The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-28
Dorothy Dir
Gives Five Sure Rules
To Be Good Natured And Cheerful Tactful And Sympa- thetic, And Above AL To Be Interested In Other Peo- ple-In These Lies The Secret Of Popularity

'I greatly desire to be liked by my fellow creatures. What qualities must woman possess in order to be popular?" asked a correspondent.
 Well, I should say that the first element of popularity is good nature.
 Everybody likes the woman who takes life as it comes with calm, phi losophy. The woman who is never looking out for sights and seeing them where they are least intended. The woman who isn't insulted if you don't invite her to every single one of your parties, but who realizes that you have many other friends besides herself, and that there are limits to the seating capacity of small din- band isn't afraid of her. and whose children can tell her when they do wrong because they know that mother won't make a mountain of a molehill.
 The woman that we all step wide of, when we can, is the ill-natured woman. The nervous, neurotic, hys- terical woman with whom life Is just one scene after another. The woman who bristles with feelings, and who is so sensitive that she is wounded by the things that she ina zines that people intended to do to her, even when they didn't do them. Most of us are awfully busy people, and we have no time for the woman who has to be handled with gloves.
 The popular woman is a cheerful woman.
 A woman who radiates sunshine wherever she goes. A woman who wears smile that won't come off, and who puts fresh hope and courage in you, and makes you feel that somehow everything is going to come out all right in the end. Ev- erybody likes the woman who has got a well-developed funnybone, and whose laugh is hung on hair trig- ger that any old joke will set off.
 But we all take to the tall timber at the approach of Mrs. Gloom. Mo- body wants morose, grouchy, long faced woman about. Nor does any one pine for the companionship of the lady who salts you down in the brine of her tears, and who fixes you with her watery eye while she tells you the sad, sad story of her life. We have all got troubles enough of our own without superimposing other peoples upon them.
 The popular woman is a tactful woman.
 A woman who takes the trouble to rub our fur the right way, and say the things to us that make us purr under her hand. The woman who re- members who we are,e and our family connections, and the little remarka- ble thing that we have done, or our children have done. The woman who asks how we sleep and if our insom- mia is better, and who says something nice about the new car we are so proud of, and Johnny having won a scholarship, and Mary going to Flu, rope. Everybody enjoys being with the tactful woman because somehow she spreads salve over all the sore places In our vanity, and when we are with her there is never a jar or a hitch to mar pleasant occasion.
 But we loathe the woman who is a bull In china shop. The woman with whom we cannot be for five minutes without her saying some thing that hurts or ruffles us. The woman who has an unerring touch for the wound in your heart and who woman who has an instinct for rat tlfng the family skeleton. The wom- an who never fails to ask a divorcee about her ex-husband, or to talk to the mother of an afflicted child about cripples or idiots. The woman. who makes everybody feel that there should be an open season in which 1t is permitted to kill conversational /blunderers at sight.
 The popular woman is tho woman who rem embers.
 She Is the woman who does not think that her friends are mind readers who will take her glod in- tentions for granted. She is the woman who never forgets to do nice little things. The woman who calls in her car and takes friend who has no car to a party; who gives children a ride and old people a treat by taking them out on sunny days. The woman who writes us a note of congratulation when some joy comes our way, and letter of sympathy woman who sends us postcards when she travels and whose gifts show that she has remembered our tastes and peculiarities.
 But nobody loves the self-centered woman who is too busy with her own affairs to think of anyone else until she needs them. The woman who is too lazy to take the trouble to write you line of congratulation or cLn- dolence; the woman who never gives anybody lift in her car. The woman who never gives anyone meal un- less she is sure of getting better one for 1t, and who never has any real friends. Nobody really loves an egotist.
 The popular women ii tho kindly woman.
 The woman who is good neigh bor and a good friend. The woman who is always ready to help and to give. The woman who likes young people. and who likes to help them have good time. Tho woman who