Evening star., 1936-05-28

on lTI6IlQIy I6tIIle. my 1dJllCl
comes to the house nearly every night
and is very nice to US. am a girl Of
IL years old and I am very sensitive
about this divorce and feel that it will
disgrace me for life. have few
very close girl friends and to keep
them from finding out about 1t have
told them q great many lies. Please
tell me what I should do about this
lying. Shall keep on with it?
MARY ELLEN.
Answer-No, no, you poor little be-
wildered kid. You will only get your
self in deeper trouble and make the
situation more dificult by lying about
it. You will lose your friends far more
surely by telling them falsehoods than
you would by telling them the truth,
for they will find out that you have
deceived them and lose all confidence
in you.
1t is folly to try to hide the family
skeleton. The door always pops open
at the wrong time or somebody peeks
through the keyhole and whispers
what he thinks he saw to somebody
else, and that starts all the gossiping
tongues to wagging. The result is that
everybody rattles the bones and tells
an exaggerated tale about them.
Everything is made to appear 10 times
as bad as it is. So. when anything
unpleasant happens in a family it is
far better to make no mystery about
1t, but just to tell the plain truth about
it and open the closet door, so your
friends and neighbors may see for
themselves what is in it. That salts
fies their curiosity and stills their
tongues, because it leaves them moth
ing to speculate about.
IF YOUR mother and father are
going to get a divorce, you can't
keep it a secret. 1t will be published
in the newspapers. No doubt all your
acqusintances know about it already,
so you are doing silly thing in telling
you and do not save your mothers and
fathers faces. While you need not
broadcast their matrimonial differ
ences to the world, you had best tell
the truth about it when you have to
speak of 1t.
And try to get over the morbid view
you are taking on the subject. Re-
member how common divorce is in
these days and that it is no longer
considered q disgrace, and certainly
it puts no public stigma on the chill
dren of the divorces The only SEN
timent 1t arouses in any breast is one
of pity for them.
But inasmuch as you feel so deeply
about the matter and as your parents
seem to have done each other no un-
forgivable wrong, why don't you
make an appeal to them to try to
forget their differences for your sake?
Try to make them understand what
a crime they are committing against
you and how they are warping your
life by this divorce that they are en-
tering into so lightly.
Tell them that you feel disgraced
and that you fear that you will be
ostracized by your playmates when it
is known that they have parted. Tell
them that you have been so crushed
with shame at this thought that you
have been driven to lying in order to
put of the evil day as long as pos
sible.
If they have any hearts in their
bosoms; if they have any love for
you; if they have any sense Of respon-
sibility and duty to the child they
have brought into the world, they GER
tsinly will not sacrifice you to some
whim. They will wait until you are
grown before they part.
DOROTHY DIX.
DEAR DOROTHY DIX: I have
been married a year, am terribly
in love with my husband and I am
certain that he loves we very much,
too. However, he has recently opened
business Of his own and he is SO
anxious to make this venture a sue
cess that he works every night until
midnight. I scarcely know am mar
ried to him except on week ends. ]
myself work in an Office, so the days
are all right. but my evenings are
very lonely and his conversation,
when at home, is made up mostly Of
his work and his plans and prospects.
What can I do? I can't go out alone.
My friends have their men folks and
I am just out in the cold.
A LONELY BRIDE.
Answer-I think the thing for you
to do is to try to be good sport about
this situation. If your husband was