The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-05-26
1T DEPENDED on
RH Miss Sterna E. Wallace.

By Miss Sterna E. Wallace.
81 want to be happy, oh, L want
TO be happy" she fiercely repeated,
living face downward on the bed in
the spare room. I'm ugly, even
my name is ugly, and nobody loves
ugly things. Everybody wants
beauty. want it; how / want it,!
Thus did Jemima, dry-eyed but
sobbing within, give vent to her
feelings.
Not often did she rebel against
the fate that denied her what q
normal girl of % craves-beauty,
friends, clothes and their sequel
good times. Up to now she had I'M
complainingly shouldered the re
sponsibilities made necessary by
querulous, invalid mother and two
carefree, thoughtless brothers She
was too busy for tears and, then,
people called her sensible -
She had never had a beau like
the other girls. She was ugly. Had
it not been dinped in her ears
from childhood that her large gray
eyes had a haunting look, and her
mouth (painful feature) was too
large for her face? Did she not
wear her hair drawn smoothly back
from her face? Weren't her hands
large and red, and wasn't it an &C
cepted fact that, although she went
to an occasional party or dance,
she would rather read to her mother
and make good things for her
brothers?
But when the club to which she
belonged held dance, she was al
ways on the committee. Oh, yes.
Jemima could be depended upon to
do the work; and, as one of the
committee, the boys, duty bound,
asked her to dance. But that was
all; they never went any further
SHE was different.
She did not cover her clean but
rather sallow skin with cosmetics,
nor fluff and snarl her hair, nor
wear high heels or thin blouses.
She was intelligent and could dis
cuss with ease the topics of the day,
but she could NOT talk of love with
abandon.
Yet Jem did not disapprove Of
cosmetics, or high heels, or filmy
clothing She simply did not have
the time for them, nor the money.
So the boys danced with her, said
a hay word or two about the con-
ference on the limitation of arma-
ments, and left her. That was all.
In vain did Avis tell her that
men disliked girls who knew some
thing; that rouge and powder were
to them what nectar is to the gods
what honey is to the bee, and
they thought something was wrong
with a girl who sighted these aids
to beauty.
1t is hard to be considered queer,
especially when one is still young.
1t is hard to be laughed at, even if
one knows that she is ugly; and
above all, it is hard, hard, cruelty
hard to have heart aching to love
and he loved with no one TO love
So, on the night of the monthly
dance, Jemima doubtfully allowed
her face to be smeared with cold
cream, rouged and powdered-no
too much, only just enough to lend
a sparkle to her eyes; and her hair
arranged in loose waves, high in the
back TO aecentuate the beauty of
her neck. bare save for the fiImiest
of georgettes.
The transformation was remark
able, Even Jem felt the difference
and acted accordingly, and the
members of her club gasped when
they saw her dancing with Charlie
Croweli, just home from South
America, and the hero of the eve
ming
Although by no means the belle of
the ball, she managed 10 have a bet
ter time than she had ever had in
her life before. and she eagerly con-
scented to Charles request to take
her home.
At her door he grasped her hand
and before either of them were