Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14

watching her and she went ahead
and made his acquaintance. Now
please don't blame her. She has no
liberty at all, and when she gets
minute of ii she naturally takes full
advantage of it.
The little girl is hungry for love,
and thinks she is getting it now. He
tells her wonderful tales. advised
her to have nothing to do with him,
as | found out about him through an
acquaintance and had learned moth
ing good about him. But she told
me l said this because ] did not
know him. He has gone South now,
but he writes to her and she ans
wers him. All this her foster par
ents do not know. If they should
find out l really do not know what
they would do to her. Still she says
she would do as they wish and ex-
pect, and would accept the man to
whom they have engaged her as her
husband if she could feel it right to
marry man she does not love. She
asks me, do | think it right?
Dear Mrs. Woodrow. how can
answer such a question? | am too
young myself to know enough about
life TO answer it for her. am only
seventeen. | don't know enougt about
love to tell her if she dare do this.
But l don't think life is worth much
without love, do you? I have told
her to wait for my answer but find
can't answer her question. Won't
you tell me what to do"
l can tell you one thing very def
initely, my dear girl, and that is that
no child of fourteen should be en-
couraged or abetted in flirting with
strange young man. In the pres
nnf fwa-
to have been done, and as the lad
has gone away the affair will prob
ably die OF itself.
She should, however, be dissuaded
from attempting any further expert
ences of the sort and should also be
urged to abide by the rules of the
kindly people who have adopted her,
From what you say, she certainly
owes them something better than
deception.
AS for the man to whom she is
engaged and whom she dislikes,
that is hardly II question for imme
diate settlement, is il? In the very
nature Of things, three or four years
must pass before he can claim her;
and in that time, who knows? A
thousand things may happen. Her
sentiment toward him may have
completely changed, or someone else
may appear whom her parents will
be willing to accept. She has time
as her ally. 1t is certainly not a
your heads about and take so SER
iously at present.
theoretically speaking, young peo-
pie should be as free to mate as the
birds and butterflies, and natural
selection. But we are not living in
world of theory. We are all sub
jects to a thousand artificial re-
straints and conventions. And as
marriage and home building with us
are a much more complicated ven-
ture than with the birds and butter
flies, conditions must necessarily be
taken into account
Love and romance are the two
most beautiful things in life. Any
woman who has not known them
has been cheated of her birthright
But to imagine that these are all, or
that ''love is enough though the
world be waning" is u roseate dream
oil the teens. It's a dream worth
dreaming, and Il vast mistake not
to have dreamed it; but the equal
ity of the breakfast coffee is also i'm
portant, likewise the payment of the
butcher, the baker and the candle
SUCK maker.
In America the custom among
parents is to grant rather wide lat
itude to their children in respect to
engagements and marriage. The
elders generally sink their own pref
udices and acquiesce in the choice
made by the young people. Yet the
results of our method do not show
up any better than the system in
vogue in many countries where mar
riage are arranged entirely between
the parents and sentiment has little
or no place.
Mutual interests and mutual aims
very often create a stronger and
more lasting affection thant that
which had its root in a mere roman
tic attachment or ephemeral attrac-