Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-06-02
TALKS BY
BEATRICE FAIRFAX

| The other day a woman was specu-
| lating on the number of men at the
Peace Conference who owe their
Importance to the influence of their
wives-past and present. And at
! first glance it would seem there were
not any such about the historic ma
! hogany in Paris But the lady had
chapter and verse to prove her con-
! tention and ended by checking off
! quite a conclusive galaxy.
And the scoffers had to confess
| that among the thirty-third degree
| who's Who" at present occupying
| Paris, to the exclusion of the spring
| fashions. several owed their orches-
tral seats among the mighty to the
| continued push of a wifely hand No,
! am not going to quote their names
I-you'n have to make your own bio
| graphical researches-but the trou'
A., BILE will be well worth while.
| For this mightiest game of chess
| that the world has ever seen is be-
ing played chiefly by men who were
poor boys-insignificant pawns who
became powerful enough to crowd
the kings off the bo5Il 1t is
pity, however, that the kings ruined
so many of the castles before they
were kicked out of the game.
But it is husbands, not kings or
| castles that ARE engaging our atten-
tion at present. Well the lady,
after she had proved her point went
on to discuss husbands in the terms
of a ragout-or maybe you call the
delicacy goulash, or even Irish
stew
Please bear in mind that a ragout
comes into the house as raw mate
rial. and that it is up to the cook
Z wbR thor II dainty di Sh
to set before the king" or an utter
failure. Not always is the wife al
lowed to have a finger in the pie
to mix any dishes for a moment
but seven times out of a dozen she
has, and a good job she is likely to
make of it. too.
knowing Your Material
The success of the undertaking
will depend upon the wife's intelli-
gence. Failure awaits her who, de-
clining to recognize the materials
at hand, takes the honest beef. po-
} tatoes, onions and attempts to turn
them into a pate de foies gras or a
lemon pie.
, The track consists in knowing
the materials you have got to work
with and making the best of them
not in trying to transform them
into something they are not 1t
. | Is ali d SuSSllOn OIL accent
ing, strengthening the individuality
you are administering; not in weak
ening it by change.
) When Andrew Johnson's wife
taught him to read and write she
recognized his natural bent as a
! politician, and all her guiding was
along that line. But suppose she
had wanted him to be a portrait
painter, or an architect. very likely
his decided gift for politics would
have dwindled under the pressure of
forcing his energies into an uncon-
genial channel. AS it happened, her
pupil landed in the White House.
But you may plead in extenuation
of your attempt to make your hus-
band over II don't like ragout. and
do like lemon meringue pie" To
which l am going to reply, then
you made the mistake of your life
in having the material for ragout
sent home. You ought to have made
your selection elswhere, and as
long as you have the materials for
a ragout in the house, don't attempt
to turn them into a lemon meringue
bcause the result will be you will
have neither one nor the other.
There is no enterprise into which
people rush with so little fore
thought as they do into marriage
A girl will marry a man whose little
peculiarities CRATE raspingly before
marriage, and she will fondly expect
some miracle g. book or bell to
completely eliminate these after the
ceremony.
She will marry a soap-scorning
anarchist. and then feel deeply ag
grieved when he declines to wash
his hands for dinner or put on even
ing clothes when he takes her to
the theater. Perhaps he will agree
to compromise and wash one hand
or instead of putting on evening
clothes will regale himself in hec-
tic tie or vest that suggests
crazy quilt. Both feel themselves
martyrs. neither is satisfied, and
yet the girl had heard him talk his
wild jargon before marriage, but
declined to be warned in time.
You would not buy a dog whose
manner of barking tore your nerves
to tatteIH, and yet girls marry men
every day in the year whose CONVEX
sation they cannot tolerate. Do you
remember the Gibson picture of a
few years ago. "Puzzle-find the
woman whose husband is telling
the story?" Needless to say, such
ladies do not help their husbands
to the White House or a place at
the peace table, or any other place
where the mighty are assembled; /;
for you have got to believe in the
ragout absolutely to have it turn
out a success. II yon expect it to
fail, and have your mind set on fall
ure. it's pretty sure to turn out that
way.
4 BE Sure of the Gift
How to make man succeed,
| though married to him, is merely a
a1a -
\ progressive school idea. You find
out your mans natural bent, then
you urge him to it with might and
main.
i II he Is mad to paint pictures. 1t Is
fatal to urge him to practice law.
Nor do you encourage a man with
a taste for landscape gardening to