Show Kathleen a Norris Says Throwing A Away way Youth Bell BeD Features Feature II if- if ift ifa r t I a Q vu 4 r M 1 J CA Csc 0 C I Tell Mark Mork everything break your engagement and send end him bock back to 10 service ely absolutely free from any tie lie to 10 you By KATHLEEN NORRIS NORRISA GIRL GIRLin In Akron writes A me a very tragIc letter She IS 22 one of the most and adventurous of all ages and her l life le e IS practically ended She has bat bat- battered battered her way through more experIences than many a woman of sixty has known PlIed mIstake upon mistake and now emerges from tills this hopeless confusIon to ask me meto meto 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 bave formed habIts you have as the CatechIsm puts it it weakened your will and left Witt lD in you a strong intimation to toward toward ward evIl We re all apparently born WIth a strong inclination toward evIl many children seem to steal and lie naturally naturally ally and sometImes Would murder Hut But socIal pressure in n the nursery the desIre to be lilted lIked the early dis covert covery that it IS hard bard to get away unpunIshed WIth crimes and above all the steady patIent guIdance of a good mother set us upon our moral feet Very often thIS IS such a sur surprising change that a 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 1 A little hUle later as a refinement to this new found virtuousness we learn that boasting isn t admIrable so we try to stop that too But Butin ButIn in the beginning many chIldren are untruthful cruel irresponsIble dirty no respecters of persons or property vIolent In anger and lan Ian language guage And it IS only because theIr smallness and ignorance makes these traits laughable at tunes that we are areso areso so patIent In trying to help them grow bEtter The gIrl who writes me Viola evidently had very little training traming She says she is en an only chIld her II parents dIvorced her time from her thud year divided between them each criticizing the other and at attempting tempting to influence her ber and wean away her ber affection When she was 14 she had a love affair with a boy of 17 Two years later she ran away from her ber step step- stepfather 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 inlove inlove love WIth the boss a married man manof manof of 45 Viola represented herself hersel as 18 and he rented a small apart apartment meat 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 wite Viola was spIrIted away to New York and changed her name The strange fact about thIS girl girlis girlis is that she is smart In some ways She got a job with a publishing house bouse In New York and rapidly mounted to a good position She was very popular and she says now that it if she had realized that com coin complete reg regeneration was possible she would not have Indulged in another love affair The affair lasted ten days day but this time she paid a 8 bitter price she was several months in inthe inthe the hospital and came out a very much sobered woman She was then just 22 PromIses Real Happiness Now she is In love with a soldier a line fine serious responsible fellow who will return to hIs medIcal prat Uce tice when the war Is over Viola longs now for everything she has thrown away youth honesty the A FRESH START Do you remember your grammar school days and the thrill you always felt at the beginning of ofa a new school year when you had hada a brand new pad of paper new pen pen- pencils and and probably a new gingham dress with witha a crISp white w collar your mother knew wouldn't stay clean for two minutes minutest It was the thrall of starting all allover over again al although although though you t know zt it then Childhoods Childhood's starry eyed happiness in new adventures u unmarred by the knowl knowledge edge that the past IS alu always ays with us that a fresh start means accepting the past real lust Just as the Viola of this t letter will have to d do lost hope bope of ever having children cleanness of body and soul Hel officer belIeves her ber to be everything a woman should be self controlled principled hIgh minded I don t think he s always beet beer such a saint she wrItes me re re- resentfully resentfully But anyway he s kind of man whose assocIates anI ann famIly all praise hIm thInk be t I wonderful He s 31 I asked h nonce n once it if he d ever loved any gIrl bu bume bume me and he laughed and saId lots He s a gentleman sure that he 1 I always know what s right and do It and be admIred for it it He has t I wonderful mother not rich but ev everyone everyone says that she brought up hel hei five children well Mark adores her herand herand and I suppose she would be wIld j ii she knew the truth about me and do de deber doher her ber best to break up our marriage But this IS what I want to know the letter ends Have I any right to marry any man knowing about aboul all these experiences I have bad and knowing that there won t bt bl children U If I tell teIl him be may sa sal that it won t make any dIfference but I II 11 always feel that it does Isn t I there any such thing for a worn at atas as living down the past and fresh For two years I ye ve been ex exactly exactly what I seem to be a ble private secretary to a big man man living WIth a woman frIend acting WIth great dIscretIon absolutely on the square I don t care about aboul Mark s past life and I don t see what whal business mine IS of his The truth is you do see VIola and that s why you re writing me And my advice to you is that you tell Mark everything break your en engagement engagement and send him back to the service m a few weeks absolutely free of any tIe to you U If when he comes back he still wants you it 11 will be after he has had tIme to think things over and after you have had time too It would not nol be fair to hIm bun to let hIm marry you unknowing His Admiration Impossible You say It may not make any difference to hum him It will make a avery avery very great dIfference A man of 01 that type must be able to gIve his wife wite a certain respect a certain feeling of admiration and coni cond dente dence and you have bave made that im impossIble impossible possIble He could not tell hIs moth mother mother er your story It would preJudIce her too bitterly against yoU and consequently there would always be discomfort and secrecy between him and his mother and eventually a feeling of Impatience and resent resentment meat ment against you who had crippled his life lite Yours is not the story of a mere youthful indIscretion it is the hIs hIstory history tory of an adventuress who could not learn from one sharp lesson but went her lawless way seizing what what- whatever whatever ever she wanted at any cost Tell TeIl Mark the truth and send him himon him himon on his way |