Show KATHLEEN NORRIS MORRIS Must She Fret Over Trivialities Bell Ben Syndicate Syndicate Features Feature By Dy KATHLEEN NORRIS WORRYING is a fault and a habit It Is also stupid But of this faulty stupid habit many women make a virtue They are proud of their worrying It nearly drives everyone mad but they are meekly resignedly proud of it Take the wife of the he man who write writes the following letter He Jim is 40 his wife is 36 30 These are wonderful ages ages the very cream of life But for Rose the cream is curdled The girls and I love Mama writes Jim or rather typewrites on paper that shows he be is the head of a wood and coal business Weve got everything we want wanta want want- a nice home friends friends and and were we're all normal people no ho sickness of body or mind So what can keep a sensible woman like Rose fretting and worrying nagging and complaining complaining com com- is more than I can see She says her mother was a great worrier and says it as if 11 it were something rather fine Others Dont Don't Fuss Fass But what she doesn't know Jim adds is that a man is apt to meet other women who dont don't make such a darned fuss about every thing My agent In a near-by near town is a young war widow and Is Just Justa a streak of sunshine Nothing worries wor war worries ries rles herShell her herShell Shell fix a little meal up in do theoffice the theoffice theoffice office shell she'll laugh if U anything goes wrong she's sure this'll come out right and that'll all clear up and its it's a pleasure to be with her She's got a boy of five tive and the way she handles that little fellow is a pleasure to see They laugh together together together to to- gether like a couple of ot kids At home borne Rose begins nagging when I arrive and doesn't stop until un un- til W I leave the next morning Our girls are only nine and five but already they are beginning ng to Ignore ignore ig Ig- Ig nore her criticisms Their clothes r r r h. h A 1 H fl the she h cream lIm is it curdled their health our financial status tatus the weather the people she sees and doesn't want to see and th the ones she ahe wants to see who don dont don't t manners If U Im I'm too cordial cordial cor cor- come my dial lilal my manners if U Im I'm too cool my family's treatment of at her when 12 ago- ago she ahe he was a bride years yean theres there's no ito end to It It If I get gel In a helper the girl wastes everything and isn't isn clean it If I 1 dont don't get her she's half halt dead with work anyone And all the time she's be capable and hardworking and economical and would die for tor an any one of us the letter continues But she sure lure does make We life a burden for tor her ber herself self sel and everyone else Criticizes Ills IUs Driving Then theres there's my driving She over from the back seat eat and leans watches Batches the road like lika a cat and there l Isn't nt a chicken or a red light truck that she doesn't see way or ahead a It gets a man nervous The whole thing gets you fOU down This Rote Rose of ot Jimmys Jimmy's sounds tome to tome tome known type a too well me like Uke i There isn't any advice or suggestion that will reach such such a womans woman lion tion S entrenched in her ber own s She ts is too conviction and righteousness Ter tier lIer defense would be that Jimmy Jim Jimmy careless that there theng are ene Is la my many accidents that someone has to watch the family safety and sanity san aan ity that people would be wasting money and getting sick and spotting spot ting their clothes and leaving lights burning and running into traffic if It she wasn't on guard She would argue that she kept a perfect house never rested day or night had bad to assume responsibility because be cause no one else would and altogether altogether al al- together considered herself hersell pretty nearly the perfect wife and mother No you cant can't reach the worriers complainers and naggers with even the gentlest criticism They are perfect letter and they would la laugh gh at the idea that households need the spirit as well as the letter The letter says the wisest book in the world But in hi the spirit is eternal life What might reach Roses Rose's Impregnable impregnable impregnable fortress of perfection is the hint lint of the he other woman in Jims Jim's letter The other woman In his Ws branch office in hi a neighboring town The woman who is simple and cheerful and philosophical Grief and change already have I struck at this woman She is one of hundreds who were widowed Inthe in inthe inthe the war years She had a child to protect She had her living to make And still sUll she is happy and self dell reliant and free from the swarms of mosquito cares that beset themore the themore themore more fortunate Rose Jim doesn't sound the kind of man who raises arguments gets into domestic quarrels easily But any man is the sort that Just gets deadly deadly tired of constant nagging reminders that everything Is all wrong Lots of things are worrisome worrisome wor wor- today But the he things that make Rose and so many other women as destructive as termites to the walls of home are not these big world problems No with them It is the weather and that the kit hen clock stopped and other trivia of that sort lort to the number of thousands |