The Washington herald., 1917-06-08

Out on the mountains in Tennessee
there comes a letter from girl that
puzzles me. Surely girls are the
strangest people in all the world.
derstanding than any excepting chill
sFe has been engaged to a man Sc
lected by her parents. He is IS years
old. She mas not seen him in nve
years, not since she was IS. He LETT
the little mountain town then SAYING
he was going away TO find rtches-not
as others do, IN commercial lines, but
as the first adventurers did, sailing
in quest Of the Golden Fleece. He
said he would not return until ne
had 10000 back Of him. ! suppose
he thought that this was quite a
modest amount, quite q moderate
challenge at fortune.
Deliberately he sought the particu-
lar spots Of earth where gold strikes
had been made. The klondyke re
gion knew him and so did the SANDS
Of the Southwest and actually rum
mayed up through the Rockies.
Finally. he had thrown his lot in with
a prospector who had held on to a
little bunch of claims on the edge
Of the Goldfield district in Nevada.
The man had never had the means
to develop the claims, and had bare
ly managed to cover his yearly as
sessnnent work. He was broken
down in health and hopes and need
ed someone with courage and grit TO
take hold of the whole proposition
and put it through. -Four years the
Tennessee man labored, sinking his
own shafts, hiring cheap labor and
finally getting a promoter sufficiently
experienced To- make a diamond drill
test. The result was, he returned
with his hundred thousand.
Miss Pickford, writes the girl. whom
he has favored with. his selection.
"Of course, he seems wonderful 10
all my folk here, and they need help
ing very much. He has promised all
kinds OF things II I will marry him.
way possible, but oh. you don knoS
how / dread to. When he first came
down three months ago, 4dld promise
him l would marry him. Father and
mother kept at me SO, felt I had
to, and now I would give anything
to be free from that promise.
have asked him to let me go, and he
only tells me not to be q little fool.
1 known 1 shall hate him II marry
him. 1t is only two weeks on now.
What can I do? I want to run away,
and yet he might follow and md me.
don't care one bit about his money,
and it isn't that I'm In love with
posing 1 should meet the man I
really love, come day. I am sure II
is Just such things as that that make
girls break every tie If they can only
find happiness"
that can't imagine her hesitating.
Opportunities lie open for everyone.
She has health and what call 4
perspective on life. So many people
only see what lies in their own httIs
circle. Just ike standing in the glow
of light from an electric arc light.
It Is so brilliant you cannot see amp
objects beyond. This girl senses that
life has more for her than, this man
from Nevada with a hundred thou
san dollars. II were In her place
should break that promise OF mar
riage before I had exchanged II for
falsehood. She cannot possibly love
this man, and why should she.
A little while ago, I read IN the
paper OF a divorce suit, following a
marriage Of three years. The girl had
been the daughter Of a wealthy ship
weight in gold. How on earth couId
Eros hope to win his way weighted
with such q burden? Now she is
sueing for, divorce and demanding
the returH Of ihe money. II IL all 50
sad.apd foolishly: futile. As II love
SitN " AS1SSe " as "SAsnS ~
II I were the little girl in Ten
nessee. I would rather take my
chance in a mountain cabin with
the boy loved than with any man,
no matter what his wealth was.
Mind. this depends also on the boy
you love doing his share. There
are too many men who have won
the love OF a girl on their own
merits, never dreaming what they
represented In her hopes, how ann
bilious she was for them to win
the race, how she believed that by
giving them all the love and labor
she was capable of, she was help
ing them to win. out. II a man,
under these circumstances, doesn't
strive for her sake, then, as poor
ophelia says. Il was the more de-
Answers to Correspondents.
lena VA letter addressed to
IaHk haSA d.