Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1918 — FILLING HER CLUB NIGHTS [ARTICLE]

FILLING HER CLUB NIGHTS

How One Girl Succeeded In Banish. Ing Loneliness Caused by Giving Up Old Custom. Barbara Carson felt bored as she sat toying with, her book under the light of the table lamp after dinner. It was club night for the girls of her set, and she pictured them enjoying the excitement of the lights and the music as she had done every week through the winter. She had had to admit, however, that the tone of the club-night dances had gradually grown lower as the winter wore on, and she had made up her mind to break away frota this group of young people. She wanted to attach herself to persons who were more worth while. In remaining away tonight she had taken the first step, but she had not realized how hard it was going to be. Just then her mother entered the room and noticed the troubled look in her eyes. “What is the matter, dear?” she asked. “Has something made you unhappy?” “No,” said Barbara, “not exactly that, but I didn’t realize how deadly dull it was going to be to spend club night at home.” “Aren’t you trying to take something out of your life without putting anything else in its place?” asked her mother. “The Bible speaks about our overcoming evil with good. You are trying to overcome it with nothing. You are like the man of whom Christ spoke who had swept and garnished his soul-house and then left it empty. The result was that the old evil spirit came back and brought seven other worse devils with him. And, as Christ tells us, the last state of that man was worse than the first. The man merely had a soul to let. Where he made his mistake was in not getting in some good tenants to take the places of the ones he had turned out. The Italians have a proverb that says that the busy man is vexed with only one devil, the idle one with seven. It illustrates the old saying that, if you want to keep chaff out of the granary, fill it with grain.

“The point of all this is that, if you are trying to break a bad habit, you had better start a good habit to take its place rather than to sit thinking how wretched you are. I would suggest that you start now to make an engagement for every club night during the rest of the season. Give yourself something interesting' to do that night; something positive to take your mind in another direction instead of leaving it to revolve on nothing.” “I hadn’t thought of it in that way, mother,” said Barbara. “I believe you’re right. Only the other day Marjorie Sears said she wished some of us girls could get together one evening a week to do some Red Cross work. I believe I’ll call up now and ask her to come over and help me make some plans.” That night after Marjorie had gone Barbara said to her mother shyly, “I guess any little blue devil that comes looking for lodgings with me on club nights hereafter will find that I have, no room to spare.”—Youth’s Companion.