Weekly Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1919-1920, 1919-04-09

Guided lamely. Might as well fms
what you'd begun. You've hurt M
already more than can feel.
But for moment he simply sa
quiet, his eyes upon her, his heav'
lips closed firmly. He sat quiet unit
his queer fit of temper passed. Hi
face gradually softened. Over hi
features instead, came L look Of hun
ger and ome-sickness and longing
melancholy, heartache. |
was a rather startling change. H.
picked up fruit knife and drew line
with it's point in the cloth.
Twice he looked at her and drop
ped his eyes again. There was
trace of cynicism in his voice as he
said:
"Mibb, I'm not woman-hater
But I've simply lost faith in you wo
man. | r"vcr knew Il mother, though
like poor Herb, felt the need of one
When I grew up if was attracted to
women it was for companionship and
sympathy and help. But somehow
never connected right The longer
looked the more bitter | became
Mibb.-yes thousands of them. Won
en- for wives indeed women for
pleasure, women for business, women
for careers,-plcAty of women for
everything but to 80 to with weary
head and hcartache and get Il little
help and inspiration and strength for
the soul. Oh Mibb! You don't know it
don't realize it,--and few women
there are that do; but the crying need
of the age and the heart of men is
for that kind of women, the mat
elnal women, Mibb."
For an instant the woman forgot
her own misery in her stark surprise.
This from Dick Robinson.
i "Years ago, Mibb, before women
went outside the home and into bust
ness and got all snarled up with f;lds
and isms, they didn't have much else
to occupy their attention but home
and folks and kids. All these folks
who want to "mend the status Of
poor down-trodden and abused wo-
mankind say it was narrowing and
degrading and enslaving. But
Mibb, it did make mothers! The
business of womenfolks was to marry
and have homes and stay in those
homes and raise little kids. That
was their function in life and having
no other it was inbred generation
after generation into their bone. Look
at the homes of fifty or hundred
years ago, Mibb. Look at some of
those on the Vermont hillsides back
around Paris. There's nothing like
those old homesteads today, Mibb.
They've all gone with the told-fash-
ioned women that used to live in
them"
The woman wanted to say some
thing but she didn't know just what
it ought to be.
81 suppose industries that have
come in to make women's work cas-
ier and yet that have taken her at
the same time out of the home and
into business, are responsible, Mibb.
Perhaps I'm wrong in judging you
so harshly. But oh Mibb, inside
deep inside there's the awful
heart-hunger in lot of men, to
know what their grand-daddies knew.
yet who never placed a value on
it because it hadn't been denied them.
We're not raising families any more,
iMibb. We're only having kids. We're
not making homes. We're renting a
place to live in and furnishing it with
stuff bought at y store. Everything's
shallow and transitory and unsatis-
factory and added. Half the time
we don't know what the matter is
with us we men of today. But
tits that we're getting away from ma
ture, away from the family idea,
away from solid substantial rug
ged foundations of living"
The man drew a deep breath. For
a moment his jaw closed hard. Then
he went on:
"Oh I know we've got women that
are well-enough willing to marry the
men, girls still fall in love with
the boys and the boys with the girls.
But couldn't take clerk out of
my office and put him half the time
in my engineering department and ex-
pect him to keep on improving as a
clerk following up the job, grow
ing more and more efficient in his
line when all the time I'm dis
tracing his energies and making him
neither one nor the other And it's
much the same with you women folks,
Mibb. The girls today marry the
boys, true enough, and they rent Il
place and furnish it and raise their
babies. But there's hundred things
to attract them and distract them and
take them outside the home while at
the same time they try to keep the
home and gradually the home in
stinct of generations is being ironed
QUE of them, Mibb. They want to do
q woman's work and at the same time
they want to do mans work and the
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