The McDowell times. [volume] (Keystone, W. Va.) 1904-1941, 1940-11-22
BY KATHLEEN NORRIS
BELL syndicate-wNu Service.

BY KATHLEEN NORRIS
CMUGNESS is a terrible
thing, in husband or wife.
~ It is one of those marital
faults that are much more try
ing, in the daily encounter of
matrimony, than much more
serious failings. Smugness is
disagreeable in anyone, but
when a wife knows that it is al
ways lying in wait for her, and
when she also knows that there
is some justification for the
holier-than-thou attitude in her
spouse, then her path is hard in
deed.
Ruth, whose letter reaches
me this week, is suffering
from the smugness of The
man she married some ten
years ago, and ] don't know
that there's any. cure for it. For it
is the very essence of smugness that
1t rises above correction and criti-
cism and only feels sorry for the
person stupid enough to find fault
with perfection.
This is part Of Ruth's letter:
Dear Mrs Norris: My father was
factory hand and my mother kept
boarders. After three years of high
school ! went into a box factory,
helping to support three small half
brothers. My father had died and
my mother married again. When I
was about 10 I had q girl chum
named Mabel, and her brother and
her sweetheart and I used to go
around together for two years. Ches-
ter, the brother, was fascinating
sort of fellow; we used to 60 up to a
little cabin in the mountains, we
girls cooking the dinner, and all of
us taking tramps, swimming, and
having fun. Mabel and Bud were
lovers and Chester and I, very much
in love, were not long in following
suit.
Enters College at %.
after about year Of this he
went away, and fall invalided my
mother, who fingered completely
helpless for seven years. 1 took
over the clearinghouse, and was
presently offered q hotel in town,
to which we all moved. At %, when
my brothers were pretty well
launched, an aunt of theirs left us
some money TO complete our educa-
tons, and was delighted to take
coaching, and to enter college with
girls 10 years younger.
This was a happy time for me. l
met my husband, who was, and is,
a professor of English, and the year
we were married l sold three short
stories-for very small sums, but
it was great thrill to me. OF late
years have had little time to write,
as we have three children and / do
all my own work, but 1 have al
ways hoped that the time would
come when could go on.
"Some months ago / noticed a
change in Phil, my husband, that
could not understand He is Is years
older than 1, which makes him ST..
He grew excitable, moody, explo-
sive, silent. He has always been a
serene man, a church-goer, ideal
istic and really faultless. His devo-
ton to the children is remarkable,
and he has always seen that they
help me as much as small children
can.
Husbands Suspicious Aroused.
"One day had q call from Ches-
ter's brother, who as a young boy
had sometimes been with us on our
expeditions. had not heard of any
of them for years and believe me
he was an unwelcome reminder of
what | would have been glad to for
get. He said that he was worried
because he had met my husband
and made some reference to me, as
girl. He said that he had had no
idea that ! had left the box factory
DAYS behind me and was married