Show THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE SUNDAY MORNING FEBRUARY FANNIE HURST 11 1932 Mediocrity—Its Dangerous It Takes Pride and Vision to Refuse to Compromise With Life or Environment n Sure as fate It will get you If you don't watch out! It lies aU about us 'tr 1e4 tm Mediocrity The great average of human Intellect In is mediocrity homes In offices In in social contacts recreations duties and daily routine moat of us encoun- c—— Alf' ter hour by hour day by day week by month week by month year by year --A —mediocrity chill We associate with Fannie Harst mediocre people because there aremore of that caliber We see mediocre about than any otb-e- r entertainment entertainment We is devised for the average mind read mediocre books because of that same pandering to the lowest common Sure as fate it wiU get denominator jrou if you don’t watch out It needn’t While It is reasonably true that mediocrity begets mediocrity end that one becomes a bird of a feather by flocking about with birds of a feather there is a apecific battle to wage against this peill by not exposing one's self to it any mors than is inevitable Being exposed let us say the greater part of your waking hours to 50 or 100 girls in the same office who speak the same language swap the same brand of gossip chew the same bland of gum go in for the same brand of recreations while away the same lunch periods can make short work of one who does not fight shy of the contagion To succumb to environment and become part of the chatter desires ambitions gossip pastimes and daily lives that surround one under such circumstances Is to fall promptly in line for the pulling quicksands of mediocrity There is of course the all too small minority which does withstand the pull Usually the members of it are regarded as "queer It is not a pleasant indictment to have passed along by the people who surround one but it is worth it The girl or youth in an office crammed with mediocrity who spends lunch hour in a libiary reading room or passes up a snide movie for a lecture or reads away an evening at home instead of dancing it away on an overcrowded postage stamp of a dance floor is pretty sure find a new universe in llbranes lecture halls and entertainments of first water that cost no more than the routine entertainments of the movie show or the park It is worth the indictment of being queer" to turn your back on a moon hour of chatter with office colleagues who contribute nothing to information or education and spend it in the rich universe of the reading room It is worth the sacrifice of turning one’s back on an evening in an environment of dancing or lecreation which fits you comfortably like an old glove and venture even if alone into the realms of learning or of art The caviar of life is as much for you as it is for the next Why sssume that It is not? Why must you because of accident of environment accept second best merely because It has not naturally fallen across your path’ It is thera to be had for the asking Not only for the asking but cultural opportunities ” lie all about There is no need to eontmue to dwell In the land of “Oh yeah!" “Boy friend" “Hotsy Totsy" “He says 'n' she says" The important thing is to pull out before it gets you to such an extent that you are no longer capable of rebelling against its third rateness That is where the insidious stage of tbe'Viilemma sets in Once the bones of mediocnty begin to harden there is little chance to pull out One is doomed forever to dwell in the valley of people of indifferent tastes and desires and Ideals It is not a lovely valley People who dwell In it have clipped wings to their imaginations and have unproudly become reconciled to accepting from life the second and third best And there is no reason why one need accept that dreary compromise There are certain rich plums of living that lie about practically every one of us To ignore them is to have no one to blame except one’s self The person who chooses between a tawdry recreation and a constructive one both of them costing the same exercises his own free will m helping to shape his destiny The girl who chatters away a lunch hour in the usual execrable gossip of the average business office deliberately chooses that level of mental activity It is a trap which will catch and imprison her foi life if she doesn’t watch out Out of such mental lethngy as that mediocre girls marry mediocre men and go into the obscurity of mediocre lives attuned to mediocie ideals It is the “queer” ones who rebel and refuse to accept second best It takes pride add love of life and vision to refuse to accept mediocrity The girl who prefers a good hook to spending her lunch hour with a group of coworkers in gossipy "Oh Years” and "He says V the risk of being termed "qucuir” u rites Miss Hurst in her article today But she non the right track She has the to strive for something better than mediocrity courage she says” runs to be none too popular It is a sttff battle to wage First of all if you are young it means foregoing pleasures that naturally snag at the desires Youth loves to dance