Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-12-05
Life'S Problems
Are Discussed
by Mrs. Wilson Woodrow.

Tnat is What nine out OF ten
people would say, believing with
jeremiah that the heart of man
is deceitful above all things and
desperately, wicked. 1t is the dog
matte verdict of worldly wisdom.
But | wonder whether she is not
more astute than those who pitingly
shake their heads at her credulity.
Are the children of this world al
ways wiser in their generation than
the children of light?
Here is the story of the problem,
as | gather them fom the letter she
has written me-a very human let
ter and presenting not only an un-
usual type of wife, but some
what different aspect to the familiar
triangle" Is she wrong Ill coun-
tenancing the attentions of her hus-
band to another woman, she asks
me. Her friends all tell her she is
making a grave mistake.
She is a young woman ana has
been married five years, she writes
me. All, that crucial fifth year of
matrimony, when the discords and
disagreements and misunoerstand-
ings always come to head, and the
association either goes up with a
bang or else settles down to a peace
full acceptance of the situation.
But, to continue with the narra-
tive, there is also baby, = lovely
child two years old, to whom she is
devotedly attached and to whose
comfort and that of her husband
she gives up all her time. One gets
the impression of a home-loving,
domestic sort of a woman, and of
a placid, well-ordered home.
II the dinner perhaps is OF herbs,
be very sure it is well cookeu and
neatly served, garnished with con-
tentment. She is .happy in her love
for her husband, and very sure of
his love for her. He shows it, she
says, in every way he can.
But an Eden must have its SER
lpent. Where does it lift its threat
ening head in this tranquil environ
ment? The reader who is versed
in the thrills of the movies or Of
fiction will not question long. All
"a strain of jagged music--the
other woman!
But the "other woman" in this
case waywardly refuses to cast as
sloe-eyed and sinous "vamp," con-
ventional wrecker of homes. She
is young girl, the wife says, whom
both she and her husband knew be-
fore their marriage, and who since
then has been an intimate visitor at
the house, spending almost every
evening there and keeping the wife
company, as the husbands. business
often detains him down town until
as late as eleven or twelve O'Clock.
On the whole, she appears to be
"a breezy, companionable person,
good-humored, sensible and tact
fully discreet. If occasionally she
stops at the husbands place of
business when down town in the
evening and returns home WIN MN,
she makes it a point always TO have
|another girl along. ..
The husband also poses poorly as
a deceiver and Don Juan. There is
no camouflage about those late
hours he keeps. The character of
his business compels it, and his
evenings off he spends by preference
at home. Sometimes when detained
late he and this other girl will stop
somewhere and have supper to-
gether, but he always informs his
wife of this in advance and secures
her assent.
So the affair has progressed, with
none of the three people involved
seeming to have questioned it in
any way or to have regarded it as
other than pleasant and congenial
friendship shared mutually by the
husband and wife. Il love her as
much as | would a sister," the wife
confesses; and although she knew
that her husband had been some
what attentive to the other girl be-
fore his marriage, no thought OF her
jealousy appears to have entered
head until it was implanted there
by the suggestion of friends"
The situation has peeu uIvught
to focus over two theatre tickets
which were given to the husband.
He proposed that he and his wife
should use them, but as she did not
care to go, he then decided to take
q
of strenuous voices is being raised
to warn the blinded woman that if
she consents to any such scandal
Gus proceeding she will surely live
to rue it. you will be sorry when
1t is too late" she is told.
And so woman's peace of mind
is disturbed, her confidence in her
husband and her dearest friend
possibly destroyed, and the happi-
ness of her life endangered by the
evil imaginings of a lot of busy
bodies. That their poisonous coun-
sci has already begun to work is
proven by the fact that she writes
to me. She should set her foot
down hard, they tell her, and put
stop to the affair.
Rubbish Pinle! Stuff and nom
sense! No woman ever yet held
husband by jealousy, by nagging,
by suspicion and distrust. Love be-
gets love: confidence, confidence.
Doubt and jealousy begets unfaith-
fulness, deception, thousand ills.
This woman's own intuition should
be surer guide to the IruLn Lnan.
all the ominous suggestions of these
so-called friends. She might be
blinded by affection in regard to her
husband, although | doubt it: but
nevr in regard to the other woman.
Yet, even granting that she is
blind, living in a FOOLS paradise,
isn't a fools paradise better than
the hell of shattered illusions?
Before she listens to the stbilant
warnings of these acvisers, let her
study the effect of their gospel
mnnn them selves Has any of