The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-09-05

women who see to it that the chill
dren and the new husband are
brought to know and understand
and like each other.
Beatrice, for example, is a case
in point. Nine years ago she di-
vorced her husband, and gave a
small girl of eight a new father.
For while there was nothing they
could do with little Alice. She hated
everything about the change, and
wept continuously for her own Dad
dy, and her own house, and the old
school and the old friends.
Even a baby brother didn't COM
fort Alice, and for while Jack, the
stepfather, detested the child, and
was glad when she went off to visit
her own father and her grand
mother.
But today the situation is differ
ent. Beatrice, the mother, has two
small boys to keep her busy. She
has no maid, and for some seven
years, she writes, she has never
slept through a night undisturbed,
or been in bed later than six o'clock
in the morning.
Stepfather's Attitude Changes.
Alice, the once unmanageable
little daughter, is now a lovely sew
enteen; her stepfather adores her,
and she idolizes him. The mother
writes anxiously that she is idle, out
of school, and mad for dances and
evening parties, and that Jack in
dulges her ridiculously. Beatrice
uses the rickety family car, when
Jack doesn't need it, but Alice has
been promised a new car on her
eighteenth birthday. Jack loves to
take her places, to his golf club, to
movies, to lunch downtown, and she
f1atters him by referring everything
to Daddy" He says no man is
good enough for his girl, and Alice
says she never will find man as
perfect as Daddy.
II ought to be glad, I SUPPOSE"
writes Beatrice. "But I feel neglect
ed and lonely much of the time,
sweet as my little boys company
is. The actual situation is that my
husband is taking a younger and
prettier woman about, and although
both Alice and Jack are conscien-
tious people, far above any suspi-
cion, it makes me feel as if my life
somehow were unbalanced. If I
suggest that Alice stay with the boys
and Jack take me to a movie, he
will do it amiably, but always with
an effort, always with an air of
marking time. And often, when we
are alone together, he is thinking of
Alice, know, for he will break out
with some reference to her, or some
quotation from her, as if she were
the most amusing and lovable crea-
ture in the world.
Stepmother Neglected Now.
swell, she IS amusing and beau
tiful and lovable, too, there is not
a mean bone in her body. But after
all, it wasn't Alice with whom Jack
fell so desperately in love, 10 years
ago; it wasn't for Alice's sake that
! divorced her father and was per-
suaded into second marriage. No
body could have been more pas
sionately in love than Jack was
then"
Well, in answer to Beatrice, can
only say that this seems to me one
of those problems that time inev-
itably solves. With a girl as at
tractive and sweet as Alice, mar
riage will come along in year or
two, and Jack, who has made such
a conspicuous success as stepfa-
Their, can try being step-grandfa-
Their.
Time is the cure for most of these
divorce-readjustment troubles. If
woman will only be patient and gen.
tie and self-forgetting, trying to un-
derstand everyone's position, over
looking great deal, praising where
she can praise and waiting for the
inevitable developments in human
hearts and minds, amazing results
will be her reward. No life, even
when, on the surface, it seems the
most perfect and dignified and be-
loved in the world, is without con-
slant humiliations and disappoint-
ments. But there is not one of them
that may not be turned to gain.