Evening star., 1938-04-13
Girls Resent
Being Used
BY Family
All Work, No Play.
AS Bad for Jill as
1t Is for Jack.
BY ANGELO PATRI.

1T WAS past the time for Trudy to
be home from school Her mother
looked at the clock with a frown
That child not home yet. and she
knows it is ironing dav and the lunch
dishes waiting and the baby to be
taken out and all. What's keeping
her?"
The minutes licked away, and no
Trudy Mother smoothed the last OF
the dish-towels and put away the
board. She picked up the crying
2-year-old and set her in chair by
the window. There. she will soon be
coming to take you out You sit
there and watch for her a minute
while I call John Henry"
John Henry was playing ball down
on the corner lot. No, he had seen
nothing OF Trudy. He didn't think
she was at Turner's, but he would
go and see. Funny she hadn't come
home
Trudy was not at Turner's, nor at
any of the other neighboring houses.
Trudy had disappeared as completely
as If the earth had swallowed her.
Nobody had seen her since noontime
when she had entered the school yard
along with the other children She
had not gone to classes. All night
the anxious father and mother sat
listening for the telephone Now
and then one or the other would
lift it and call the police station. No
Trudy anywhere.
1t took 10 days to find the runaway.
She had gone to a town 25 miles
from home to take a job as a mothers
helper. She had put an advertise
ment in the paper, very skillfully
worded one that set forth her &C
complishments and her wants very
clearly. She said she was a girl with
out home. in need of work She had
experience in caring for children, in
assisting at all kinds of housework
She wanted home and opportunity
to attend high school. She got the
job. Easily. References? Yes, she
had two. good ones One from a
clergyman, one from teacher. She
carefully refrained from saying that
she had copied them from some pa
pers she had discovered in the attic
one day. Relatives? Only distant
ones. She was on her own.
why did you do this?" asked her
weeping mother How could you
make me suffer so?"
Il didn't think you cared. All
ever got out of home was food and
shelter and work. I never got a
minute to rest or to play, like other
children. John Henry played every
afternoon. I washed the dishes from
lunch, tended the baby to dinner
time; washed up again; did my home
work; made the cereal for breakfast;
set the breakfast table; went to bed.
Next day it began all over again. I
thought that as long as I had to
work I might as well get some fun
out OF it. No, I don't want to go
home: Here I get 50 a week. time
to play and study, and I don't have
to carry John Henrys books to school,
And can save something to pay my
way to college, just the way he is
saving the money from his paper
route. I'm all right. Don't worry
about me-"
That is a very bad state of affairs.
The girl feels that she was used for
the benefit of the family, no thought
given to her This is an unusual ex-
ample, but many girl is made to
carry more than her fair share of
the family burden. The boys play
on their teams, the girls rarely. The
boys are free to go and come pretty
much as they please; the girls are
held to a strict schedule of home
duties. All work and no play is as
bad for Jill as it is for Jack.