Salt Lake Telegram | 1923-07-22 | Page 32 | Begging Friends

BEGGING FRIENDS 1 Copyright llll (New York Evening World), Press Publishing Co. Two families whe have bees friends for many year have parted eompand- because Family A has realized real-ized that Family B haa been a "taking" "tak-ing" proposition from beginning te end.- These people grew up together in a email town, and both came te live la the city. One family got along better thaa the other, and It aeema tnat the struggling family was eoastaatlr aafclng for favora The wife of the obb who finally made the break told me the story something like this: "I aever qalte realised hew much we actually have done for our friends, because during the years the demand upon us waa made ao Insistently and skillfully. For Instance. In-stance. Mra B would come to me with tears In hsr eyea, telling me bow Janie needed some new clothes and that they were a little abort thatmonth for thla or that reason. rea-son. "Whenever there waa any one etck In the family they alwaya telephoned to ua and we were right there with food and elothee and all Borta of thlnga Many a time In the middle Of the night we were called to go to their aid. And when the foctor's bill wss prsssntsd they did aot alwaya al-waya have the money on hand to pay and we usually had to advance "Whenever Mr. B needed a little backing oa aome lob. he alwaye came to ua for help, which we gladly rave. They were at our house for meals without number, but, of eouree, we were always plsssed to have them. Bmall seme of mousy as loans wsra a general rule. "The worst of the whole thing, however, .wss that ws had to go through all their troubles with them so that actually we were living not only our owa Uvea but theirs aa wed. during all theae years "But the etraw that broke tha . camera back came whea they became be-came offvnded because we had ant In-lted thenito a diner party. 1 would liave IlkeJ 1 have Invlfel them but as we had eo many frlenes y and so little room. It wee Impossible Impos-sible te aava them oa thle particular . ooceslon. The thing that hurt the weret wae that we were upbraided for this Isrk ef ewartesy to them, aa they out It. "Mrs actually wept at the eeemlag Ineult and drew the picture pic-ture of how we were brought up together and that aow I was ? shamed ef her. My hueband and began to sum up ths whole thing and derided that ws had been Imposed Im-posed upon long enough; tnat these people when they had money and could get along had epent It faater than we did, end thus In tlms of troubls they alwava fell back on ub. In fact, they knew they coald lean that way. "We concluded the best thing te do wss to mske them so their own way, meet their awn dtrrlciiltlee. and perhaps they would realise how wrong they had been. "Of course we feel the loss of thslr frlsndshlp keenly, but It Is better bet-ter not to see them at all than to feel that we might likely offend them all the time when we hsvs done ao much for tnsm." And such eaeea are plentiful. Only the other day a friend of mine told me how he had sndorsed a r.ote for a friend and he finally got the worst of It becsase when he had lo have It, the man who borrowed bor-rowed ths money could not pny and be was hurt at being asked for It. Ths grestest friendships tn tha -world are built up on conetdratlon. If you.lovs your frlsnd you will not Impess too mach upon hlai snd therefore you will always havs hlra. 1 Friendship. Ilka old wine, grows better with the yesrs. but you must think twlcs befors you ssk once.