Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-29
Little Talks by
Beatrice FdTfdr


By Beatrice Fairfax
1 think it was that genial old cynic
Thackeray vino said any woman, given
a fair amount of opportunity, could
marry any man she pleased. 1t must
have been this remark that started
such far-reaching boom in propin-
quiy.
But apparently propinquity - or
nearness-has its exceptions and
sometimes il reacts as an active poi
son to romance. This perhaps is true
only of the man or woman who has
such unpleasant habits that it amounts
to a scourge, for the sensitive, to have
them about. People who have not yet
discovered that to preserve any of the
illusions of civilization certain
amount of retcence must be observed.
My young correspondent tells me
that she has taken Il VOW of perpetual
celibacy, and that while she is en-
ployed in one of the Government de
partments in Washington she feels as
If she were spending her life in "a bar
Der shop or Il he-beauty parlor. Her
letter, which is entirely too frank and
urcxpurgated to be given -- except in
portions 49, would be a very valuable
document to young people whose home
training has been neglected. This APP
plies TO young women as well as
young men.
"A Chicl AmanS Yc Tal<in' Notes
The individual who has turned the
life of this young war worker into
dust, ashes and cinders is one of those
dami-hemi-semi departmental chiefs
that make up a goodly proportion OF
WaShington's population.
This gentleman, according to the
"Chief Takin Notes." spends GER
tain amount of time writing reports,
signing papers and receiving docu-
mcnts from messengers, and the rest
of the time he devotes to intensive cul-
tiVation of his person.
lie snips, prunes, picks, and pol
ishes himself before his Office force,
with the joy of II department store
dcmonstrator giving an exhibition. The
force has tried staring, it has tried
the aVerted eye, it has left the room,
and one day when the gentleman at
tempted a minor surgical operation on
his face with pair of tweeZers, one
nervous young thing went off her head
into Mysteries Still the chief goes on
with his looping, sniping and prun-
ing.
You would think" writes the des-
perate girl, that his various amputa-
tions would have some appreciable eff
feet on his outline : but no, like the
crab, he seems to be able to reproduce
Expects to Live and Die u SpinSter
4 ne girl confides in me that before Il
cruel fate shut her up in the Chiefs
official boudoir with his various toilet
accessories, she fully expected to
marry. That a vague hope of meet
ing Prince Charming played some part
in her decision to come to Washing
ton. But that this constant currying
in public" has been her cure" for
| ~. lt.sn
and die a spinster
Then she INDUCES in some reflec-
tions regarding the Chiefs antecedents
and she concludes that probably he
was a founding and the matron neg
lected to tell him that toothpick need
not be kept in the mouth continually
once the feeding bottle has been aban-
doned.
l am sure this girl felt a whole lot
better after she wrote me that letter,
and got the Chief = and his vanity
box, as it were "off her chest" 1t
must have been an immense relief to
write to an impersonal and unbiased
confidant like me the daily irritation
that was eating into her soul like so
much acid.
And perhaps she may meet a man
who has had an army or navy train
ing and who would never dream of
''currying himself in public" in conse-
quence. Let us hope so, at any rate,
and draw a moral from the Chief, his
toothpick and his penknife.
1 doubt IL he is a founding. Very
probably he had a doting mother who
never noticed her sons ugly little per-
sonal habits or realized they would be
u handicap to him in life. One can
not think OF IA man with such dis
agreeable mannerisms occupying
genuinely important position, AS Lord