Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-05-28

Perhaps you recall Pinero play
in which Ethel Barrymore acted
about seven years ago called Mid
| Channel"
Its theme was the dangerous
! years of married life, the dull,
monotonous time that sets in with
late youth and early middle age.
The stale, fiat Improbable period
tnat succeeds the first fine rapture
of youth and spring time.
The playwright took his title
from rock, real or imaginery,
situated in the English Channel,
midway between France and Eng
land, and avoided by skilled navi-
gators as a menace. The Pinero
couple, like. thousands of people in
real life, foundered in mid channel
in the rock, the wife to die by
suicide and the husband to realize
when too late, what would have
saved the situation.
Young people, like the ill-starred
| couple in the play. start out on
life's journey divinely happy-the
trouble begins when they fail to re-
new their travellers equipment
! They expect to live on the money
moon and are amazed when they
crave a change of diet. They are
like the vaudeville artist that
keeps on with the same old songs
dances and tricks-the public drifts
away in search of newer attrac-
| tions. And frequently the public
| is no more tickle than ones life
partner.
Indeed, successful marriage
might be likened to that old re-
liable conjurer's trick where a
| couple of sleight-of-h hand partners
will keep half a dozen oranges, a
lighted lamp, banjo tossing back
and forth in the air. owing wholly
! to balance and a nice sense of
poise.
Marriage is likely either to go
on the rocks or to drift until it is
| "becalmed" when the partners are
too indolent or too Indifferent to in
| Ject new interests into the old part
nership.
1T is in looking for a new audi
ence for old jokes that half the
| trouble begins" wise woman
once confided to me, and she con-
/ tinued: Il see a good play every
week, and regard the money spent
rs part of the necessary household
| eXpenditure-it is as essential as
soap for Mondays laundry work or
the roast for Sundays dinner"
This same woman, by the way,
regarded good many other things
as essential family expenditure.
| among them was money for decent
J not to say ttractive-house
dresses. She never wore at
home clothes that had grown too
shabby and slatternly for wear out
! side. She was not rich, only con-
scientiously economical, but there
were some things she wouldn't take
| chances on, and among them was a
frumpish appearance at home, and
| the other was becoming dull, heavy
and unenlightened.
| This lady had three sons and they
thoroughly enjoyed her sprightly
comments on current events. She
read the papers. and she met them
| on their own ground, whether il
was politics or baseball. She never
let these boys feel that she was
som ething midway between an
idiot and an angel. They appreciated
her for what she was-an intelli-
gent, sympathizing human being
And when the oldest was in college
he wrote her every day or two. not
duty letters, but letters full oi
amusing college gossip. because he
was eager for the bright replies
she was sure to send.
The Crime of Being Bored
The one crime man cannot for.
give is that of being bored. He will
forgive the breaking of all the com
mandments, he will forgive extrava.
gance he will forgive neglect, baC
housekeeping, even untideness. bu
when a woman begins to make him