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Show Dorothy Dix Talks j j By DOROTHY DIX. the World's Highest Paid Woman Writes 1 POVERTY D LUXE j A woman correspondent asks me if I can tell her how to grow poor gracefully. grace-fully. No. Some wag said long ago that It was no disgrace to be poor, but that it was darned inconvenient and I uncomfortable. Nothing can alter that fact. Nothing can keep us from crav iug the luxuries that money buys, or for yearning for the ease of mind and body that only the rich possess There is a way, however, to draw the bitterest sting out of poverty, and that is by accepting it frankly, and openingly, and not pretending that ou aro better off than you are There is grace and dignity In the attitude of the unashamedly poor, just as there is something pitiful and contemptible in the poso of the shabby genteel. The man in overalls, with his pick over his shoulder and his dinner bucket In his hand, doing an honest day's 'digging for an honest day's pay is S splendid and heroic figure, but the man in a shabby coat that Is fraved at the seams, who would rather sponge for a living on his relative--, than do any work than a white collared col-lared Job. is a creature so poor and ludricrous that we despise, him While we laugh at him. Likewise, we all honor the woman who, when she la poor and need to go to work, becomes frankly a working woman. If she takes boarders she does not call them paying guests, and affront your intelligence by telling you that she was so louely she took them! for company. If she is a clerk in a store she does not insist upon being; called a saleslady Instead of a sales-! woman If sho is a stenographer or a bookkPeppr, she does not pretend to I be a blaise society girl, who grew j weary of balls and parties, aud who: pounds a typewriter, or manipulates a cash register eight hours a day for fun. No. The woman we respect and admire, ad-mire, and help Is the poor woman who' goes out Into tho world to earn it for herself instead of trying to graft It off! of someone else. When she takeij boarders she doeen't loll around in1 (the parlor as If she were a millionaire hostess giving a dinner party. She is lout In the kitchen seeing that her patrons pa-trons get the food and the service they are paying for, and sho not only makes monye but she wins the respect and affection of all who come under her roof because she is really honest. If . she works in a store or office she doesn't bore her employer, or thosp she serves by bragging about how aristocratic ar-istocratic she is, nor what her grandfather grand-father used to have, nor pretending : that she Is working for a lark. Sho Is working for money. She is thankful to have a Job. and she not only means to hold It down but to ; climb up to a better one, and a bigper pay envelope, and to do what she knows she has to give faithful, intelligent, intell-igent, enthusiastic service. And she ! goes and she succeeds and wins out as little Miss Pretense never does. We admire the working woman who I has the good taste, and the good sense! I and the good Judgment to dress like i a working woman In plain, sensible, durable clothes instead of trying to understudy the costumes to Mrs As-Itorbilt, As-Itorbilt, and wear near silks, and i pearls, and dyed cat furs. The worst of poverty is not being poor, but In pretending that you aro rich, it is trying to keep up appear-1 ance, that wears one to skin and bones! and takes nil the Joy out of life. It is living in a better house than! you can afford, and hairing rent dayg j hang like the sword of Damocles oven your head. It is scrimping on butter i and sugar for months to give a pink tea for over-fed people It is the agonized turning, and twist IJjg, and making over old clotlms ho that they will masquerade as new, that makers j tho chief horror of poverty. It is j tho trying to keep up with better off! peoplo that turns the poor into an-i archlsts. j If one has the courage to cut away from all the shabby genteel business, one find3 that the bogle of poverty is a ghost that has fled before the face of courage. Homespun Is really morej comfortable than broadcloth Good 1 health waits on plain food, and not on champagne and terrapin Many a man and woman have found the happiness hap-piness in a cottage that they never knew in a palace, and no one can know how kind, and tender the human hu-man heart beats until one has been , poor and had poor neighbors, j So I w ould eay that the way to grow poor gracefully 13 to accept the situation, situa-tion, to frankly admit that one baa little money, and to live according to 'ono's limited means, and above all not I to try' to hold on to onoe's old posl I Hon In society, and become a hanger ; on of tho rich. Losing one s money Is the acid test i of friendship But no one la really the worse for having it applied Those 'who loved us for ourselves alone will ! draw closer to use in our misfortune t Those who merely loved our dinners, and our automobiles, and theatre . ticket-, are a small loss to us and we I need weep no tears over their going The thing we are most apt to lose w ith our money Is our grip upon our-! our-! selves, and If we can keep that, and i keep ourselves brave and cheerful we ean snap our fingers at poverty, The only really poor people are j those who are poor in spirit who lack tho courage to meet the vicissitudes of I life; who have no laughter in their ' souls, no philosophy, no magic that enables them to get the most happiness happi-ness out of simple things. And these destitute ones are clothed in silk and satin just as often as they are in calico. rrt . |