The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-05-30
BELL syndicate-wNU service.)

they get frightened, as realer worn-
en- never are.
For example, here is letter from
an Arkansas woman who lives in
four-room city apartment, loves
her husband, fears she's losing him.
Leonard is always kind to me-"
she walls, "but he doesn't need mel
His breakfast is only orange juice,
which l leave in the ice-box over
night. He lunches at the factory l3
miles out of town. He comes home
after a late afternoon stop at the
club, where he plays few games of
dominoes or bridge, and has to-
mato juice. His taste at supper is
simple, nothing fussy or elaborate;
in fact, he often has only bowl of
rice, cereal or crackers and milk,
and cookie. He likes the packaged
cookies better than home made.
An Empty Existence.
81 get up after he goes in the
morning, wash his orange-juice
glass, my coffee cup and spoon, and
make the beds. It is now about
quarter past nine. And Leonard gets
home at six.
eve are among the many" the
letter goes on, "who decided early
in married life that we could not
afford a family. I would not want
a child unless I could give that child
every advantage Of raising and edu-
cation, and the experience of the
few couples we know who have TAX
en- the risk does not tempt me.
perhaps I am critical, but this
life does not seem satisfying to me,
and I feel that my husband and ]
are drifting apart. It is in vain that
/ occasionally try to interest him in
cards, some outstanding movie, or
an effort to widen our circle OF
friends. He seems to need very lit
tie, and it is not imagination that !
am not included in that little, after
ii years of welded life. If I am
away for a few summer weeks, he
keeps the house quite as well as
do, getting his own breakfast and
supper and washing up after them"
Misses Joy Of Being Needed.
Poor woman, ii years a wife, and
trying to interest man in cards,
movies, or new acquaintances! She
is not really needed anywhere; she
never feels the glorious necessity OF
doing things, deciding things, trying
to crowd in little extra service for
someone, trying to squeeze out time
| for an hours delicious leisure. ]
| have known women whose hands
were always full of cooking utensils,
or swiftly busy with blankets and
sheets, or burdened with heavy,
exacting babyhood, had more actual
| joy in living in five minutes than
this woman knows in as many
years!
The woman who wrote me that
letter doesn't know it, but she is
coward. She has been made a COW.
ard by her own nature, that is un.
imaginative, lazy, easily influenced,
These are minor faults, perhaps, but
we pay for them more highly than
for more serious ones.
Just Isn't Living.
To live in one dull apartment,
year in and year out; to agree that
having children is too much of
risk to run; to follow the example
of other stupid women blindly, won.
dering all the while why life tastes
so fiat, is to grow gradually less
and less aware of the amazing op
portunities all about her, to forget
what freedom and independence are.
to sink gradually into an atrophiec
condition from which nothing car
arouse her!
Science and civilization have tax.
en- away from us women many o;
our old royal rights of service anc
usefulness. But it's a poor hear
that doesn't find latter day substi
tute in world as needy as this one
Never to have found little farm
and gone in for raising apricots OF
artichokes or orchids; never to have
brought home sick puppy and tax
en- care of him; never to have turned
two or three spare rooms into 4
sanitarium for delicate children Oh
to have opened little lunch room
at the edge of the road; never II
have raised bees or squads, OF
stretched quilts on frames Of
stretched the family budget to in
clude weekday lunches for half-a
dozen under privileged children
from the nearest primary school
well, that just isn't livingl