The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-31
LIE T TIERS OF
TWO WOMEN
The City Soul.
BY ZOE B.ECKLEY.
Thursday, before bed

InuTSuay, before peu.
Kits, you lucky girl:
Who was it said he'd rather be a
lamppost in New York than mayor
of any other city? 1 thinksit must
have been me-for oh, how it eX-
presses me! Your very troubles have
a city smack about them, a New
Arabian Nights charm that brings a
pang of envy to my heart. 1t isn't
that l begrudge you anything you
have. 1t is only that l want the city,
troubles and all.
We have our troubles and prob
lens out in the country, too, Kits.
Never mind how trite this is. The
point is that it is true. And l am
really not the silly chump who thinks
other peoples troubles are less trou-
blesome than mine. But, Kits, yours
are city troubles. Mine are country
and l am not country.
Your experiment with life on that
Luboff woman makes my eXperin1 ent
with the new nurse maid for my kid
dies seem pc lie by comparison. You
see the difference, dear, don't you
Life out here has all the burden ami
pressure of city life. Only there 5
no adventure in it, no stimulus
This advent of a new human prob
lem in our home-what does it prom
the lump of a maid will say when
the babies or l add one mite more TO
her work than she is paid for l can
make a list at this minute of the red
sons she will give for leaving us at
time l can definitely set as from
three to four months from now.
But you! You go to theater
and the play steps off the stage and
into your life, without an instant S
warning. You have only to. put on
your hat and walk into a situation
novel not only to the stage but life
as most of US know it. A wife being
kind to her husbands past!!, Hus-
band jealous of his wife's devotion to
the woman of his past!!, oh, Kits,
don't you see how it means more to
a metropolis like me to worry about
such things than to ponder on how
to hang onto Lizzie Gilhooly, my new
maid-hired only because my bach
has given out for the time and the
ba bies are both ailing SO that even
Curtis cannot sleep for their crying
at night?
Kits, you see the fundamental dis
cord in my case. l married country,
so to speak; l live in the country; and
I get a panicky feeling often that l
shall die of the country. And every
instinct of me is city. 1 think peo-
pie take too little notice of the ex-
istence OF a city soul in many women;
and in men, for that matter Such
women and men should stay in the
c.-y as a fish must remain in water if
it is to live. Butt am more inter-
ested in your problem that in my
troubles.
I wrote a few lines back, Husband
jealous of his wife devotion to the
woman of his pasti' OF course Kits
1 did not get that from your letter
1t is only my own GREATNESS guess at
the next instalment of yonr fascinat-
ing drama If my guess is right. how
interesting and newt If my guess is
wrong, how GOES he feel about your
taking up the Luboff woman? Kits
1 am living in you for interest in life.
I can hardly wait to hear from you
and it takes five days for your letter
to come. 1 am not making any COM
ment on your affair" Of course. you
are doing the right thing, the unex-
pected, the fascinating adventure
thing. And whichever way it turns
out it will be clear gain. for you.
For three weeks it has been rain
/ ing here. at exactly the same hours
in exactly the same way. That sums
up l.fe out here-one chapter like an
other until you long either to go to
sleep forever or throw the furniture
out of the window. Write me, soon,
Kits MAY