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Show ALONG LIFE'S TRAIL Dy THOMAS A. CLARK Dean of Men, University of Illinois. (, 1924, Western Newspaper Union.) VACATIONS THREE young girls came hastily and noisily into the car as the traiD moved out of the station. They had just barely escaped being left. The vacation vaca-tion was over, and they were going back to work. As they disposed of their various belongings, settled back In their seats, mussed up their hair a little more becomingly, and made discriminating dis-criminating use of their powder puffs, fragments of. conversation began to float through the car. I buried myself my-self in the book I was reading, but I found it Impossible not to hear something some-thing of a "peach of a vacation" mingled min-gled with grand opera and Farrar In Carmen, with New Year's eve at the Congress hotel, with a lovely formal party at Northwestern university, and wltts an all-night party at the Country club. "I am simply dead," one of them said, "and I have a pack of back work to hand in tomorrow." The babble of conversation ceased shortly, and the silence became so great that I turned to find the cause. They were asleep, their tired, pallid faces and the dark rings under their eyes showing all too well what a lovely, restful vacation they had had. The man who said that It takes the strongest constitution to stand the average trip for the health might have added that It takes the strongest man to stand the ordinary vacation. A woman whom I once knew when asked if she employed a servant girl, remarked re-marked that she had one. but that she was Just then doing her own work. She hoped as soon as she was strong enough to try one again. I have often felt that It might be a good thing to require young people to pass a physical physi-cal test to determine whether ot not they are strong enough to Indulge In ; the dissipations of a vacation. A line of pale, sad-eyed, tired, and physically knocked-out undergraduates who come Into my oflice after every vacation may have had a "peach of a time," but they very seldom reveal much of the bloom on their return. A real vacation vaca-tion ought to be stimulating and restful, rest-ful, but It oftentimes leaves them exhausted, ex-hausted, unprepared for their work, and worth nothing for days after they get back. Instead of finding themselves them-selves eager and ready for hard work, they come back to rest up. There Is no more severe test of a man's character than the way In which he spends the time that Is his own and the way In which he puts In the hours or days of leisure and vacation. Most of the moral delinquents whom I know strayed away from the path of virtue and self-control first when they had nothing else to do when they were having a vacation. FALSE FACES BILL WITHERS and I Bill lived across the road from us had been reading "Bentley Burrows, or The Skeleton Hand," a tale of ghosts and bandits and general horror, continued from week to week in "The Saturday Night." a literary journal which our hired man bought every week at Cole's drug store in town. Shivering with fear, I was just finishing the last chapter in the dusk of a dull November Novem-ber evening, when I heard a knock at the door. I called "Come in." as was the polite custom In our community, and to my horror a real bandit entered leather leggins, big revolver, bristling bris-tling moustache, and all. I was frightened fright-ened for a moment, and then I caught sight of a lock of curly red hair sticking stick-ing out through a hole in the sombrero and a freckled ear protruding. It was only Bill Withers wearing a false face and trying to fool me. I have had the experience often since. I was at a party a few nights ago, where on the surface everything was hilarious. Through the dim light, however. I could see that all the fellows fel-lows were wearing false faces. Above the din of the ragtime sounded out from the long-suffering piano I could detect the hollow unnatural voices Is- I suing through the masks that the men j were wearing. I watched Mary Gay. rosy-cheeked ! and bright-eyed, and I thought I hail never seen a hapoier and a more animated ani-mated face. She was smiling on every one and showing a vivacity and an In- ! terest that held a pleased crowd about ! her. A few minutes later I came upon 1 or unobserved as she was standing before the mirror In the hallway surreptitiously sur-reptitiously adjusting her false face, and I could see how pitifully bored and tired she looked. I ran onto Jim Burton one Sunday this slimmer at church with hi- parents. par-ents. He was look-lag pious, attentive, snd altogether unsophisticated. As he caned ovpr to pick a hymn bonk from the door I could see how crudely he had adjusted his false face, for under neath he was the same Irreligious. Ir-reverant. Ir-reverant. Irresponsible youth whom I had known at college. The false faces which we wear or 5.-.P every day seldom deceive anyone Tbey are like rouge or oleomargarine or hair dye or face powder no onr ever thinks them real. We put then nn to make ourselves beautiful or Im pressive to our teachers or our sweet hearts or the tex collector or the form folks or the minister or our Creator but more often than oth'-rvisf. the ocV af red hair escapes or the freckled ear Ellcfca out and gives us away. |