Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-06-19
Little Talks by
Beatrice Fairfax

Letters to me usually come il
waves; there will be a wave of in
quiry regarding the wisdom Of
marrying soldiers and sailors before
they sail for "over there"
Then there will come a wave oi
protest from the wives of jealous
men; next an inundation from
wives who feel they have been
skimped in their household allow
ances more than is necessary; then
girls write about meeting him" and
his acting "cool," and does it mean
he doesn't care any more?
But the last wave has been from
the mothers of girls and boys whose
nedglings are growing up to have
their love affairs. And these good
ladies are as unhappy and worried
chlldren as is the proverbial hen
who has Matched out a brood of
ducklings and see it take to the wa
ter for the first time.
The Case of Gladys Hair
Ihey seem to forget-these anx-
ious mothers and fathers - that
they ever took to the water them
selves, leaving more or less fran
tic mothers on the shore. My ad-
vice is, be sympathetic and don't
take the affair so seriously.
Also buy or borrow Booth Tark-
ington's Seventeen" from the near
est library, and forget your own wor-
rles and perplexities in a study of
youth and first love as delightful as
it is appealing.
DO you thing Gladys is losing
her mind?" one mother writes to
me. She has always been such a
sweet, sensible child; but now she
giggles all the time and is so silly.
n hi
the craziest way of doing her hair;
sometimes she pulls it out in bunch
es over her ears and looks exactly
like photographs of her grandfather.
who wore whiskers."
And, after telling more of Gladys
queer doings, the mother continues:
She drdgs her hat down over her
eyes till she has to tilt her head
backward to see; and if 1 remon-
strate there are giggles, giggles, gig
giles, till I'm almost Wild
John a Slave of the Tub
The mother of boy writes: John
has become so clean that 1 am wor-
ried about him. Fortunately, l am
ashamed to say, l always had to pay
him to take a bath; now no one else
can get one. And when he isn't tub
bing and scrubbing he is sticking his
hair or doing his nails. His younger
Drotner tells me he is interested In
Il girl-a classmate of his-in the
high school. Do you think this can
be true? The child is only seven
teen"
And 1 hasten to answer that
think the symptoms of John and
also of Gladys are unfailing. In the
case of a boy, water may be de-
pended upon for an adequate dag
nosis in any attack of first love. But
water, taken in connection with hair
sticking" and nail crlture-the case
is as easily determined as mumps or
a cold. And, unless complications
set in, there is really no cause for
alarm.
But there is occasion for endless
patience and sympathy; and if you
must laugh at Gladys hats and
hair and Johns Tubing and scrub
hing, don't do it when they are
about, because both of them, de-
spite occasional moments of rap
ture,. are having troubles of their
own.
1t was Thomas Moore who sang,
There is nothing half so sweet in
life as loves young dream" And
while it seems delightful, on paper,
in real life it is only true in spots
Loves young dream" is apt to
be complicated with tragic possi-
bilities due to inexperience, an