Show kathleen norris says this Is still a mans world dell bell syndicate service I 1 0 0 F V M I 1 Z I 1 1 IF 0 I 1 we lore the same things and we uv talked of marriage and felt that ours atas a serious affair ours teas a deep devotion and for oui our secret lore kept us in a heaven of happiness by KATHLEEN NORRIS HIS is still a mans world T THIS women have made mighty strides in the last hundred years to establish certain rights for themselves and to do away with certain hoary old injustices but you cant change matters as deep rooted as masculine privilege and superiority in any one lifetime and women still have a long way to go one reason why the males can assume the quietly assured position osip of lordship is because many a woman happy until she has convinced some man that he is little short of a god and that she is a complete fool about once a week I 1 get a letter from some woman who Is is worried because she fears harry is looking at some other woman usually an office ass associate opiate she neglects home and children grows critical and tearful listens in in at the telephone drops in at the office reads letters becomes nervous in short she does everything she can to show harry that she has no individuality no character no reserves within herself that she is just one more clinging vine hanging on to the flawless male for comfort love life everything sweet alice who wept with delight when ben bolt gave her a smile and trembled with fear at his frown did not disappear with the Vic victorian trian era A more pitiful girl even more pitiful than this married slave who cannot build a life of her own is the sort of girl who writes me that because a boy told her he would stop loving her if she do what he asked and because she loved him so terribly she has wrecked her self respect for life believe me although girls are much more independent than they used to be and much careless talk goes on about the very low percentage of young women who preserve their chastity it is an extremely unpleasant and dangerous thing for a young wife to have in her background the memory of an illicit love besides the burning humiliation of discovering that her generosity has rather cooled than heightened his ardors the girl has another price to pay her love for a man doubles when once she has given herself to him she is plunged instantly in horrible misgivings for fear she will lose him and in each successive instance her charm for him lessens oh there are sirens of course experienced married women who can play fast and loose with a lover until he is driven to distraction and suicide 6 but girls of 18 and 20 know nothing of these arts and the boys w who ho take advantage of them know it A tragic experience this is madelans Made lons letter A boy who is fine in every way and I 1 had been going together for a year she writes we love the same things and although I 1 am only 19 and phil three months younger than I 1 we talked of marriage and felt that ours was a serious affair five months ago he talked to me of the long time we should have to wait until he is out of college and making some money and asked me to seal our devotion and our engagement by giving myself to him for some weeks I 1 would not hear of this but he became sad and reproached me for not loving him PRICE OF independence for many years women have struggled for freedom front from stuffy conventions for equality with men for the right to plan their own lives today they study medicine they run for political office they fight side by side with men on the battlefields of the world then why should they be tied down by what looks like old fashioned standards of morality lots of women some of them claim have gotten away with illicit love affairs young girls risk their future happiness in in a moments carelessness they really mean to be good but they just can cant t resist temptation read what kathleen norris lias has to say about the price women pay for the wrong kind of independence finally he took another girl to a picnic and paid so much attention to her all day although I 1 was at the picnic with my brother that I 1 told him I 1 would hold out no longer ours was a deep devotion and for a few weeks our secret love kept us both in a heaven of happiness but then in his anxiety to get married phil told his mother of our affair he said she did not seem shocked but told him he must go to a business college his uncle runs in in springfield and take two shorter courses that would fit him to earn his living phils father is dead phil and his mother then moved to springfield and although he wrote me four times immediately his letters then stopped I 1 think now his mother hoped all along it would be like this but she still loves him anyway phil did not come home for the long vacation he and his mother and an old school friend of hers motored to california and had a wonderful time now he is at home he has been here three weeks I 1 telephoned him at once and he sounded all right later he telephoned and said he would see me soon we then had a clam bake on the river he accepted but did not come and sent me no j 1 tion now I 1 hear he is going with a very rich girl here taking her to things and is at her house with her f brother all the time if he told his mother about us I 1 am sure he would tell this girl mimi too and I 1 feel as though I 1 could not bear it I 1 suppose that despite all this I 1 still love him certainly there is no other boy in town half as attractive if I 1 go out with anyone else it seems to me so flat that I 1 hardly can make myself speak or seem interested my brother cut his foot this summer playing tennis and the doctor gave me some tablets to soak in water to wash it he said they are deadly poison I 1 have hidden three of them and I 1 feel sometimes as though that would be the way out for me only I 1 would hate to give a girl like mimi the satisfaction 0 f knowing that I 1 would kin kill myself can you and will you help me no madelon my dear I 1 cannot but time will time will make au all this hot young flurry of passion and jealousy and weakness and shame like only a dream it is a cruel enough dream and hard enough to bear now but get through the next year somehow get through the aad agonies of seeing him married to a pretty devoted and morally stronger girl and the worst will be over then the future will hold tor for you a soberer and a wiser happiness |