The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1942-08-21
By KATHLEEN NORRIS
BEN syndicate-wNU Features.

TT IS very hard to be anything
but a complete fool when
L you are sin love-" To be
Sin love" is to be in a fever,
with moments of actual delir-
ium, and nobody expects a per-
son in such a condition to be ca
pable of making wise decisions
or of rational action.
Many men and women mar
ry, enjoy life, raise families,
consider themselves fortunate
and happy people, without hav-
ing known the agonies and
delights, the fears and raptures Of
being ''in love-"
It is a sickness of spirit that
makes everything else in life seem
dreamy and far away. A woman
determines she will not telephone;
she cannot wait to get her hands on
telephone. She determines she
will not humiliate herself by writing
letter, even as she is inscribing
her passionate words on a page. She
will not think about him, but she
hopes at every corner to meet him,
every mans coat or walk or eyes or
smile brings him back to her. She
will start conversation, break it
off restlessly, determine to lie down
for awhile just to dream Of him and
spring up instantly like a person
blinded by sudden pain, to put on
her hat and 60 forth aimlessly to
haunt such places as he frequents.
A woman Sin love" cannot eat
or sleep; she is helpless under the
neglect or cruelty of the man for
whom she is burning with desire,
because he is as much her whole
world as is the air she breathes and
she can do without the one no better
than she can do without the other.
Unfortunately, to many of our
modern women, who are not bound
down by homework, child-bearing,
a generally moneyless and helpless
condition as their grandmothers
were, the experience of being Sin
love" is one that comes after mar
riage. Engagement, marriage,
motherhood, and home-making seem
a tame affair beside it. Some man,
romantic, unknown, ready with SUBJ
tie fiatteries-about 80 per cent of
being ''in love" is mutual batteries,
by the way-comes out Of the blue,
and sensible little Nancy, who up to
this point has been everything a
sweet good daughter, wife, mother,
friend ought to be, is carried off her
feet and washed out to sea.
Ignores the Consequences.
That she is living on whipped
cream and caviar and terrapin and
marrons glacees, and that she is go
ing to have good old-fashioned at
tack Of nauseau and stomach-ache
after it, doesn't occur to Nancy. The
very fact that this particular fruit
is forbidden only adds to its flavor.
She knows, looking at similar af-
fairs going on among her friends,
that after few months the glamor-
Gus Freddie will seem to her just
another shallow, simple, selfish, un-
reasonable man like so many Of the
others.
But fever is upon her, her whole
body thrills and throbs with it, and
for few months of passion she will
sacrifice everything she has built
into her life and character.
Here is a letter characteristic Of
many ! receive, characteristic of a
situation that has meant wreckage
for a good many women's lives:
Five years ago." writes Alberta,
81 was living the quiet life that mill
lions Of American women live in
small towns. ! have two sons; they
were aged five and three. My hus-
band was a devoted but rather