The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-21
LETTERS OF
TWO WOMEN
BY ZOE BECKLEY.
Kate Finds Marriage Less Terrible
Than She Thought.


New York Monday, the 10th.
Dear Old May:
Blessed, say I, is the person who
doesn't take things too seriously.
Work or marriage or life itself. Make
stab at what you want. Go at it
vigorously. But don't think it out too
much. Just live in the present min
ute, doing the best you can with it
and trust to Providence for the rest.
You know there is a special Provi-
dence that watches over children and
drunken men. and keeDs them from
eing too badly hurt when they fall?
Well, put faith IN II-and in the
meantime keep hnstling! You'n come
out just as well or better than the
person who plans and contrives so
carefully and watches his step" with
such anxiety.
just by way of announcing that L am
enthusiastically happy. When 1
never expected to be. It's too soon
to brag, of course, for we've only
been married six weeks. Still-lots
of unpleasant not to say tragic things
have happened to girls l know be-
fore they'd been ma rried that long.
Remember Carol and Sammie
Chase, who came back from their
honeymoon vowing they didn't want
to see each other for a year? They
were that bored and weary. And
both the Garrett girls-how awful
their matrimonial ventures turned
out? Whatever do you suppose hap
pened tc Fanny Garrett that she
should have gone straight back to
her mothers house, vowing she d
never live under her husbands roof
again? And poor Allie, who had to
pay half the expenses of the wedding
trip and grapple with the hideous
problem of a drinking husband?
Oh Maize, when I look about at
the marriages l know, Perhaps I am
peculiarly unfortunate in my friends
marriages-Paul says 1 am He says
it isn't safe for anybody 1 know to
marry; they all turn out badly sooner
or later, usually sooner. I could write
book, Taken From Life, or Twelve
Kinds OF Unsuccessful Marriages"
And yet / (now, mind you, I'm not
boasting; m knocking on wood as 1
write it,, who just shut my eyes and
plunged in, fearing to be dashed to
pieces on the rocks, find myself float
ing peacefully on the crest of a wave,
stimulated and eager for the long
swim.
| 1t is entirely Paul Married to a
/ different kind of man, l would be a
/ fiend, q devil or else a sullen, brood
! ing old crouch. Instead of shudder-
]
| them out of me- as c. ]. used to do,
Paul actually explains how they can
be utilized and made into virtues! Or,
rather, he does not see them as faults.
I 1t is true, you know, dear, that any
| fault is simply a virtue pushed too
] far
Take slowness, for instance the
| thing that makes me NEST furious
about Pau. He does things so DELHI
erately that sometimes 1 think l shall
! kill him. But by the same token. his
( judgment is superb. He never thinks
rashly or acts impulsively, as l do,
| and spend half his time undoing what
1 he has done wrong And when l do
] some fool thing ION the snap" and am
/ instantly sorry for it, Paul points out
that il is a proof of Intense reac-
/ tons or the result of marvellous
nervous energy" which he regards as
D a precious gift,
Now. what are you going to do
about a husband who actually ad =
I mires your faults? Honestly, May. he
sees virtue in me that ! or anybody
} else can't see. 1t only goes to show
that marriage is all matter of luck.
A man is a good husband or a bad
one, according to the type of man he
is, not the type Of woman you are
{ Adios. my dear, I'll spare you further
panegyrics for the time.
7 Lovingly ever. KAT.