Show kathleen norris says service Is a cure for loneliness bell Syn dicato service nil al in qa aw r A restless discontented morbid girl who was consigned to an institution lop the mentally afflicted offered to help in the kitchen there she discovered she was a born cook later she opened a tearoom and now has three thriving restaurants by KATHLEEN NORRIS THERE HERE are certain girls to wh om the golden i years between 16 and 25 are one long purgatory because of influences that began perhaps in their babyhood they are out of everything for no perc perceptible reason boys dont like them dresses dont look right on them p parties arties at home are dismal failures or not attempted at all and to the delicious other affairs they arent asked all the other girls chatter about ski suits dances house parties football games and football suppers but not our girl she smil smiles es brightly makes what gallant pretense she may and creeps home early A very little ot of this sort ot of discouragement goes goe s a long way it takes ot of chars character acter su superhuman pe strength to battle your way onward despite unpopularity and loneliness it it is not a girls fault if she has not the home background the frocks and opportunities that make tor for social success but she suffers lust just the same ame in my flies files I 1 have the story of a restless discontented morbid girl who finally was consigned to an institution ution tor for the mentally afflicted this girl presently was asked to help in the kitchen of the asylum washed dishes in the company of another girl and a boy found friends at last discovered that she was a born cook was given a chance to try living outside again and opened a tearoom now she has three thriving restaurants a nice husband and a small boy this is a true story the story of 0 such a case is that of nita whose mother writes me from a big midwestern city nita alta has a brother seven years younger than herself her father Is a traveling salesman for floor coverings up to 1931 all went well with the blacks ten years ago when nita was about 14 11 writes the mother everything ery thing collapsed for months month s we really did not know what we were going to live on my husband lost his job and his health at the same came time he has never recovered from the effects of a heavy attack ot of flu in that awful winter and will always be partially deaf ward was too young to know or care what was going on but nita sensitive and proud just at an age to want to stand well with her school crowd suffered intensely up to that time she had been a gay little thing but now she underwent a spiritual as well as physical change and grew thin and moody we put her inte ant a public school which she hated and added to all the humiliation and distress of that time was acute unhappiness forced to accept aid for some years we had to accept the help of 0 a relative cordially disliked dislike d by us all but eventually she died and with what she left my husband could start again but even now we are not solidly on our feet tor for ward is determined to become a doctor like my father and we have to contribute part of hla his expenses tor for at least 10 more years nita ita finished high school had one wr veer in state college and now tor for alx lx years has been trying to find on an genial anial work wark HELP OTHERS FIRST if you begin by helping others you may not have to worry about your own troubles especially if they are the kind of troubles that come from loneliness and a feeling of having been left out of it some young girls kathleen norris points out just never have the fun they should havet have and expected to have in their teens they go on into the twenties believing that they will always miss miss the things they want so much friends a husband a home and the wonderful knowledge of being loved instead of making themselves even more unhappy cunha unha P by thinking of nothing but their unhappiness they should try first to make others happy L she is brilliant at writing or verse making and had real success in a character part in an amateur play about a year ago the lull dall routine of her life began to affect her serl bously I 1 saw it but w was as h helpless e aple s 3 to do anything we live in a crowded flat hundreds of others exactly like it pressing about us the ugly realities of shabby gentility on all sides nua nita comes home worn out at night might listens tor for awhile to the radio reads a thriller it Is no life for a girl of 24 and she knows it she has become melancholy tearful silent I 1 sent her to her clergyman who did help but only tor for a while now I 1 have had a neurologist take the case he says there is nothing tangibly wrong tong but that she needs interests amusements distractions I 1 could have told him as much meanwhile a wonderful friend has offered me a chance to give nita mita a change by supplying her with 1200 a year tor for three years the sum is already deposited to be paid monthly and although vita nita for some weeks weeks showed an almost resentful apathy on the subject of late she has been suggesting a few possibilities can you suggest a course that may pull her out of the depression that the unfortunate events of her girlhood made almost inevitable and help me to feel that my little girl must not pay all her life for her parents A cowardly attitude that a sad letter sad beautifully expressed and cowardly it a pity that the woman smart enough to write that letter smart enough to realize that hard times are the very nursing groaned gi aund of character and that tun fun has nothing to do with money it too bad that this concerned and loving mother make an adventure of change and financial reverses and instead of letting her narrow ideals of what was the correct thing to have and do destroy her daughter building them into advantages instead however there is an out for nita and ashes young enough to take it she even need that 1200 a year the answer is work or rather works wonderful twin service let her go into a hospital childrens home slum and forget herself in humble and quiet help to the less fortunate and her mental troubles will vanish she will be so glad to get home at night to quiet and comfort and a good dinner and a restful whits white bed that she wont have time to think of herself |