Evening star., 1937-02-16

victim OF bOfeS. I have
number of friends and ac-
- quaintances who are good,
kind, well-meaning people and whom
would hate to hurt or offend, yet
who are dull, stupid and tiresome and
who bore me to extinction. I have
tried every way to get rid of them.
but without avail. Is there any way
to escape bores? A SUFFERER.
Anwer-I am afraid not, because
the world is full of them and go where
you would, they would be there wait
ing to pounce upon you. The only
possible way to avoid them would be
to live in hermit cell and then, per-
hapS, If you had no other companion
ship than your own society you would
find that you were your own worst
bore.
Seeing, then, that the bore Is ever
present with us and that there is no
possibility of escaping the pests, why
not make a virtue of necessity and
make lending your ears cheerfully to
tiresome people your Boy Scout daily
good deed?
Perhaps you have never thought
that just listening to a man or wom-
an may be the exercise of charity in
its highest form, but such is the case.
There are plenty of people who are
just as much starving for companion
ship as they could be for food; who are
just as much shivering in the coldness
OF their isolation as they would be if
they were out on a Winters night
with no warm clothes to protect them.
You would share your dinner with
the hungry, you would bestow your
coat upon the freezing. Why not,
then, acquire merit, as the Hindus
say. by supplying the needs of thes.
spiritual paupers?
In a way, bores are outcasts.
Pariahs. Every one avoids them as
If they had the plague. Nobody wants
to listen to their dull maunderings or
Is interested in the wearisome details
OF their daily lives. No one Graves to
hear them tell over and over again
the stale Jokes and the pointless stories
that they have heard a thousand
times. and so the poor creatures
wander from group to group seeking
whom they may devour, and generally
finding somehow their victims have
escaped.
But If you would measure the bore's
sufferingS, watch the joy that il
Eliminates his countenance when he
finds some philanthropic soul who
will listen to him with an appear
ance of interest while he tells all
about the grocery trade and the
smart things his little Johnnie said,
and boasts of the peculiac excellence
OF his motor car.
And old people Think how they
wake up and come back to new life
when they find some one who will
actually ask them questions about
things that happened in their youth
and who doesn't look ike an early
Christian martyr when they start
out on a joke that has served them
for 40 years! And women! Haven't
you seen forlorn, disgruntled-lo look
ing woman simply sit up and beam
with unconcealed rapture when given
an opportunity to tell all about her
minor and major operations?
Sl1rn1v ~ ua reaGzoj +bot IN M
other way could we scatter so much
sunshine and bring so much happi-
ness to our fellow creatures as by
suffering fools gladly, rs the Good
Book says we would be more patient
with bores.
DEAR MISS DIX-Why is it that
a boys family treats his girl
friends so differently from the way
a girls family treats her boy friends?
When a boy begins going steady with
a girl, if her family approves of him,
they invite him to dinner, they make
him welcome and they try to be
friendly with him. But boys fam
lily ignores the existence of his girl
friend until they are actually en-
gagged, and then they act as If she
was kidnaper who had stolen their
baby from them. Believe me. there
wouldn't be so many stand-offish
daughters-in-law with chip on their
shoulders if their husbands families
had taken the trouble to make friends
of them before marriage and made
them feel that they would be well
come in the family. ALICE.
| Answer: The reason why the girls
family gives the boy glad hand
while the boys family turns the back
of its hand to the girl. is because
parents are always eager to get their
daughters married, but seldom are
willing for their sons to marry. Hence
the girls parents speed up the we'd
ding day, and boys parents shut their
eyes to the coming catastrophe as
long as they can
The chief reason that so many
fathers and mothers hate to see their
boys marry is because when they
marry they feel that they lose them
almost as much as if they had died.
whereas the girls parents know that
they will keep their daughters and
gain sons. There is much truth in
the old rhyme, MY son is my son
until he gets him wife, but my
daughter is my daughter all of her
life" The reason this is true is largely