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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 1900)
10 THE COURIER. 'X THE VANITY OF WOMEN. "I have been married for nearly twen ty years, but I have never loved my hue band. I have been living a lie. I am going to get a divorce." You roust not think that I contemp late giving you a Laura Jean Libbey novel. Not in this sort of weather. No. I am quoting from a newspaper inter view with an actress, a woman with some beauty and some ability. The greatest thing about her is her vanity. We can always excuse vanity in a wo man when she is pretty and Admired, and has an adoring husband always at her feet. It seems only natural, and all this cultivates the weed. While you can see the Mowers through the weeds it kail right. When the weeds top over and the woman's vanity becomes hys teria, it's all over with her. She is abso lutely impossible as friend, sweetheart, wife, mother, sister Bny of the roles her womanhood fits her .for. Let us, then, beware of over-vanity, my sisters! We wonion are all vain, of course. We wouldn't be women if we weren't Men, nor women either, would amount to much without that pinch of conceit that Shakspere says is the salt of life. When we go upon the stage, and hear the ap plause, and get the bouquete, we get so salty that we are nearly pickled. Lillian Bell, the Chicago girl, once wrote: "When a woman begins to receive praise for anything in the catalogue, from the shape of her shoulder blaUe to the Baldness of her pie crust, she ought to kneel down morning and night and pray that it doesn't make her vain." These aren't the exact words, but it was to that effect. '. .' Flattery too much of it acta on a woman's brain as too many cigaiettes do on a man's. It changes her entire perspective. ? I know a pretty girl who is the idol of an adoring aunt. For years the aunt has been giving the girl this sort of thing: - "You are a very beautiful girl, and you will receive much attention ana ad miration, naturally," etc.,tc ! Now this girl has changed- from a natural, happy, spirited young woman into a wildly-conceited young person who, in church, in restaurants, hotels or street cars, constantly poses and imag ines that people are transfixed by her beauty. She's also on the stage. But to return to the lady who is living a lie. It is always a delicate matter to monkey with the emotions of other folks in a critical way. But despite the canker-worm which we have all heard eats at the heart of a rose, there are certain things we can tatte for granted. Women, rarely keep their good looke, and their pounds, aod their appetites, and their love for dress if sorrow is gnawing at their souls. Take a woman who has experienced nearly a quarter of a century of wedded life and retained all of these it is safe to say that her suffering has been largely superficial. Sorrow leaves pitiful lashes and scars on a woman. You can read it in her yes,her manner, her walk, her voice. .Men laugh off their woes, or cremate them in the furnace of their fissions; but women bend under their burdens. A woman makes a discovery or, rather, makes an announcement that she does not love her husband after twenty years. He is good, she says; he is kind, he has provided for her and her children and his but she can bear it no longer. She has been living a lie! Tho Matinee Girl knows of just three women with this story to tell. Each is Tain to blindness. The men they mar ried were good enough to live with for a number of years good enough to buy them pretty gowns and jewels, and send them to the seaside and the mountains in summer, to give them beautiful homes and servants as their means al lowed. Suddenly they begin to whine: "Yes, but I don't love him!" They are not girls, mind you, but ma ture women. Their attractiveness has been augmented by the setting that their husbands have provided moat fre quently it baa won them the admiration of some Bilk-socked young man who doesn't make enough money iu a year to pay for their gloves. But the silk Bocked young man knows how to say pretty things to them and to sympathize with them and tell them how they have wasted themselves on their husbands. One of the women I speak of was a divorcee who married a man younger than herself who adored har and who was her superior in every way. His health failed somewhat these women have a good deal of the vampire in them and now this woman, instead of feel ing grateful for the love and the joy and the peace of home that has come to her after the storm and stress of her I'.fo, goes about whining, "My life is a perfect sacrifice. We go nowhere!" There is none of us who doaen't want to be happy. We feel it is our right. But when our conceit blinds us to the fact that we have our part to play in life, that we have our modicum of sor row to take like medicine why, we de serve to rank with the quitters in life's race. 1 think if a woman has lived the lie of wifehood and motherhood for nearly twenty years, it's a good idea to go on living it and living it cheerfully to the end. There are other people in that bar gain to be considered. We must pay for our mistakes in this world, and there are lies, so Beecher said once, like an gel's wings to bear us to heaven. There is more perfect happiness to be had in self-sacrifice than in any other way, so that, as a speculation, it's a