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Newspaper Page Text
HH ,,..V VVVWVrV'lltlf iPPtW Bl M"P CONFESSIONS OF A WIFE YOUTH AND AGE CANNOT BE DENIED. "It is a sad thing, Margie," said Paula, "that we cannot take our youthful courage, our youthful op timism, with us through life. "I went to see a play the other day translated from the German of Her man Bahr, called 'The Poor Fool.' Although the average newspaper critic did not like it, to me it meant much. "One brother had lived all- his life a regime of the greatest self-denial. He had piled up riches, had built up a great business and he was dying. The other brother had lived his life to the fullest and was now lapsing into mental chaos which would eventual ly mean death in life. "Each though the other a fool and the play ended with the eternal ques tion, why? "One had never known the joy of living, the irresponsibility of the young, the optimism and enthusiasm of youth. The other had carried all these too far into age. He had con sistently denied the maturity that experience must bring. Each had tried to stop the great law in fact, the only law of change. "One denied youth, the other age, and so each had missed the best of life. "I am telling this to you, Margie, because when you write my story many may think I was too careless, too carefree for a girl who was de pendent upon her own resources. But you must remember, Margie, I was not brought up to face responsibility. I had no idea of the value of money. Although I had come very near, the borderland of hunger in that first few weeks, yet fate always stepped in and helped me out of every tight place. "I had now more money, more ap propriate clothes, more tools, more experience by which to conquer suc cess. A restlessness, however, made it seem almost impossible for me to act again. I wanted to try some thing else. I told this to Alma and she said: 'How much money have you, Paula?' v " 'Two hundred dollars.' j " 'Why, that is riches beyond com- pare! Why don't you look about a bit and see what you would like to do? I'll tell you. I'm going over to Washington next week to see a president of the United States inau gurated. Come on over there with me. You can share my room and we can get our coffee and toast togeth er. It won't cost you much and you can make up your mind in peace, far away from the echoes of the theater.' " 'I'll do it,' I answered with alac rity. " 'Tom is being sent over by his paper, too,' said Alma with a slight blush. 'Wouldn't it be nice if we could persuade Jeff Perygreen to come over while we are there?' "I'm afraid we could not do much work or deciding about work,' I said, but I confess to you, Margie, I was delighted with the idea. "Much to the surprise of the man ager of the company, Earnest Law ton and the entire cast, I acquiesced with great pleasure in allowing Ear nest's wife to play the part of Elga for the last three days of the week, and I fixed up my wardrobe and oth er affairs and prepared to depart for pastures new. "I cannot leave Earnest Lawton, Margie, without telling you that years afterward, when he was dead and his pretty wife ill and almost penniless, I had the great pleasure o helping that pretty daughter of his " to a position on the stage." "Isiow, don't look surprised' I had learned long before that time that the stage is just as safe as any other place for a girl, provided the girl is the safe kind." ' (To Be Continued.)