The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1943-05-06
By KATHLEEN NORRIS
Bell syndicate-wNU Features.

by MAI HLEEN NOhhIS
4 GIRL in Akron writes me
II a very tragic letter. She
L = is %, one Of the most thrill
ing and adventurous of all ages,
and her life is practically ended.
She has battered her way
through more experiences than
many a woman of sixty has
known, piled mistake upon mis-
take, and now emerges from
this hopeless confusion to ask
me to tell her in just a few words
how she can start going right.
Well, Hopeless, the way to start
going right is to start going right.
It is as simple as that. And yet
not simple, because like a hard
drinker, you have formed habits,
you have, as the Catechism puts it,
weakened your will, and left
within you strong inclination to-
ward evil"
We're all apparently born with a
strong inclination toward evil; many
children seem to steal and lie natur-
ally, and sometimes would murder.
But social pressure In the nursery,
the desire to be liked, the early dis
covery that it is hard to get away
unpublished with crimes, and above
all the steady patient guidance Of
good mother set us upon our moral
feet. Very often this is such sur
prising change that small child will
innocently boast about it. I'm good.
I helped Lizzie do the dishes and I
didn't tell on Freddy. And I gave
my birthday dollar to the Red Cross,
didn't I, Mother?"
Evil Ways In Minors.
A little later, as a refinement to
this new-found virtuousness, we
learn that boasting isn't admirable,
so we try to stop that too. But
in the beginning many children are
untruthful, cruel, irresponsible,
dirty, no respecters of persons or
property, violent in anger and Ian
guage. And it is only because their
smaIlness and ignorance makes
these traits laughable at times that
we are so patient IN trying to help
them grow better.
The girl who writes me, Viola,
evidently had very little training.
She says she is an only child, her
parents divorced, her time from her
third year divided between them,
each criticizing the other and at
tempting to influence her, and wean
away her affection.
When she was Il she had a love
affair with a boy of II. Two years
later she ran away from her STEP
father; her mother had gone on a
European trip and left her with him,
and she disliked and distrusted him.
She got an Office job and fell IN
love with the boss, married man
of IS. Viola represented herself as
18, and he rented small apart
ment for her. There was a police
case; her name was protected as
much as possible, but the man was
sent to jail, and to escape a suit by
his wife, Viola was spirited away to
New York and changed her name.
The strange fact about this girl
is that she is smart In some ways.
She got job with a publishing
house In New York and rapidly
mounted to good position. She
was very popular, and she says now
that If she had realized that COM
plete regeneration was possible she
would not have INDUCED in another
love affair. The affair lasted ten
days, but this time she paid a bitter
price, she was several months in
the hospital, and came out a very
much sobered woman. She was then
Just q.
Promises Real Happiness.
Now she is IN love with a soldier.
a fine, serious, responsible fellow