Evening star., 1938-09-03


months and are very happy. The
only rift between us has been about
her friends. She has the faculty for
attracting people to her and think
they take up too much of her time and
attention. I have never believed in
close friends and have none of my
own. My wife is very liberal about
my attitude toward her friends Never
says anything when l object to them,
but I am beginning to think that she
secretly resents it, though she never
gives expression to her feelings I do
not like this because I believe con-
cealment has a strange and sicken-
ing effect on real love. When I OBJ
ject to anything she does 1 spit it out.
We have nice home, but not much
chance to enjoy 1t because either the
friends pop in or We have to go some
where with them, when we are both
tired and would prefer to rest and be
alone. Should subdue my own feel
ingseabout my wife's friends? / don't
think she cares a thing about them,
but it is just her disposition to make
them welcome A. &c.
Answer-Friends, like many other
things in life, are best when done in
moderation. They can be either
blessing or curse None are so poor
as those who have no friends, and
none more unfortunate than those
who have so many friends that they
become pests.
The question of friends is a very
important one for every young mar
rled couple to consider. They should
make friends because it is not good
for husband and wife to shut them
selves up like hermits in their own
house and have no other society than
each other. They need other contacts,
other people will bring in fresh ideas,
different topics of conversation, a thou
sand new interests.
RESIDES, friends are a tangible as
set. People do things for us be-
cause they like us that they would not
DO Tor us because it was our due to
save our lives. We all have the i'm
pulse to throw good thing to our
friends If We can. and to lend them
helping hand We are literally "ad-
vertised by our loving friends" as the
poet says.
But, on the other hand, it is not
good thing for either the husband or
wife to have a too-devoted friend
upon whom he. or she depends for
companionship and understanding
more than he or she does upon his
wife or her husband. An intimate
friend who has the run of the house
and who knows all of its secrets is
always potential source of danger.
The horde Of friends who make of
ones house free bar and lunchroom,
who descend upon one in season and
out of season and never leave one a
minutes privacy or peace, are nothing
but pests and should be treated as
such.
So your problem, as I take it, is
to try and get your wife to weed out
her friends and keep a few that are
worthwhile and of whom she is really
fond and to give the cold shoulder to
the remainder. They are nothing but
parasites who will eat you out of
house and home and take up all of
your time. and the sooner you are rid
of them the better
But you make great mistake in
thinking that the way to preserve your
wife's love is to let yourself 60 when
ever you are irritated and mad and
say all the harsh and bitter things
for her that are in your mind. Long
after you have forgotten them she will
be remembering them and every time
she turns them over in her memory
little Of her affection for you will
go. A woman likes to think that her
husband thinks she is just about per-
feet and 1t hurts both her heart and
her vanity when he blurts out his real
opinion of her in a rage.
nEAR DOROTHY DIX: The Bible
tells us that God created man in
His own image, but does not tell us
what pattern. or image, he used in
creating woman. see so many types
and styles of women that it makes me
think He must have had a dozen dif-
ferent images to draw from when He
made women. Maybe that rib from
Adam was an infected rib. Anyway, it
looks like something was wrong with
it when we see the bean pole, the flour
barrel, the sugar hogshead and ele-
phant types in women. Sure some
thing went haywire in the process
when woman WAS being made. What
do you think about 1t?
INQUIsIT1VE.
Answer-l have never been one of