Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-03-02

! be only an outsider. And so I have
/ resolved to put him out of my life
once and for all. This may re-es-
tablish me in the minds of his fam
lily, but this is going to break one
/ little girls heart
But l am not going to let this
disappointment wreck my life. And
so l ask you please to suggest to
me some way to chase the gray
clouds away which are lowering
! over me, and bring comfort to my
weary heart. Artificial enjoyment
and frivolity do not appeal to me
now, but rather the more worth
while things, such as settlement or
! church work, and if you can help
me just a little you will gain the
| heartfelt thanks and remembrances
of, A DISAPPOINTED GIRL"
My dear girl, I take you by the
shoulders so, and I give you a very
am sure you feel better. So do l.
1 suppose your expect me to say:
You are a noble girl Heaven will
reward you.
On the contrary give you an
You are living in the year 1918,
not in some remote early Victorian
era.
1 am afraid that you are judging
life from the standpoint of that
lovely but oppressed creature, the
motion-p picture heroine.
Be lovely by all means, but why
be oppressed? The photo-play he
roine can afford to be. for she has
the comforting certainty of a happy
ending to sustain her through all
her trials and renunciations and
sacrifices.
But you haven't. You lack the
cameras power of looking into the
future; so you want to be frugal
with your self-sacrifices.
You are, if I can Judge by your
letter, a clever, attractive girl, am
bilious and determined to succeed
in the world, but you look at things
from rather painfully convention
al angle.
am almost willing to wager
that when the naughty mother and
the two scornful sisters-there are
always two in the pictures-appear
ed on the scene, you wept and said:
"Oh, don't take him from me!
I love him so. He is all have in
the world"
Quite out of date. You should
have received the mother with a
pleasant but aloof courtesy. and
when she had told you that you
were a designing girl and only want
ed to marry her son for his money,
you should have returned fire with
something like this:
Il am so glad that you have
brought up this subject, for now
7 fro nl-1X- r-iayr
and explain my attitude I hesitated
some time before accepting your
son, for, although he has enjoyed
more advantages than have fallen
to my lot. that is, in my estimation,
of small moment compared to GER
tain more important considerations.
II may be peculiar in this, but I
am very particular about the sort
of family 1 marry into. Ny own
family-tree is buried in oblivion.
My grandparents cherished it so
greatly that they took it with them
to the grave. So you cannot fling
the peccadilloes of my forebears in
my face. But you. dear lady, are
in a different position.
There is, for instance, the
rather notorious case of your great
uncle, Ebenezer, not to mention
blehI diLdiI VI SOuI aunt susan y.
You, yourself must admit that Susan
was-well, not exactly the sort of
person I could hold up as an ex-
ample to my children.
still, so great is my love for
your son that I am willing to over
look these facts, although I could
never consent to be on terms of
intimacy with you or your daugh-
ters. Good-by."
Seriously, 1 fail to see where
there is any real barrier between
you and your young man, or any
occasion to turn to those ultra
conventional refugees for the brok-
n-hearted-church and settlement
work.
Why manufacture miseries? The
world is quite full enough of them
without you adding your mite.
And take one last word of advice.
Enjoy all the motion pictures you
please, but don't take them too
seriously. Also remember that this
is 1918.