even on a postage stamp youth needs to relax even to the lure of a cheap sex picture youth needs so passionately to be amused It is difficult not to succumb to those desires along the lines of least resistance Mediocrity Is along the lines of least resistance but mediocrity is the sure road to a half realized existence Snide tastes may be easier to gratify but to be reconciled to them Is to be reconciled to a snide mind is to be content with second and third best It Is a dangerous compromise It reduces life to an unnecessarily low level All about us we see those who have compromised Millions of lives and homes and destinies about us are the unexciting second rate ones of those who have descended to the level of environment instead of pulling out Easy enough you say to talk of ing out from the only environment have ever known but where and does one begin to seek new friends pull- you how new social levels new intellectual meadows when one has only known one kind of surrounding? That is no alibi Today as never in the history of the world intellectual fare and banquet are within reach of the masses The girl or youth in an office who rebels from the tawdriness of cheap pastimes recreations and social 'life can (Copyright 1932 King Features Syndi- cate Inc ) Two Hundred Girls Crying Their Eyes Out The Wise Girl Will Con- sider Home Before Her Career K young women could only understand what most older women live to karn too late— that your own character is your own fate that your own hnp-- ’ pines is entirely in your own hands— how happy they i would be Here on my desk are 200 letters from young women each letter asking a ques tion that is as old as our civilization Shall I give up mj Job when 1 marry a man on a amal alary? Shall I marry mj weetheart " very different and th girl trembling on the threshold of the great change is naturally afraid that she Is not going to be equal to its demands The answer is the same In every case If you are a woman of strength of character with generosity and humor and courage and intelligence in your makeup you can marry under almost ANY and work your way circumstances By KATHLEEN NORRIS man who enjoys the job will go much further than three hundred a month with the other sort of wife Continuing with her work after marriage can be done Bnd often is done by the right kind of wife who shoulders and unwashed dishes the newspaper is still on the kitchen table letters are lying on the hall floor the telephone is ringing like a thing possessed This sort of marriage usually falls into the “companionate” class too— no babies allowed even though hit mother Kathleen Norris must live with uiwhen we do marry? Is one hundred— two hundred— three hundred dollars enough to start In on in thes times? b it safe to marry a person whota Mfreist- gaUgiuu --vtewa frora my own? Shall I marry against my parents’ wishes and take a chance with a man they consider entirely unfit for me? The man I am to marry wants me to promise to put off motherhood until we can afford to give a child every advantage which I feel would be wrong llow tan we s Ule tills? These questions are a ked over and over again by fine const Icnttou guls gills eager for love and life They know of course that risk is implied in eseiy one of these situations— they wouldn’t be writing me otlurwhe but they do to take tin ir charnel long so Another chance may never come Love doesn’t alwajs come twice and it is hard on young fit sh and blood to wait for tiie hour win a income family relationships religions parental approval and the everlasting baby question shall be satirtai torily si ttli d Girls know that ideally speaking a woman DOES give up her office Job and devote herself to her home as a bride A man ideally speaking doesn't marry until he nil taka caie of her and her possible children too An idi il mother hfls herself and her (1 inns completely Out of her married children’s lives And religion which for all of us means love and peace tolerance and Undei Handing and harmony should be of all issues the last to cause any filctton between two hearts that love each o'her But unfortunate lv fey of our lives Tha actuility it awv on ideal line y— lem solves itself and' the second too and mother is delighted to run the house all day long and give Mary all the breaks when Mary gets home tired It Is the first year of marriage that is dangerous here! After that the women learn to really like and depend upon each other if they are fine women But for the first year nothing is normal and if mother Is smart she will lose her son and her daughter in law for that twelvemonth trusting to time and the grandchildren to restore them to her again To marry against parents’ consent is always an individual matter no rule works here except the rule that applies to the young man If he is steady straight clean devoted then any girl over 18 has a peifect right to walk around the corner and marry him If he is 30 years older than she several times divorced of another group then the girl Is merely a fool and will pay as foola usually do The tragedy in such a case is to be parents of a