good Investment. If fate comes drumming at our door witb an opportunity to forget ourselves, it's a good thing take my word for that. Bread of this kind cast upon the water often comes back spooge cake. How many women suffer alt sorts of cruelties, indignities', insults for the sake of their children and for the sake of their marriage vows which some people are still benighted enough to be lieve in? I don't mean to say they Bhould do this. Women have always suffered too much. But this idea of a woman wak ing, like Rip Van Winkle, from a twenty year nap, has a bit of pathos about it. It savors of the comicalIy.operatic. If we could only have our egos re moved as they do the vermiform appen dix it would be a splendid thing. But conceit is a colossal cruet, and if it came eff some of us wouldn't amount to much inside. And we know this, we vain women worms, way down in that eight day clock we call our heart. That's why we spend our time polishing our nails, powdering our noses and examining our faces in a hand-glass for blemishes. If we could only get our souls massaged now and then and have the cuticle of conceit trimmed from around our conscience! The hysteria of conceit makes eome women snap like terriers when they are not fed with their favorite food flattery. It this does not work they are apt to faint. Twice the Matinee Girl has seen this happen once at a card party and once on the deck of a yacht. In each case the man grew neglectful or seemed to. The woman lost the center of the stage. First she snapped a bit and grew ugly, then she Umpeaechep and fainted. Of course, it's a great move a most effect ual one. It brings the calcium around quicker than anything else, and focuses attention on the fainting lady. Every one rushes for water, smelling salts. Conversation ceases. The sun stands still and the fainter, appeased, looks from under her eyelide, happy at the commotion she has caused, and eigne. The Matinee Girl, in Dramatic Mirror. The COURIER And any One Dollar Woman's dub Magazine 1.50 6 H W RROWN C Druggist and Bookseller. W TtSnn RtntinnArv and Calling Cards X 127 So.Eleventh Street, jj a rnunt do r V rai RATES IIIIRil On June ai, Jular.j?, 8 O. lOand 18 and Auff. a tickets from points west of Missouri Kiver, ana east of (Vtlby, Kansas, to Denver, Colorado Springs, Haniton, Pueblo, Salt Lake city, and ugden, Utah, and return, will be sold by the GREAT RQ6K ISkAND ROUTE. At rate of ONE REGULAR FURE PLUS S2.00 FOR ROUND TRIP RETURN LIMIT OCT. 3 1, 1900 BEST LINE TO DENVER ONLY DIRECT LINE TO COLORADO SPRINGS AND MANITOU. ... Take advantage of these cheap rates and spend your vacation in Colorado, bleeping Car Reservations may be made now for any of the excursions- Write foi full information and the beautiful book, Colorado -fixe Mosnlfloent,-sciit free. E. W. THOMPSON, A. G. P Topeka, Kan. JOHN SEBASTIAN. G. P. A, Chicago, 111. MS CALLUS! THESTYLISHPATTERN." Ar tistic. Fashionable Original. Perfect Fitting. Prices lO ana 15 cents. Nonehbrher. None better at any crice. reliable merchant telb them in 1 Some ? nearly every city or town. Ask for uc4iiy every (uy u iuwu, xu. gix t them, or they can be had by mail from A fs In rHVirr 1Mw Ynrt nr O-Imotl. ? Stamps taken. Latest Fashion Sheet T A sent upon receipt of one cent to pay I f postage. - i i ii - f I postage. MSCAU.S MAGAZINE I ' VBjP Brightest ladies' magazine published. : Home, fashions oi .tterature, Household rk. Current Topics, y 59 cents z year, tn- ttern, your own selec- i Invaluable for the home. Fashions of I the dav. Home Literature, Household i Hints, Fancy Wxk, Current Topics, 7 ricuon, au tor only o'J cents a year, to- eluding a free uon any time. . for sample copy. Address nd two 2-cent stamps ? rl THE McCALL COMPANYA s J42-J46 Vest J4th Street, New York. I , W Fifth Avenue, Chicago. v I 'A CAiOSta OVVY of the Linooln Hard- - .1 waar Co.'s entire stock of AT GUARANTEED HALF the RIGULAR PRICES. The wis9 and prudent buyer wil. take ad van-age of tbia wondtrful opportunity, as it will be by far the most startling bargain sale ot Bi cycles and Sundries ever announced in America. It is a well know face that the Lincoln Hardware Com pany were among the largest west ern wholesalers in the bicycle busi ness, and carried a complete supply, which was second only to our mam moth stock, and owing to the rapidly increasing business in other lines, they decided to close out tbeir en tire bicycle businPB to us at a great sacrifice. We will positively not mix one item of this stock with our own, but will distribute the entire Lincoln Hardware Company's stock among the Lincoln people, guar anteeing to cat their regular prices on every item at least 50 PER CEflT and in many cses a great deal more' All good things are bound to be imitated, but c 1 KB and in this instance we will positive ly guarantee the lowest prices, sell ing for leBS than any other dealer can buy the same goods for in wholesale lots. JioMnaA UN60LW NEB. U36 O . Phone 18S. The Bicycle and Phonograph Head quarters of the entire West. Cycle Photographs Athletic Photograchs m Photographs of Babies t 2 T5(.t r -? & uuurdpm ui uroups . Exterior Views J 129 South Eleventh Street. THE PHOTOGRAPHER 129 South Eleventh Street. mm' PATENT Gooi Idfis may be secured by our aid. Address. THE PATENT RECORD, Baltimore, Mi. SatecrlpUoa to The Patent Beeord tUJOitt -Sauk X i