Montgomery County sentinel., 1931-04-10
THAT
KIND OF
PERSON
By FANNIE HURST
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THE chronic restlessness which
beset the soul of Agnes Lyn1
was largely due to the fact that
she was continually being made
aware, by appreciative friends, that
she was too big a person for her
small role.
Her role was that of primary teach
er in the two-room rural schoolhouse
nestled in rather lovely valley that
separated, by miles, two thriving vii
lagos.
For four years Agnes Lynn, who
had been graduated from Normal
school in the capital city Of the state,
had held this position as one Of the
two teachers in the little old, proven
bially red, schoolhouse that stood be-
meath a pair of twin oaks and was
backed by a beautiful rise of Penn
sylvania mountains. The second
teacher was a poetic-faced, middle
aged man named Roger Nash who had
bad limp due to what some people
feared was a tubercular bone condi-
tion. But that was gossip.
Except for the insistence from her
local friends, as well as those in one
or another Of the two adjoining vii
lagos, to say nothing Of those in the
city where she had been educated,
Agnes could have found it in her
heart to relax to the quiet, rural
beauties of her life as school teacher
in this green and placid valley. And
yet she knew that she owed it to her
self, her friends and her future, to
put to more significant use the fine
and virile brain with which she was
so undoubtedly endowed
1t took all of her will power to
fight against the inertia induced by
the tranquil years in the tranquil val
ley. The children who trouped daily
into her classroom were clean-faced,
clean-hearted little youngsters, prod
ucts Of a wholesome agricultural en-
vironment, eager to be friends with
her. The pleasant companionship Of
Roger Nash, frail, visionary. passive,
was of sufficient intellectual stimula-
tion to ward off tedium. Her room
ut the farmhouse where she boarded
was lovely old one of rare, early
American furniture, spic-and-span
cleanliness and a view Of apple or
chard, mountain stream and rich
countryside that never ceased to de-
light her. AS matter Of fact, an
apple tree actually leaned in at her
window to awaken her.
That was why, throughout the years
she spent in the valley, Agnes had to
light against the sweetish kind Of in
rita that enyeloped her. Life was so
'leasant here, so deeply tranquil, each
LAY filed with a fresh simplicity.
And yet in her heart she realized how
meager the sphere, how unworthy Of
her abilities, how spiritually and men
tally lazy of her to remain. Teach
ing limited her talents. Throughout
her college career Agnes had exhibited
u talent for executive work.
Her chance came when the prin
ipal Of the Normal school from which
she had graduated wrote an offer to
~ecOmmend her for the position Of
executive secretary to the vice presi-
lent OF Chicago mortgage and trust
company.
There was simply no withstanding
he lure of this offer. 1t meant not
nly the tripling Of her salary but it
offered her contacts that could lead
to big achievements In the business
world There did not seem much rea-
ION for Agnes to hesitate. And what
hesitating she did was too private to
,nnfide to even the best of her friends.
She would not have dared to admit It.
Opportunity had raped long and
insistently at Agnes door.
Chicago, insofar as its resemblance
to the life she left in the valley was
concerned, might have been city.
not in another state, but on another
planet. Not even her life as a stu
dent in the capital city Of her state
had prepared her for the degree of
intensity, the complicated arduous-
ness that awaited her. Life was like
gale that caught her from the mo.
nent she stepped off the train and
kept her swirlIng and twirling at high
| tempo.
The demands of her position also
kept her keyed to degree Of intensity
that was as astonishing as 1t was ex-
hilarating. For the first few months
" the new environment, bewildered
MS she was in many respects, Agnes
realized that she owed 1t to herself to
have ventured forth into these active
fields Of enterprise. Gone were the
old fears OF intellectual lassitude
ness. The city had her in its tempo
She rose in her fairly comfortable
boarding house room that had for its
vista the window Of another boarding.
house room precisely like hers she
dressed in haste she breakfasled In
haste at cafeteria, she met her EN-
plOyer in the tense. terse, lmpersOna
mood Of the city, she performed hel
tasks with mechanical and speeded
M rectltude, she lunched l.: n bust
p.s wumeu's club to the rattle oi
dishes and the roar Of the elevated
railrnnd she met her employer FOL
an afternoon Of more OF the speed o.
.t,iine. she dned in table d'hotI
with thp evening papei
Hp aeainrt the sugar bowl
e.i ,hr u.iss. the theatei
o. 'nnlp or fcmal,