child over whom one has The 18 years of your love no influence and devotion to your daughter have been thrown away if when you give her good and sufficient reason for NOT marrying some man she persists in flinging her life's happiness away But young love rushing into young marriage has too often proved itself right for any of us to take an arbitrary attitude to it Girls have married consumptives ne’er do wells and penniless actors emerged triumphantly into health sucThe gill’s own charcess and devotion acter and heart are the key She can do anything if she will Sometime I think we worry too much about these young creatures they are wiser— they are saner than we think Bui on general principles the marriage of persons of differing religions when those religions really mean something to both boy and girl marriages where the woman's salary as well as the man's are needed to keep the ship afloat marriages where either mother must live with the young couple or the young couple must live with the older family marriages when there is a “companionate” understanding all these are handhaps And marriage is difficult enough without them! Much of the anxiety these young persons feel would be obviated if boys were trained more thoroughly or indeed trained at all in the values of marriage Few young husbands know what it means to a woman or what they destroy when they destroy her home making and her maternal instincts with a cheerful decision that she shall go on working and that the home shall be childless As his sweetheart the girl may agree to all this because she really doesn’t know herself what instincts and what needs are dormant within her But afterward when she is his wife a restless sense of not being one thing nor another frets She is not wholly a her continually business woman because she is not free of thoughts of marketing getting In a cleaning woman paying the telephone bill and she is not all a wife because like her husband she must in any crisis put business first She is PAID for that And If Jack has a headache and wants a day at home and milk toast and magazines and a little spoiling from his wife andMary’spffioeIS inany real need of her she has no choice She must put the office first A wise girl will give home the first three or four years wholeheartedly Then she can decide whether Joan and Junior can get along without her or not Often they can for six or seven hours a day at least and at that see more of mother than most rich women s children do And marrying on a small salary? Bat I don’t pity or advise girls who are young and stiong and in love and facing that problem I envy them (Copyright 1912 In a Bell Syndicate ) i FASHION FLASHES By ALICE ALDEN There are Thousands of mothers uIjo are dearly loved and useful members of their daughters' and sons' homes through to happiness and success It dona thousands and thousands Indeed I would say that alof time most all the successful marriages I know have given the woman not one but many opportunities to use evety ounce of ingenuity endurance wisdom and patience that site could commend One hundred a month to a clever w has-bee- n her own end of the expense of the home and pm hops enjoy her office work more than her houn keeping But the risk is much gi cater titan the rick of getting ekng on the mans salary alone Tiie wife is as tiled ii the man at night as mm h entitled to eonxidetaihm and comfort as be — a simple fact no mule ver w ill gi asp She conies home to dust And that is bad physically and worse psychologically for the woman However the right woman with common sente and health and com age can moke a shining success of even tins Aa a mother well there are thousands of mothers who are dearly loved and urcful member of their daughters’ and tons' homes Sometimes this third prob Flowers everywhere seems to be tha rule for spring hats Agnes makes a new beret in lacy black crochet with a high back treatment and masses the back and sldea with crushed red velvet carnations With it is a tiny muff made of the same red flowers We can t forget the charm of prints and each spring most of us invest in at least one print frock A charming model features fuchsia shadcse on a white ground and there Is a broad inset girdle entirely in fuchsia crepe There is a square neckline and the sleeves end in points Be careful in the selection of your costume Jewelry since certain tvpei are being shown tor certain frocks With a simple but smart afternoon frock an wi choice would be a leaf necklace In dark iridescent mother of pcirl strung on blac k silk rope and fastc tied with a black and silver clasp Luxury in the home is well represented bw the latest negliges A lovely negi-ge- e coat Is fashioned of wntei green velvet w Uh silver lace whli h has us pattern embtoideied on a tulle ground There aie full sleeves a pointfd trailing Lain and fitted Unci There's many a slip that look good and jet Is bulky when worn under a tight frock A new slip that eliminates all these ‘drawbacks is made of pink georgette and is trimmed with rows of fine double hemstitching Cradle (copyright 1932 Kins feature tinea le IneJ |