New Britain herald., 1919-09-13
Bentsville, Saturday

BCntSVlllc, Sa1urQaN. My Dear Dolly:
 Your appeal is fattering, but awfully hard to respond to. What do I know about marriage-especially between the sort of people you are worrying over? We have simple, old fashioned ideas here in Bents-. vile. We love and We marry. We build our little home and put into il all we have of love, service and hope for the future.
 When the family comes we work d little harder and draw together a little closer, sharing troubles as well as joys, and making new plans.
 In Bentsville, we don't have such frantic times deciding whether we are in love or not Or whether pity and gratitude are enough 10 marry on.' We aren't so analytical, dear. We feel more than we think. Yet we don't go wrong so very often.
 You are right in saying these proo- lems are absolutely individual What fits someone in BentsVille doesn't fit your kind of people at all, Dolly. When l say "your kind of people, I mean people in whom the life of kig cities has dulled the taste for simple, plain, homely things.
 Don't be offended, dear. It is sinl- ply that in big cities everything is professional You have your profes- sonal writer's musicians, painters, cooks, housew orkers, actors; homes even, for what are hotels but pro- fessional homes? These things spoil your interest in anything that isn't professional.
 There might be a perfectly lovely family, for example, living in the very next house to you-in your huge New York-who would entertain you of an evening in the incest sort of way. But just as you were starting to call on them you would probably say:
 "Oh, no-let's go hear Caruso sing instead"
 See what I mean, Dolly? Always the professional against the simple.
 So thoroughly has this got into your blood that you even think pro- fessionally. You don't just trust to natural things that lead to marriage. You agonize and analyze and argue and weigh and fuss and fume and doubt and fear. Probably you've even read up on 1t to see what Anatole France and Bernard Shaw and G. K. Chesterton and Robert Louis Steven son have said on the subject of love and marriage. I'll bet a homemade cookie you have!
 Let Captain Wallis and Mrs. Kyn- bal fthinl1 it out and feel it out by themselves You have done all you can, dear, and Pm proud of your un- selfish attitude toward Captain Wallis. Candidly, think you are wasting too much regard on him. He is dashing and handsome and a hero and a literary lion and all that. but I'd stack Randy Lewis up against him any day for true worth and ability. We went to a beautiful party the other night, Randy and I. It didn t , compare in professional elegance, I'll l admit, with the musicales and things l that take place Saturday nights at the ! professional dancers or actresses or ! noted authors in Bentsville. But We | had lots of music and dancing and delicious things to eat Homemade, ! out of real stuff!) and Randy's reW car is a smooth runner and mighty ! comforta ble.
 By the way, dear, Randy says give : you his love and tell you he's been promoted to contract manager, what ever that is. He travels quite a bit , and is terribly prosperous, but he's i the same old democratic Randy. He