Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-02-26
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
THE ART OF FRIENDSHIP
BY DOROTHY DIX
Copyright, 1920, by the Wheeler Syndi-
cate, Inc.

Alas, my child that is a question that no
one can answer specifically. There is no fol-
w-this-rule-and- you-can t-fail recipe for
making what Emmy Lou called intimate
friend" as there is for making spice cake
All that one can do is to offer you a few
general observations on the gentle art O:
making friends
Of course, the very essence of the sub
ject is comprised in the old axiom which
says that to have friends We must show
ourselves friendly. There is something in
our very desire to be liked, that draws peo7
pie towards us. 1t is some warm human
quality that makes us akin to all with whom
we come in contact.
So II you want girl friends you must
SHOW yourself friendly to other girls. You
must do little kindly things for them. You
must show them that you enjoy them, and
you must meet them more than half way
None of us have such superior charms thai
we afford to stand aloof and wait for
other people to seek out. It is just as
much business to make overtures I'd
strangers, as it is theirs to court u.s.
If you want girl friends, you must be
sympathetic. You must be willing to enter
into the joys and sorrows OF those about
YOU and to rejoice with those who rejoice Il
and weep with those who weep. You mus
be willing to help the green young girl who
is just starting in the store CT office Id
which you work and who is scared to death
or to say friendly little word that makes
a strange girl feel at home in the social Sc
in which you move. Just hand held GU
at such a moment has given many cir S
a friend for life.
And you must be able to listen withou D
WEAKNESS while other girls tell you, ove
and over again, for the millionth time, the
story of their troubles at home, or abou
the row they had with their beaux. Heaven
knows why friendship should be a tear Jug
| but it is. The price we pay for our friends
as long as we live, is being receptacle fol
their hard luck stories.
If you would have girl friends, you mus
be willing to play the game. Friendship
means team work, and sacrificing your own
individual desire to the will Of the many. M
| girl who insists on bossing the bunch eve%
has any friends, and the girl who is Away
ready to take her doll rags and go home 1
the others won't play her way, is very sool
permitted to go home and stay at home b.
herself
| If you want to be popular with girls, b
easy to get along with The sensitive cir
who is always getting her feelings hurt, and
who has to be handled with kid gloves, i
| too much trouble to bother with So is tn
high tempered girl, who is forever taking
offense, and getting angry, and making
scene, or going into gloomy crouch, anC
who has to be continually propitiated to kee
her in a good humor. So is the squeamisiN
girl who is perpetual wet blanket on ever
party, because she is always being shocked
or she is afraid of something, or she can
have everywhere exactly the same amount
physical comfort that she has at home.
The girl whom other girls like, is tn g
! girl who is always good natured and full
of fun, and who always makes the best o
every situation and of everybody She is
comfortable an old shoe, cheering
the sunshine, and everybody likes to hav
her around because she fits in everywher
and rubs everybody's fur the right way.
If you want girl friends, you must den
yourself the pleasure of Dragging. No othe S
girl is so unpopular as the one who is al
ways boasting of her family, her money, he
education, her looks, her beaux. You know
the kind of girl mean, the one who tell
you within five minutes after you have me
her, that she has college education, o
| that Signor Craft told her that she had
grand opera voice and should go on th
stage but that her father just won't Civ
his consent to her having a public career 4
or that she has an imported French car, o
that she is simply worn out by late hours
but what is one to do when men are so per-
sistenti
| Nobody loves a braggart. No woman join
! in the chorus when another woman sing
her own praises, so if. you want to have cir
friends can the egotistic stuff. Put the sof
pedal self-praise. Spend your voice Of
| telling other girls how pretty, and sweet, and
| popular they are, and so shall you win
few kind words from your own sex.
If you want girl friends, don't be cat
| There is nobody in the world of whom othe
women are so afraid, and of whom the
steer so clear, as the sister who never come
near them without giving them a sly claw
You have heard a sweet, innocent-looking#
| baby-faced thing lisp out: '~Wfat lowell
new diamond LIN you have, Mary! Away
think those little cheap chip diamonds ar
so attractive" Or: GLOW beautifully you
old dress made over, didn't it, Dolly? YOU
would hardly know it for the same thing
and this is the third season, isn't it," Or S
GLOW we'll you are looking, Jane. You ar
! getting in the fat-WOman class, aren't you
Or: What a sport you are, Mrs. Jones,
let that good-looking husband of yours ru1
around with the debutantes I'd be afraid
would lose him, if he we're mine"
Don't expect to have the fun of ripping
women up the back, and still have them Xix
you. 1t can't be done. Say the kindly thing
not the thine that hurts,l if you would b%
beloved Friendship is an emollient, no
vitriol. \
Finally, if you would have girl friends, b|
generous. Don't be pig and try to grail
the Rest of everything for yourself. You
know the type of girl who tries to shut GU
every girl she knows from her good times
who gorges her candy alone, and who es
tablishes . quarantine around every man she
meets, and wouldn't introduce him to an
other girl to save her life. That sort of cir q
never has any friends, because there il
nothing in greediness to call forth affection
1t is not hard to make other girls like
YOU. Be simple and sincere, and kindly and
helpful and friendly yourself That's the
secret of winning friends.
(Copyright. 1921, bv the Wheeler Syndicate#