Evening star., 1922-03-19
MARY ROBERTS RINEHART, NOVELIST, TELLS
OF THE HIGH COST OF CAREERS FOR WOMEN

doctrine. more people kept good by
fear than by love.
I'm addition to this relaxation of
the old moral creed and the substi-
tuition for it of code of manners. we
find that the commercial value of
youth has recently been realized.
We are selling our young people to
the makers of exotic and extravagant
clothing, to the bootleggers, to the
roadhouse proprietors and to the jazz
musicians. And they resell them at
enormous profit. 1 do not blame
youth, but I do blame. the exploiters
Of that youth.
1.-THE plain truth is that we have
allowed outsiders to usurp the func-
tions Of the home. and 1 do not
know how we can get back. Per-
haps this young generation, realizing
later on the falsity Of today's values,
may exercise more care and place
more restraints on their children.
But we cannot get away from the
fact that an entire generation does
not become pleasure-seeking and ex-
travagant overnight.
,"It is the very early years of life
that form character. and that puts
large part of the responsibility back
precisely where 1t belongs-to the
failure OF the home in childhood.
Nothing can be done by the mother
who says that she cannot do anything
with her grown daughter, or the
father who goes into blind anger over
his son. They are years too late. The
reform may come, but it does not
come from within, but from without
by tardy restraints, by laws which
may or may not be effective. like pro-
hibition; bypub lie opinion-some-
times by a tragic lesson"
That Mrs. Rinehart is a family
woman, and the Rinehart family a
close home combination, needs no
telling here. Their attractive country
home. just outside Pittsburgh. never
suffered Tor moment from Mrs
Rinehart.s success. fo this day she
never allows her work to interfere
| with the family life. When the three
boys grew up and went off to school
no lure was ever as strong as home
Vacation periods were preferably
spent there or with Mrs. Rinehart and
the. head of the house adventure
seeking in the big outdoors-cross-
country riding. mountain climbing.
bear hunting, shooting rapids or fish
ing.
On a table in the living-room Mrs
Rinehart has enshrined the family. In
a silver frame stands the head of the
house, in uniform, surrounded by pic
lures of three strapping sons. The
eldest, who married the daughter of
bis mothers pubiisher-said to be the
heroine of Mrs. Rineharts sub-deb
stories-is now the head of his own
house.
On the writing desk is fascinating
picture of the newest addition, who
smiles down at her youthful and dis
| tinguished grandmother every morn
ing as she opens her daily mail-hun-
dreds Of letters, from stage-struck
girls and girls who want to go into
| the movies, fathers and mothers ask
| ing advice on family affairs, people
who want to sell her the story of
their. lives. requests for her photo
graph from the Philippines and Cuba.
| where her moving pictures are being
shown and the impression seems to
prevail that the author is the heroine
| of the story.
How Mrs Rinehart manages to
dictate replies to all these letters.
accept a few invitations, sit for her
portrait, give of herself and her
| money, and yet neglect neither her
work nor her family, which also In
cludes an invalid mother in Washing
ton, is because she has learned to
arrange and systematize her time.
| For her, as for others, that is the
secret of success.