The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-02-15
UNDERSTANDING ABOUT
OTHER WOMAN


Dearest Old Boy: In your last let
ter you ask II / understand" about
Lucy Benton. l never quite faced the
question before. But l sat with your
letter in my hands for a full hour and
made myself answer. will give you
as well as I can the result Of my
solemn cogitations.
/ shall have to go back to when ]
was real young girl-before ever
started out, to earn my living. Like
other romantic girls, dreamed OF
My Hero, the noble, rich, handsome,
gallant and adoring man who should
some day come out OF the somewhere
and snatch me to his heart and keep
me there forever. Ny Ideal Husband
was always much older than myself.
had a feeling that | wanted man
Of the world, man who had lived
and suffered as the high-sounding
phrase goes.
1t never occurred to me that il a
man has truly lived he must have
suffered And having suffered, he
must have learned a lot. And having
learned a lot, he must necessarily
know something Of women.
did not realize in those days, Walt,
that a man who has never had women
friends cannot understand other wo-
men. Or that a man who has not loved
more than once, or thought he had,
has nothing in his experience by which
to compare his latest and greatest and
truest and most lasting love.
But as ! grew older and went out
into the world to do what / could do
and see what l could see, came to
know men and women better. / found
that they can teach zach other much
more, perhaps, than is learned in
any other way.
There were men in whose offices
worked whose souls learned to love.
There were men | met in the course
of my business progress whose physi-
cal presence gave me actual thrills.
I do not mean to say, remember, Walt,
that l actually fell in love with this
man or that man, although there were
occasional ones whom / might have
loved, perhaps, had circumstances and
conditions been FAVORABLE. (There,
there, calm yourself, my dear-they
werentD
What l mean is that we cannot go
through life without ''corradeing"
with many persons in many ways.
Some stimulate us by the brilliance of
their intellect. Some shake us up
with their ambition, their determine
ton to get on despite everything.
Some awaken us morally Some
sweeten us with the beauty of their
spirit Some thrill us with their per-
sonal magnetisn-show us that we
are bodily awake and eager for the
coming of the one who shall some day
make us respond not only with the
thrills of the flesh, but of mind and
soul as well, and thus prove to be
our,m mate.
I have not forgotten that we are
discussing Lucy Benton All this that
l have written, dear, means, when you
boil it down, that we all have our
Lucy Bentons. We all have people
outside of our wife or our husband
who mean something to us! People
each of us has met before we met
each other. People who have had
something to do with our being what
we are. People we like or admire or
enjoy or are amused with.
You couldn't have lived to be thirty
without making all kinds of friends
and, l dare say, few enemies, too,
unless you're dangerously colorless in
character. Why should l expect you
to annihilate them the instant you
marry me? Why should | want you
to? l shouldn't want you to make
me drop everybody l used to like be-
fore we married.
No, Waffle, dear, let's be willing to
share each other to a normal and rea-
sonable extent. / don't say | would
not have seven or eight different
kinds of fits if l thought you really
loved your Lucy Benton better than
your Janet But l hope / have sense
enough and understanding enough of
life and the world and human nature
to know that a wife cannot take the