The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-01-15
LIE t TIERS OF
TWO WOMEN
Better To Live and Suffer.
BY ZOE BECKLEY.


My Dearest May:
Paul and 1 have been reading your
letters together lately and we're both
of one mind: Hang on! Paul sends
you a special message. Il know
men," says he, land 1 recognize in
Mays husband the sort of man who
will be car if he is permitted to be,
and a friend if he is made to- see
things from a new angle. Weakness
will never change him. He must be
frightened into a proper viewpoint.
His training has been wrong. Moth
ing but a shock will show him his
error. Tell Maize she has done right,
and to keep her lip and her backbone
stiff till she wins!'
AS if to prove further the fallacy
of the meek female. Paul later took
me down into the ancient French
quarter of this fascinating city to call
Misses d. Hauteville, who live in a
fairy house set in a magic garden be-
hind brick wall.
Their brother, literary man, is
Paufs friends. He is modern and has
wife and some nice applefaced kid
the new part of town, which is as diff
ferent from ''Frerchtown" as tho it
were in another country.
The little old maiden ladies are
merely animated shadows. They are
victims of stern parents, who demand
ed incessant service and frightened
away all lovers. They live in the
past. and in the reflection of other
peoples happiness. Tho it is precious
little of even reflected happiness they
see. Their tiny income is devoted to
the poor and suffering
Come to our garden" they invited
in their sweet, quavering voices. 1t
is where the children visit us after
moons. We tell them stories and let
them see the dolls
THE dolls?"
"Yes-very old, old dolls. They
were brought from France many
years ago. See! We have dressed
Her costume is made from a bit of
our mothers wedding gown. We do
not permit the children to touch
them, for they were very frail, but
they like to see them, and hear the
stories
Dear God, Maize, think of such a
life! Two tiny old wizened women
whose only joy in life is telling an
Gent fairytales to other women's
children and showing them moulder-
| ing bride dolls in yellow silk frocks
| of a century ago.
They have never been out, of their
| city. Scarcely away from their old
French quarter and their walled gar
| den in forty years. 1 think they would
perish of fright if they were suddenly
set down in New York at the corner
| of Forty-second street and Broadway
oh, my dear-better a million times
to have lived your life with all its
disappointments and heartAches (and
future triumphs) than to be mere
| ghosts of human beings like these two
darlings in their moss-growp garden
behind the wall! And it was all be-
cause they meekly yielded t. wills that
were stronger thar their own-and
| crueler.
/ Don't be frightened, dear, at what
You are doing. Putting my ear to the
ground, old girl, hear faint rumblings
as of the Bond family being spill,
asunder by its own anger and help
! lessness. The Bonds cannot do with
out you. May! Just sit tight, and you
will soon see your babies again, AND
| on better basis than before.
| Always yours to count on.
KITS.
p. s.. We are going thru Texas
next, then Arizona, and before Ions
we shall actually be bursting into youl
candy shop to hug you.