
around those seven all romance, all
drama, all short stories must be built.
Even situations are not unlimited.
And so anything which happens to
John Jones and Jane Smith, of Tex
arkana, Texas, is very likely to be
paralleled in the experience of an
other John and Jane up in Bangor,
Maine, or out in Walla Walla, Wash
ington.
You Arc Not Alone
Considering yourself as the one in
dividual in the world to whom tho
humidity and heat of July day are
excessively annoying is a completely
absurd thing to do. 1t lays too much
stress on you and it distracts your
attention from the breadth of vision
gained by looking at the outside
world to the narrow focal point Of
your own woes.
Suppose you do lose your position,
suppose the woman you love is faith
less to you, suppose your investments
come out very badly, suppose you are
lonely-none of that is peculiar to
you as an individual. OF course, You
can't endure anybody else's tragedy;
of course, the fact that your tragedy
is paralleled by many others does not
make 1t any less tragic to you.
But suppose everybody in the
world sat around making a fuss from
morning to night about the things
which annoyed them, which were a
source of unhappiness and disap-
pointm ent to them-what an Internal
din and clamor of complaining there
would be all about us!
The people who sit down and de-
mand sympathy for their troubles
are seldom actually as badly off as
the brave souls who try to find u
way outi
Do you remember that bit of slang
which was popular few years ago.
| IT have troubles of my own: tell
yours to the policeman? 1 always
felt that probably the policeman had
troubles of his own, too, and might