Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-05
HOW TO FIND SOME FRIENDS
WHEN ONE IS LONELY AND IS
III Ans,Uer Ciren afe Girl Who Sits the Front Steps
4 ard Watches Happiness Go By-She Writes to KnoU Why
She Is Alone and What to Do about IL

~ we do not know or see is some
how splendid thing. 1t gives one
peek into the human heart. Initials
are comforting things to hide behind,
and sometimes they carry hidden
thoughts that would so on hiding for:
ever but for the sustaining power OF
Initials
1t Is sometimes said that letters
from the readers are made up by the
editor of the department. Well, read
this one. All. me. II woman's page
editors could turn souls inside out and
write so faithfully what is in them the
world would be full of lady Shake
speares.
But no. am afraid the little person
who wrote today's letter is not for
tunate enough to be fictitious. She is
a very real girl sitting on the step
waiting for "a girl friend of her own"
The letter follows:
Kindly give me your advice. as
will follow IT. | am a young girl Of
fifteen years of age and on the whoIe
a lonesome girl. There are many
girls of my age around our neighbor-
hood and yet l can't make friends
with them 1t seems | can't make
friends with girls and It is for this
reason l am so lonesome. What is
the reason and what can | do? When
Saturday and Sunday come all the
girls have their friends and go out 10
parties dances or parks, while | 81
at home. The only thing ! can do Is
to go over to my sisters home and
back and so the days pass, while l
have an older sister who always goes
out with her friends Saturdays and
Sundays. Can you imagine how l
feel when l see all the girls l know
60 out with other girls and I sit at
home. The only thing l can answer
& (. for myself is that | cant make friends
with girls or else don't know how to.
There is no boy who would say word
against me-neither would a girl--but
something ! would value more would
be how to love a girl friend Of my
owr and not one that smiles sweetly
to me when ! pass. Surely you can
picture me looking at all girls enjoy
Z ing themselves and me sitting on our
step. Now kindly help me. What
shall do? B. II. NJ.
INDEED, I can picture you. Since
i received your letter day or two
ago out of the street-Car window |
have watched girls sitting on steps
And I have wondered If you were one
Of them. and if not, have wondered
with which of them II is the same as
Il Is with you
For you must know little girl that
There are thousands of others like you
that perhaps never tell.
You did not tell me very much about
yourself, but | am going to try to
analyZe your case. | believe you are
q girl who has gone through school
without making any particular friends
because you are shy and reserved.
Some time or other YOU have gotten the
idea into your head that you cannot
M q to fyia
sensitive every time any one has
sighted you. The fact that all of us
have many times been sighted by the
cliques that spring up in schools Won
probably never knew. You simply
grew more and more sensitive and kept
more to yourself.
Maybe l am wrong in this analysis
Perhaps you have lately moved into a
new neighborhood and the girls of
r;XPur age, with friendships already
have not taken you in. Girls
Eeai fifteen or sixteen and around there
FSsnre 81 like this-fearfully clannish and
sometimes mean about it. They get
over it later on and are sorry, but
that doesn't help you now.
Evidently you do not work or you
would have mentioned the fact.
nNHE thing for you to do is to forget
i all about this. We are going to
turn over a new leaf. You are going
outside of your neighborhood for your
friends because YOU feel sensitive and
unnatural about them now and you
won't get over this until you can show
of a friend or two of YOUR own before
them. Then thev will perhaps want
to take you in. That is the way human
nature is.
" Now where to look for new friends.
know of at least one place where
you can surely find them-through
the Young Women's Christian Asso-
ciation. l called up the secretary about
YOU in particular. ! told her all about
you: then I said:
would a girl like this be able to
make real intimate friends if she went
to you"
Yes" l was told, tell that lone