Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-06-02
Mrs. Wilson Woodrow's
Interesting Article
BY MRS. WILSON WOODROW

Dickens characterized one of the
most peculiar and inVariable traits
in human nature when he endowed
his "Sairey Camp with her imag-
mary friend, Mrs. 'Arris. This
familiar not only was used to point
any moral Sairey wished to drive
home and adorn any tale she
wished to tell. but -iso served as a
vehicle for exploiting her own vir-
tues of character and sanctities of
disposition.
But Mrs. 'Arris" is not by any
means the particular property of a
delightful old character in fiction.
She is universal. In one form or
another most of us have her proto-
type. Most of us like to shift re-
sponsibility, to put the onus of our
deeds on someone else, to attribute
our sins of ommission and commits
sion to some source outside our
selves. That's the reason the Devil
was invented. And he has proved
so satisfactory that we have gone
on and raised up other oracles.
Many women assign their hus-
bands to the role of Mrs. 'Arris
others, their doctors; some, their
preachers. Some use their parents
or children, and, except in a very
few cases, there is usually some
convenient soul in the offing whom
we quote. These pay us the COM
pliments we wouldn't have the
nerve to voice as a personal esti-
mate. They also pull us out of the
bitches into which we have rashly
precipitated ourselves.
Who that has belonged to any
organization has not heard at crit
ical moments: My doctor has or
dered me away for an immediate
rest. He says that he will not an
swer for the consequences if | bother
any more about this muddle;" or:
my husband has simply put his foot
down. He says he feels that he and
the children are entitled to some of
my time"
There is no doubt about 1t, our
Mrs. ARISES are an immense So
ciai convenience. They get us grace
fully out of many difficult situations
and relieve us of many wearisome
obligations. Who wants to say: II
did a low, mean, cowardly thing?"
Not you. Not /. But if we can reflect
that the Devil, an infinitely strong
and crafty influence, is constantly
laying traps for our unwary feet,
and that at best we are weak and
fallible, it's very comforting.
OF course, no one except Billy
Sunday actually talks about the Devil
crude. But it's perfectly all right to
speak sadly and gravely of the over
whelming forces of evil' and "the
downward tendencies of human ma
ture." This serves the purpose just
as we'll
/ know my own Mrs. ARISES too
we'll to be interested in them. They're
very useful and necessary, and all
that. But it's my friends Mrs. Arris-
es that I find diverting.
I took tea with Mabel yesterday.
I fondly hoped that she would be
so interested in the many useful
articles she is knitting for the sol
diers and sailors, and in her Red
Cross work and her various relief
organizations, that she might tenn
porarily have forgotten her un-
usual diseases and domestic woes,
both of which are largely fictitious.
My hopes were doomed. Presently
she leaned her head upon her hand
and fetched a deep sigh. II don't
feel that ! can endure the thoughts
of this war much longer" she said.
II am i'll over it. The strain is too
awful
An intrepid man who was with us
looked at her critically.
You are not in the trenches" he
said. your husband is too old to
De drafted ana you nave no sun Of
brother to be called on"
Mabel drew herself up with dig
nifty. You don't understand really
sensitive nature"
1 paved in my bag and handed
over clipping of the Trench Philo-
sophy, which has been so widely
circulated.
Read that, Mabel" l said. 1T will
do you good. 1t easily takes the lead
in all of the Don't Worry treatises.
The logic is irrefutable. 1t states the
case and then offers two alternatives
for every situation. For instance,
Mabel, you are either sick or we'll.
If you are well, you have nothing to
worry about. If you are sick, you
have two alternatives: you either get
we'll or die, and in either event there
is no cause to worry. How simple
and how unanswerable! How differ
ent from those maddening books